The New Beauty Agenda: Layering Your Face Masks

by Hilary Moss

This weekend’s beauty indulgence, the face mask, is a familiar one, but now there’s a twist. Instead of relegating yourself to a single treatment, double or triple up on complexion enhancers. When used in succession, multiple masks—each with a particular effect—act as an at-home facial, equipping skin for the balmier days ahead, when wearing foundation can be akin to a certain form of torture.

Dallas-based aesthetician Joanna Czech, whose clients include Cate Blanchett, Christy Turlington Burns, and Kate Winslet, is a fan of the process. For optimal results, she recommends prepping the skin by first cleansing, then employing a pH-controlling toner to balance the skin, and, depending on the mask, adding a serum to help ingredients settle in. Once you’re ready for a treatment medley, the rules are simple: “Always apply exfoliating or purifying masks first, and then hydrating, oxygenation, or rejuvenating masks,” says Czech. Follow up with toner and moisturizer for a lasting glow.Around the Vogue offices, mask cocktailing is par for the course. “When I want my skin to look otherworldly, I use three in a row,” admits Vogue.com Beauty Editor Mackenzie Wagoner,who reaches for an exfoliator (Joanna Vargas Exfoliating Mask), followed by a pore-refiner (Origins Clear Improvement mask), and finishes by plumping her epidermis with Ling’s Ginseng Therapy Moisture Mask. Before massaging on any mud-, cream-, or serum-based concoction, Vogue Associate Market Editor Emma Morrison’s requisite is Cure Natural Aqua Gel to slough off dead skin. “It feels like the proper first step before putting on something that would penetrate my pores.”No matter your recipe, Czech advises, “The most I would recommend for multiple masking would be once every other week.”