Why I’m taking my skin-care inspo from a frog this winter—and yes, I’m serious

Sometimes I see a a dog with a super-shiny coat or a glistening, oily breadstick and wonder, “What highlighter she use?” For real: I can find beauty inspiration in many, many things. So this winter, I’m looking around for particularly moisture-ridden animals/food/objects to take cues from.

Certain boiled vegetables and glazed donuts have stricken my fancy, sure. And also the hot duck, which looks like he’s dripping in finesse hydration. But then, in a twist of fate, as I dug through the Reddit Skin-care addiction subthreads, I stumbled across the king of all moisturized creatures: a monkey frog.

In what might just be the most inspirational beauty video I’ve seen in my entire life, the monkey frog—an especially waxy amphibian—covers its entire body in its own skin secretion (it sounds gross, but hear me out). He utilizes his itty-bitty limbs to carry out some sort of genius moisturizing method, ensuring to reach each and every bit of its skin. It’s iconic. His ambidextrous feet hydrate his rump and his back (astounding, TBH), and then he proceeds to use his front hands to moisturize his head to his snout, then down to his décolletage and stomach, all in the correct direction to stimulate his lymphatic drainage (brilliant). The end result is pure glowy radiance that I could only pray for in the midst of winter.

The frog’s technique deserves some sort of skin-care reward or recognition. While I sadly can’t copy his foot-to-back moisturizing method, I’m going to do the best I can in terms of hydrating my whole body. Because I want to look like a monkey frog in the driest-skin season of the year. When you look down and see dry patches or chapped lips or flaky legs, just think of this majestic amphibian and channel his beauty ritual diligence as you reach for your tub of moisturizer. I’ll let the video below prove my point.

To up your hydration game, try one of these dry skin moisturizers. And slather on these incredible body-care products.