Beauty Sleep Is Magic – Or Is It Science?

Although “beauty sleep” feels like fancy marketing lingo designed to sell you products, Allure‘s interview with Dr. Dennis Gross (you might recognize his Alpha Beta Peel from the Beauty To Go aisle of Sephora or your own medicine cabinet) makes a compelling argument that beauty sleep might, in fact, be real.

Increased mitosis aside, we all know that eight hours of uninterrupted exfoliation and hydration is a powerful motivator to get to bed early. But what if you could be undoing your efforts with your pillowcase or sleep mask? That’s the premise behind Slip, a company that makes silk pillowcases and eye masks from silk, which they claim to be “the very best available anywhere in the world”.

I admit that this dive into the legitimacy of beauty sleep and silk pillowcases is entirely motivated by Slip’s new limited edition lip print pillowcase and sleep mask. My love of lipstick and lip prints makes me an easy target for these items and I won’t apologize for it. I like what I like. This was meant to be one of those “treat yourself” type posts where I recommend something vaguely beauty-related as a Valentine’s Day present to yourself, but the more I started delving into beauty sleep & silk, the more I’ve rationalized paying $79 for a pillowcase.

My new colorist recommends that all her clients use 100% cotton t-shirts instead of traditional towels (or, in my case, Turbie Twists) because they won’t tug or pull on your hair. Slip’s premise takes this idea one step further, claiming that silk fibers allow your skin & hair to glide where other fabrics, including cotton, might scratch or tug.

Speaking of cotton’s absorbency, your pillowcases and sheets could be pulling moisture away from your skin & hair. In the winter my skin is, predictably, dry and because cotton can hold 27 times its weight in water, it could be detracting from my hydration efforts. For contrast, hyaluronic acid can hold 1,000 times its weight in water, so 27 times seems minuscule by comparison. The Slip website even says that their pillowcase will help you to maintain your blowout longer!

Slip isn’t the first company to manufacture sleep-related silk products, but they do it in the most elevated, elegant way I’ve seen yet. I’ve long lusted after their sleep masks on Net-a-Porter, and while I was in England I came across Silke, a company that makes colorful silk sleep turbans based on a similar premise.

So if you, like me, enjoy the thought of being a luxurious woman and is also now terrified that her bedsheets are managing her hair & stealing her skin’s moisture in her sleep, it might be time to invest in silk. If you’ve already made the switch and are living life like an advanced human being, please leave a comment below telling the rest of us how great your life is.

Slip limited edition lip print collection: Nordstrom | Slip | Net-a-Porter