Silk vs cotton: what your sleep mask is really doing to your skin
Cotton wicks moisture and tugs at the lashes. Mulberry silk is smoother, cooler, and far gentler on the delicate skin around the eyes.
A sleep mask spends seven or eight hours pressed against the most fragile skin on your body. Material matters.
Cotton is absorbent — that sounds kind, but it pulls moisture out of skin and hair through the night. Its weave is also coarser at the fiber level, which is why cotton pillowcases create the small morning creases dermatologists nickname sleep lines.
Mulberry silk does the opposite. Long-strand fibers slide rather than grip, so lashes and brow hair stay put. The fiber holds far less moisture, which keeps eye creams and serums on your skin rather than in your mask.
Momme — pronounced 'mommy' — measures the weight and density of silk. Anything under 19 is too thin to block light comfortably. 22 momme is the sweet spot: dense enough for complete blackout, soft enough to feel like nothing at all.
If you have used a cotton or polyester mask before, the first night in silk is a small revelation.