12 Fabulous Face Masks to Queer Up Quarantine

Masks to Queer Up Quarantine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends that all Americans wear masks when leaving home. And in places like Los Angeles, masks are now mandatory for workers and customers at essential businesses.

Any piece of cloth can be a mask in a pinch. (It is recommended that N95 masks not be used by the public, unless for medical reasons, since they should be reserved for health workers and first responders.) But designers have also stepped in to create some dazzling looks that are not only eye-catching — they protect the public health and raise awareness of the precautions that need to be taken during a crisis.

Take a look at some of the queer and colorful masks below.

Fashion Nova's Rainbow Bandana

If you need a pop of color and still want to show off your Pride during these scary, uncertain times, popular fast-fashion brand Fashion Nova offers an assortment of multi-colored bandanas and scarves (like this affordable rainbow-colored one) that you can use as a protective face covering when going out in public and practicing social distancing. The online retailer also recently teamed up with Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B to give back to those who are most in need during this pandemic, so a purchase from Fashion Nova would also be helping a good cause! 

$9.99 / FashionNova.com

Airinum

Gwyneth Paltrow knows a thing or two about pandemics. The Goop founder famously starred in the film Contagion, where she sadly was one of the first victims of a deadly new virus. Paltrow asserted in February that she is taking every precaution against COVID-19, such as wearing a (very pricey!) black face mask from the designer Airinum. The company bills its line of masks as "the world's most advanced," with five layers of filtration. Due to the crisis, users must sign up for a waiting list at Airinum.com, which now only ships within Europe. The mask also comes in pink, grey, and a variety of chic designs.

$99 / Airinum.com

Celebrity Muzzle

Jordanian designer Samia Alzakleh is bedazzling masks with Swarovski crystals to draw attention to the crisis and help stop the spread. Alzakleh has shared her custom creations with influencer friends, but the masks can also be purchased through her website.

$63 / Sandrazshop.com

Gaypin' Hankies

Gaypin' Hankies offer a "fresh twist" on the hanky code, a retro system from cruising culture in which queer people would wear different colors of handkerchiefs to indicate their sexual preferences. These new hankies, while protecting your face, also have secret words sewn in the designs like "mary" and "flamer" that take back the slurs that were once used to harm us.

$12 / TomOfFinlandStore.com

Kawaii Face Masks

For those of us that want to add a fun, anime-style twist to our protective face gear, these cute, affordable five-packs of kawaii face masks are available to add some brightness and humor to this otherwise incredibly serious ongoing health crisis the world is currently going through.

$15.99 / Amazon.com

LED Matrix Face Mask

Lumen Courture has designed a unique mask that melds cotton, mesh, and an LED panel. Connected to one's phone, the mask can light up any message or design — or can even be synced as a synthesizer to music. Although at $90 it may be pricy, 60 percent of profits go to the World Health Organization's COVID-19 response fund.

$90 / LumenCourture.com

Pomchies

Pomchies offers a fun rainbow mask that calls to mind Lisa Frank and Rainbow Brite. Comes in packs of two!

$8.95 / Pomchies.com

Indie Face Masks

It's important to do our part to help financially support small businesses during these hard, rough times. If you want to buy a fun, colorful face mask or covering, there are so many independent artists and creators on sites like Redbubble, Teespring, or Etsy who are selling their beautiful (and unique) designs on different products to help you stay safe in public!

Teespring.com

'If You're Reading This, You're Too Close' Face Mask

Inspired by Drake's iconic album cover, wear this mask when you want to signal to other millennials around you that you're hip to meme culture while also warning them not to come too close. (You don't know where they've been!)

$11.99 / Etsy

Rainbow Unicorn Face Mask

If "Hey Everyone, I'm Gay!" were a face mask, this would be it! Come out to everyone in the grocery store without having to say a single word with this fabulous, rainbow-unicorn-gliding-across-a-starry-night-sky face mask that's certainly worth the $20.

$19.50 / Etsy

Galaxy Gaiter

There's something mysterious about covering your face with constellations. This full nose-to-neck, intergalactic gaiter adds a far-out element to your quarantine wardrobe while letting everyone know you could probably look up at the sky at night and point out the Milky Way.

$20.00 / Etsy

Make your own!

What's sexier than a DIY project? And what's more fabulous than crafting a handmade mask for your own specific tastes? Lucky for us, our friends over at Autostraddle put together a step-by-step guide on how to create your own face mask using the materials you already have in your home. You better werk!