Snatched in your sleep? Inside TikTok’s ‘morning shed’ trend and SKIMS’ beauty wrap

“THE uglier you sleep, the prettier you wake up”

- VUYILE MADWANTSI

It's the kind of mantra going viral on TikTok thanks to the “morning shed” trend, a bizarre beauty ritual where users go to bed wrapped in mouth tape, silicone masks, and face shapewear, all in the hope of waking up snatched and sculpted.

Welcome to the age of bedtime beauty pressure, where even your sleep has to work overtime.

And if you think it’s just a passing internet fad, think again. The movement has already been monetised with Kim Kardashian at the centre of it all.

Her shapewear brand SKIMS recently dropped a face wrap designed to “sculpt the face using collagen yarn' It sold out within 24 hours. But beneath the viral hype lies a bigger question: How far is too far in the pursuit of eternal youth?

The new face of beauty: TikTok filters, face wraps and faux collagen

Face sculpting masks are nothing new; in fact, their origins date back centuries, when women used cloth bindings and cold compresses to firm their skin.

The modern twist? They're now sold as “everyday essentials” to achieve the ideal jawline, no surgery required.

While the SKIMS face wrap, which retails for $52 (roughy R900) is marketed as a noninvasive alternative to procedures like chin lipo and buccal fat removal, experts are calling out the lack of science behind the claims.