Face masks are our new normal, with many businesses now requiring customers to wear masks before they even set foot inside. Wearing masks can save lives, but it can also be strange to never quite see people’s actual faces, which is why one company came up with an ingenious solution: Face masks that look like your face.
Danielle Baskin of San Francisco is the mastermind behind Maskalike, a line of face masks that can be customized with any image of your choosing — including a selfie.
The selfie masks are eerily realistic. Just look at these examples from Baskin’s Twitter account!
I wanted to improve my face masks in the same way that a hobbyist baker wants to get better at baking bread. It took a while to get this quality. I had to learn how to sew better.
But then I stumbled into a multi-million dollar business. I was invited onto Shark Tank 3 times. pic.twitter.com/FWCth5Uebt
— Danielle (@djbaskin) June 29, 2020
The masks are made of machine-washable cotton fabric, with elastic loops to fit securely around your ears.
In addition to selfies, Maskalike can print other photos onto a mask, including another person’s face, an animal or anything else you can imagine. There are also pre-printed masks available. One has a photo meme called “Hide the Pain Harold” on it.
“Whether it’s a replication of your own face or your favorite meme, we care about the details,” the website says. “Our masks are sure to make people around you do double-takes and have a brighter day.”
As an artist and product designer, Baskin has created plenty of other wacky inventions to ease the strangeness of our new reality, including N95 masks that can unlock your phone and QuarantineChat, a service to connect people in isolation to each other through phone calls.
To give a demonstration of just how realistic her selfie masks are, Baskin shared photos of her own face mask on Twitter, writing, “When I go outside I put on my second face.”
When I go outside I put on my second face.
pic.twitter.com/ys5pisuY1A
— Danielle (@djbaskin) June 12, 2020
As Baskin’s masks continue to draw attention, she’s received a flood of interest from potential customers.
The bad news? The masks aren’t available just yet. If you want a mask of your own face from Maskalike, you’ll have to add your name to the ever-growing waitlist. As of the end of June, the waitlist had over 25,000 people on it. Clearly, these masks are in high demand.
In the meantime, you can choose plenty of other cute face masks that reflect your personality, from “Golden Girls” masks to masks with Disney prints.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
