The strange and wonderful history of Vaseline

Goop. Sludge. Translucent putty. Petroleum waste.

Better known as Vaseline, which translates roughly to “water-oil.”

During NASA missions, astronauts brought Vaseline along as a multipurpose tool. In space, it was used for everything from skin care to lubricating equipment.

A household staple. A simple invention with humble origins and a multitude of applications, from the cosmetological to the astronautical.

Sticky muck for cuts and burns

Vaseline was invented in the 19th century by a 22-year-old chemist named Robert Chesebrough. Chesebrough discovered the medicinal potential of petroleum jelly while visiting oil fields in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The oil workers kept smearing sticky muck over their cuts and burns. It was a drilling byproduct they called “rod wax.”

After six years of research and experimentation in his lab, Cheesebrough refined the crude sludge. In 1870, he took his product to the streets under the name Vaseline.

What an unlikely sales pitch: “Smear this oil byproduct on your baby to cure diaper rash or slather it onto your face to cleanse your pores.”

America had spent seven decades being duped by snake-oil salesmen touting scientific wonders. Meanwhile, actual advancements were beginning to multiply. The discovery of bacteria was only a few years away, along with aspirin, vaccines, and chloroform.

A medical product had to provide results — quickly — in order to succeed. But Robert Cheesebrough had a plan for his miraculous goo.

A marketing masterstroke

In addition to his work as a chemist, Cheesebrough was also a marketing pioneer. He realized that people had to see the healing power of Vaseline in order to believe.

So he gathered a crowd, then cut and burned himself. With the confidence of the CEO of a bulletproof vest company, Cheesebrough told the gawking onlookers that he’d be back in a couple of days, good as new. And sure enough, his injuries had healed, without becoming infected.

His bold spectacle caught people’s attention.

He was also one of the first marketers to offer free samples. Pharmacies refused to carry the product. So he passed out glass jars of Vaseline directly to the people.

By the early 20th century, Vaseline had established itself as one of the most recognized and trusted brands in America.

Vaseline’s story even stretches into the space age. During NASA missions, astronauts brought Vaseline along as a multipurpose tool. In space, it was used for everything from skin care to lubricating equipment. Its versatility in such extreme conditions shows just how useful a simple product can be, even beyond the boundaries of Earth.

Mother Churchill's favorite

Vaseline also found its way into fashion.

One of the earliest celebrity endorsements of Vaseline may have come from Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill. She praised Vaseline for its beautifying benefits.

This blending of skin care and ornamentation was useful in the world of makeup, one of the great tricks of movie stardom. Since at least the Silent Era of Hollywood, actresses used it to glow on-screen. Marilyn Monroe supposedly used this technique.

In the 1950s and ’60s, men used Vaseline to glue their hair into perfect suavity. It wasn’t just for the well-groomed Don Draper types; working-class men also embraced it as a cheap way to control unruly hair. Like any good fad, this wasn’t pain-free: Vaseline is brutally difficult to wash out of hair.

Over the decades, it has shaped smiles at beauty pageants and kept brides luminous at their weddings.

Its most recent appearance is trend of slathering Vaseline onto your face overnight, in the viral TikTok trend known as “slugging.”

A spoonful a day

Over the course of its 150 years, Vaseline has been used medicinally in a variety of ways.

Diaper rash is one of the most common ailments Vaseline is used to treat today. Any parent knows how valuable this remedy is. At one point, it was even used to treat croup, the hacking respiratory illness that affects children. Today, people still apply it to kids’ chests and necks to offer relief from coughing.

In the early 1900s, Arctic explorers applied it to their skin in order to prevent forstbite as they trudged to the North Pole. This tactic is interesting in that it was a matter of survival, not relief.

But one of the most amusing examples comes from the inventor himself, Robert Chesebrough. When he was hospitalized with a case of pleurisy, he convinced his nurse to cover him in his redemptive balm. He believed in the healing power of his creation so deeply that he ate a spoonful of Vaseline every day.

Cheesebrough lived to be 96. Who knows? Maybe if he hadn’t eaten so much petroleum jelly, he could have made it to 100.