Unless you’re a professional TV watcher (probably the second best job in the world, right after Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor taster), binging for hours on end might leave you feeling…less than productive. Technically you could be reading, or teaching yourself guitar, or learning quantum physics. But you’re not going to do that. The question then becomes: What are you going to do while you’re watching TV to make the experience just a hair more productive than it would be otherwise? Luckily, we have the answer. It’s overnight masks. They’re unfussy, easy to use, comfortable to wear, and keep your well-meaning (yet often ending in premature snoozing) TV habits in mind. So please, take a bath, put on your coziest PJs, cover yourself in a mask, queue up your show of choice, and get comfortable. You’re not moving till morning.
A Venn diagram of Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies has a lot of overlap: they both originated as beach reads, they both have the word “little” in the name, they both follow suburban moms, they both star Reese Witherspoon. Little Fires is a thriller with a plot too convoluted to recount here, so let’s just stick to the obvious, shall we? If you’ve got a BLL-shaped hole in your TV roster, LFE is here to soothe it. A little fire can be put out by some water, and that’s exactly what Laneige’s overnight mask will give your red, irritated skin. Put it on while you watch, and wake up bouncier.
Another book turned TV show, The Story of a New Name brings the second of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend novels to the small screen. It’s perfect for those who love female friendship and the aesthetics of midcentury Italy, but hate reading. Pair it with a hair mask from Davines, which is also Italian, because all the best things are. (See: spaghetti, mozzarella, Bulgari, etc.) The Restless Circle is clear, so you can slap it on before you go to sleep for healthier, shinier hair in the morning, sans ruined pillowcase-related anxiety. Plus, if that wasn’t persuasive enough, Davines instructs—no, requires—that you apply it on dry hair. It’s a lazy masker’s late-night dream.
Real Housewives is cheesy, but you love it! And ditto with Glamglow—you might not think something this good comes in gaudy metallic-turquoise packaging with Hollywood-centric branding, but it does. Sure, it’s got Kaolin clay. But it also has honey, green tea, and oat extract to check it, boo. Leave it on for hours without worrying about drying out your skin.
Did you watch season 1 of Westworld? What about season 2, even though it was objectively worse? If you’ve hung on for season 3, let’s put aside our feelings about the show and focus on the skin. It’s… really good, right? Almost… unreal? And as you try to test if pore visibility could possibly be a tip off for who’s real and who’s robot, mask with Versed’s The Shortcut. The clear goo has lactic and glycolic acids to give you the same fresh-from-the-diagnostics-lab glow, while moisturizing shea butter and rosehip make it gentle enough to wear all night. It’s perfect to wear while binging a show you’re not quite sure about—unlike most exfoliating masks that tingle and burn, if you fall asleep out of boredom with this on, it’s no biggie.
For those who aren’t down to push through Westworld, you might want to give Devs a shot. You’ll start it after seeing promo photos of a Jesus-y looking Nick Offerman, who plays the founder of a Bay Area tech company, or because you like Alex Garland. (He was the guy behind the Academy Award-winning film Ex Machina, if you were into that.) But you’ll keep watching because the sci-fi murder mystery ticks all the boxes for a binge-worthy show to tide you over right now. Each episode looks honey-dipped, so keep up the trend at home with CosRX’s Honey Moisturizing Mask. OK, fine, this clear mask isn’t not as golden as the kind straight from the bear, but it’s more refined, too. Nearly 90-percent propolis extract means your skin is soothed, not sticky, while you sleep.
If you remember this horrible song, then you know Lil Dicky. The rapper goes hyphenate in this new sitcom, in which he reenacts a fictionalized version of his life before making it. But you probably won’t be able to get through the first episode without wishing you could reach a hand through your TV screen and give Dave this Paula’s Choice Acne Body Spray. He could use it on his back as a breakout reliever or his, er, genital region to help with ingrown hairs. And because it’s in a spray bottle, he wouldn’t even need help from his weird friend Mike to reach the hard spots. But Dave walked so you could run, and even though he doesn’t have this 2% salicylic acid solution you totally can. Use it overnight (don’t worry, it won’t bleach your sheets) and rest easy knowing that you’ll have calmer skin in the morning.
Curb is on its 10th season, and Larry has been effectively practicing social distancing for all 10 of them. Something else that’s not new? His affinity for hand sanitizer, which feels all the more prudent right now. Give your hands a break with Dr. Jart’s mask, which cocoons chapped fingers in moisturizer and warmth-trapping foil gloves. Are you meant to sleep in it? Not really. But if you happen to finish all the available episodes in the new season and start rewatching the greatest hits before passing out at 3AM, your hands probably won’t protest.
—Ali Oshinsky
Photo via ITG