Please Don't Put A Hole In Your Face Mask To Sip Cocktails

Although to-go cocktails have been somewhat of a silver lining during this whole mess, we must urge you to wait until you get home, or at least a safe distance away from people, before taking a sip of your drink. Please do not do what this indie designer is doing, and put a hole in your mask for a straw.

Sure, we appreciate Ellen Macomber's creative approach to finding a solution for this all too relatable struggle, but the worrisome rate at which her purpose-defeating decorative masks with literal holes in them have been selling out clearly requires us to post an urgent PSA. 

Do not do this!!!

According to Fast Company, the New Orleans-based designer was driven to create the paradoxical pieces after witnessing people gathering on porches to drink together, six feet apart, but not wearing masks. 

"We were thinking of doing a lip appliqué, where it would flap open and close but you’d have to touch your face. I was like, ‘Well that won’t work because you have to touch your mask,” says Macomber. “That’s when I was like, ‘Dude, we just drill a little flap, an extra layer, and you angle the straw to get in. So the hole is never completely open.'"

Which like, OK, in theory, we see where she was going with this. But if the point of wearing a mask is to not only protect yourself, but others as well, that hole leading directly to your mouth, the epicenter of germs, can pose a risk to everyone! Do we think that tiny coronavirus particles are just going to say, "Whoops, this exit is for straws only, guess we'll hang tight"?! Come on, folks!

Nevertheless, Macomber's designs are super cute in a world where face masks have become a necessary fashion accessory, and, thankfully, she says she's working on versions without the glaring flaw. Those, you can buy. But not the hole ones. Please stop buying the hole ones.

[Photos via Ellen Macomber]