'Skin care in a can': The fishy beauty hack once again taking over TikTok

For beauty and fashion influencer Toni Bravo, the secret to glowy skin isn’t a K-beauty serum or a triple-digit skin care device — it’s a tin of sardines.

For beauty and fashion influencer Toni Bravo, the secret to glowy skin isn’t a K-beauty serum or a triple-digit skin care device — it’s a tin of sardines.

“Everyone wants a skin care routine until I bring up sardines. Do you want it or not?” Bravo said in a Feb. 10 TikTok to her 930,700 followers. “I’ve eaten sardines my entire life … so I’ve known the power, the beauty that is fish.”

The concept of “eating your skin care”— specifically fatty fish like tinned sardines, salmon and mackerel — isn’t new. Long embraced in wellness circles as a kind of “nature’s Botox,” sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, high-quality protein, calcium, vitamins, selenium and iron. They have been linked to improving skin barrier function and reducing inflammatory responses, both of which can contribute to healthier-looking skin over time.

But the trend has once again taken hold on TikTok, where users are experimenting with “sardine diets” for everything from weight loss to clearer skin, while others are simply adding the salty snack to their routines after seeing the results — or at least the promise of them — on Bravo and other influencers.

“Ms. Toni Bravo has single-handedly convinced me to try a can of sardines,” one user said on TikTok before trying sardines for the first time. In another video, a TikToker said that when she learned that Bravo’s thing was sardines, she thought, “It’s going to be my thing now too.”