UrbanUpdate

Guys: It’s time to start doing face masks, and doing them often.

I myself am not much of a grooming guy. My vanity is stocked with toothpaste, unscented soap and the same kind of generic Degree deodorant my dad has always used. When my barber told me to shampoo as little as possible I was more than happy to comply. But recently I began to resent my monotonous, albeit efficient, beauty regimen. (I mean, we have an entire closet full of grooming stuff at GQHQ.) It’s 2017 and guys are unabashedly pursuing their grooming goals—wasn’t it about time I dipped a toe in too?

Enter the face mask, the advanced beauty move du jour. A common theme on Instagram lately has been selfies of (mostly) women with milky, clingy sheets draped over their features, or wearing creamy clay masks, channeling old-school spa vibes—minus the eye cucumbers. It occurred to me that I, too, have a face. I, too, deserve to be pampered. And if these masks could upgrade my complexion from merely “clear” to, I don’t know, “radiant,” I was down to take some selfies with them too. So I called in Vogue beauty contributor Arden Fanning to give me a primer. (Hopefully the first of many GQ Style/Vogue beauty collaborations.) The first lesson: Guys can, and should, use face masks marketed for women. She sent me a list of products to try, and after about a month of peeling them off my face (and probably peeling off a bit of my actual face in the process) Arden and I talked masks—and why you should get on board with them too.

To Look Radiant:Dr. Jart+ Water Replenishment Cotton Sheet Mask, $7.50

GQ Style: Let’s talk face masks. It’s totally new territory for me. But it’s been 3-4 weeks since I started using these, and my skin has been remarkably clear for a few weeks. So for starters I think they work. It might be that I’m just paying more attention to my skin.Arden Fanning: If you talk to a facialist or makeup artist they’ll say just paying attention to your skin, even if you’re just washing your face or taking the extra time to give yourself a 30 second facial massage, is enough to remind your skin to be alive and do its job and stay exfoliated. It’s not even a placebo effect. So even if you’re just paying extra attention to it it probably has created some kind of response, though you won’t be able to pinpoint what product it was because there were like seven.

They all have very natural packaging, like matte plastic with plants on them.[Laughs.] I think it makes perfect sense that Aesop is the only one you had actually used before, because to me that’s the quintessential cool dude brand. The packaging is cool, their products work, everything smells fresh and unisex and you can have it in your bathroom and your girlfriend can use it too. And it’s that kind of super neutral, well-designed thing that isn’t as intimidating for dudes, whereas walking in Sephora and being like, What’s your favorite, is sort of like—it should be done, but it’s not really happening yet.

Right, I tried the Aesop one a while back because they gave me samples at the store when I was there to buy something else. But on the website technically it’s not in the “male” skincare section. All of these products are seemingly made for and marketed to women, but there’s no real reason why guys shouldn’t be able to use them, right? There’s no difference between male and female skin on an elemental level is there?Oh exactly. Basically, skin is skin. I feel like lately guys have been in this weird zone of like, you know what my face is aging, I don’t know what to do, I’ll just grow a huge impenetrable beard. Rather than deal with the reality of what’s going on with my skin I’ll just completely cover it up with this trend that’s totally socially acceptable now. I was overwhelmed at the Oscars when every single actor that’s gotten to a certain point in their career had covered their handsome face with a giant beard, and I kept being like, is this just people not wanting to accept that they’re getting older?

Yeah it looked like a group of them hiked out of the woods and put tuxes on and rolled to the red carpet.Yes! I do have such a problem with saying that rather than fix the problem I’ll mask it with cool trends.

That’s a very man thing to do though—cover up the deeper issue with this display of masculinity.[Laughs.] Totally! Guys taking care of their skin just makes so much sense to me, so when they don’t it’s like, How! Skin is skin—if something’s geared towards women for marketing that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for a guy’s skin in the exact same way. They just aren’t expecting a guy to be paying attention yet; they’re putting a botanical on the package like, The ladies are going to love this!

To Get Clear:Caudalie Purifying Mask, $39

It’s funny, I brought all this stuff to my apartment, and I live with four other guys, and you know they were a little skeptical—there’s literally a woman peeling off the Boscia thing on the package. It’s clearly a women’s product. But I started coming home a few weeks later and I’m finding them with masks on lying around on our couches. Once you get over that step and get past the marketing—Right, it’s easier to sell guys too on that American Psycho moment where Christian [Bale] is talking about his morning skincare routine; I remember my brother getting really into that in the early 2000s. He would have a really intense skincare regimen and would do the peeling-off mask thing just like in that scene in the movie.

Oh my god, that iconic scene where he stares at himself in the mirror as he slowly peels off the mask…[Laughs.] Right, and so there is that kind of culty coolness to it because of that.

There was an American Psycho moment—the movie came out in 2000, but that very-’80s narcissistic devotion to male beauty was probably acceptable in popular culture, I guess, until the metrosexual moment came along. Then I imagine a lot of guys told themselves that’s not really my thing—guys who might have otherwise been total Patrick Batemans. But maybe it’s coming back in some way.Yeah I think probably this is the perfect time to be talking about it when there’s so much discussion about gender fluidity and why are we defining any lines between what is male and what is female. So it makes sense that something as simple as taking care of your skin shouldn’t seem so wildly taboo or intimidating for a dude.

To Fight Wrinkles:Kiehl’s Cilantro & Orange Extract Pollutant Defending Masque, $32To Deep Clean:Aesop Primrose Facial Cleansing Masque, $40

One thing I really liked about having all these was really taking the time out of my day to wash my face, put one on and just lie down and take a 15-to-20-minute breather. It was really soothing. To have an excuse—a legitimate excuse to relax so my skin will be nice—was so awesome. It was almost revelatory, really, even if I was wearing some crazy black sheet mask on my face.That does make such perfect sense. Just having 15 minutes where you’re sanctioned to just relax and in a way meditate on something that’s totally—it’s not even vain, it’s self-care. Self-care is such a big deal right now with people maxing out their adrenals on these 8:00AM-8:00PM jobs, and there’s no time to have a quality of life when the new normal is to just work all the time. So yeah it makes sense why the whole masking thing became a phenomenon last year. It was beyond. People were Instagramming everything—

Yeah, and now sell them at everywhere, from Urban Outfitters to Opening Ceremony.They’re everywhere! It’s totally saturated with this thing that 2 years ago nobody thought they needed. There has to be something to that ritual of sort of like meditation and allowing yourself to chill out and do something good for you that has to have a little placebo effect.

That’s certainly a healthier justification than the Patrick Bateman self-obsession or extreme narcissicim.Totally! I think that’s something that deters people from beauty in general—they’re like, Oh, I don’t need to worry about that, I’m above that. And it’s just like, Why! Are you above brushing your teeth? There are things that need to be maintained in order to age gracefully.

I think the moment I started realizing that facemasks were a thing was when I started getting Snapchats and seeing Instagram stories of people showing off their face masks. In some ways it’s very performative. And when I started seeing more and more of those I realized it was taking off. And of course when I put the sheet masks on for the first time I was like, This is hilarious, I should totally Snapchat my friends.There’s something to it that is so social-media worthy. No matter how they decorate them or make them look like anything other than what they are, you’re wearing a Jason mask. There’s no way of looking cool in it. And yet everyone has just decided who cares? I’m going to put this up for the world to see even though I have 2 million followers.

It’s the perfect beauty routine for the selfie/social media age for sure.That’s such a good point. It’s a visual brag at having the time to take care of yourself.

To Achieve Moisture Balance:Juara Java Plum Avocado Nourishing Mask, $38

Let’s go through the different kinds of masks. Some are sheets, some you peel off, some you rub in and wash out—there’s just a ton of different kinds, right? The first thing you might think of is the sheet masks, but the Kiehl’s and Aesop ones are kind of a different regimen.Right, so the sheet masks were created for ease, because you’re putting a super-charged serum on your face. It’s just keeping the ingredients good for your skin on there in a portable way. But it’s really doing the same thing as the Kiehl’s ones that you’re applying out of the jar.

’Cause you take the mask off but rub everything left in your skin. So it’s a pretty similar end result.And I think that’s the difference between the steps for modern masks that are coming out right now and what we associated with masks in the ’90s and the 2000s. Then it was always something that you were peeling off or washing off and removing. And now that masks are basically as another skincare step to leave on—it’s just acting as a serum or essences. Essences are so big in Korea—it’s just a really nutrient-rich water. And that’s what sheet masks are. It’s basically soaked in an essence and it’s forcing you to keep that on your skin. So it’s not purifying anything or pulling anything out of your skin or doing anything other than nourishing it basically.

The Boscia black luminizing mask is pretty intense.Yeah and that’s sort of the old school formula. I love Boscia because they’re a cool brand and they have great skincare products—this one I think I called in a year ago for a charcoal story I was doing. Yeah it’s basically a black patent finish, and then it peels off but it doesn’t peel off a layer. But it has to be doing something. It’s probably pulling off a layer of floating dead skin. And that’s sort of the beauty of peel-off masks, it’s just a super-delicate form of exfoliation or micro-derm abrasion.

What’s the deal with charcoal in all these products?The sort of layman’s description is the same way that charcoal just absorbs impurities, if you were to overdose on something they might pump charcoal in your stomach to absorb all that bad stuff. And so it’s basically doing the same thing on the surface of your skin, it’s absorbing any impurities and kind of sucking them up into its own little micro existence. So for anyone that has trouble with breakouts or blackheads, it’s not gentle so you shouldn’t be using it every day, but compared to an over-the-counter chemical rich drugstore product it’s pretty relaxed. But it’s still going to get you the same results as an acne treatment that’s maybe not that good for your skin because it’s stripping it and freaking it out.

Right, the charcoal sheet mask by Dr. Jart+ made my skin tingle a little bit. I had overdone some of the masks and my face was feeling a little sensitive.Yeah, I’m always really careful putting any clarifying or detoxing mask on, because what they can do is bring all the impurities to the surface. Which means they’re bringing the breakouts in your skin that’re just like taking a nap and waking them up and getting them out of there, which is really great in the long term, but if you’re like wanting to look really good for the Met Ball or something, you have to be careful because it could cause your face to freak out in the short term. And there’s never really a good time for that.

But the other one, the water replenishment one, was like the best hangover cure. I mean, it didn’t cure anything, but on a few Saturday mornings when I woke up feeling gross there was nothing more soothing that throwing the cool face mask on and just chilling out.Right, and you totally have the perfect instinct for that, because it’s kind of for skin that’s on its last legs, like when you’ve been on a plane traveling a bunch and that recycled air has stripped the moisture. Or they use those backstage at Opening Ceremony shows on the guys and girls, because the models aren’t sleeping and their skin is super dry and exhausted, and they put these sheet masks on and it gives their face this glassy finish. It’s like giving your skin a 20-minute drink of water.

To Unclog Pores:Boscia Luminizing Black Mask, $34To Detox Your Face:Dr. Jart+ Pore Minimalist Mask (underneath), $7.50

And who ever said guys couldn’t have radiant, dewy, moisturized faces?That’s the look now! Having the perfect teen dream complexion. Pretty skin is never a bad look.

Fountain of youth status.[Laughs.] Exactly. That’s why people love using those masks because they pump up your skin with moisture, so every existing fine line or dry patch just kind of dissolves for a short period of time. If you want to use them every day it would be expensive, but before a red carpet event or photo or a hot date it makes sense to go the extra step.

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Samuel Hine is GQ’s Senior Fashion Writer. Sam joined GQ Style, the erstwhile quarterly fashion and luxury publication, as an editorial assistant in 2016. In 2019, he became a style editor at GQ, and was appointed to his current role in 2022. Alongside Noah Johnson and Rachel Tashjian, Sam hosted... Read moreSenior Fashion WriterXInstagramRelated Stories for GQGrooming