The best places to buy face masks online for the coronavirus

By now, you’re most likely familiar with the coronavirus and that the CDC has recommended that you wear a mask whenever you leave the house to help reduce the spread. That’s partly because you could be an asymptomatic carrier, someone who has the virus but doesn’t have any visible symptoms.

Wearing a mask, even a cloth one, reduces the chance you could be spreading the virus unknowingly. It’s not about you, it’s about everyone else. It’s just the polite thing to do.

The thing is, it’s hard to find masks in these panic-buying, toilet paper hoarding days. We’ve rounded up some of the best places to get masks, some that can get to you quickly, and some that will take a little longer to arrive. I mean, you’re not really supposed to be going out much anyways, so you can wait, right?

Amazon

Amazon might be slowing delivery of non-essential items, but that means that buying masks from the big A-to-Z is still going to be your quickest option at the minute. They’ve got everything from disposable one-use masks to reusable masks with replaceable filters, so here’s a selection of the in-stock, quick-shipping options available:

• Leadpro disposable (pack of 50): 50 masks for $40 is a great price for what you are getting
• Jointown disposable: Again, 50 masks for $40 is a great price. Grab a few, you never know how many times you might have to leave the house
• iHeartRaves bandana: If you’d ever wanted to wear your Burning Man attire all year long, this is the time to do it
• New Republic cotton washable: This three-pack of two-ply cotton masks are reusable, just make sure you wash them before you use them
• Lanier Wellness Reusable Face Cover: Grab this two-pack of cotton face masks and cover-up in style when you leave the house
• GiniHomer Face Scarf Cover Mask: These use bamboo charcoal in the fiber weave, known for its filtering action
• ROCKBROS UPF50+ Half Face Mask: This full half-mask stores around your neck as a scarf when not being used to cover your mouth and nose

Amazon Handmade

Did you know Amazon has an Etsy-like storefront? I sure didn’t, but you can get boutique, reusable face masks from it. There are all kinds here, and pretty much any color, pattern, or style that you can think of.

Some vendors even have Amazon Prime shipping, so there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to source non-medical fabric masks from here quicker than some of the other options.

Other options for buying face masks online

With normal retail grinding to a halt, and mask material in short supply, many online clothes manufacturers have pivoted to making non-medical masks as well. Here’s a selection of our favs:

• Threadless: you’ll find a huge selection of printed masks here, so you can style up to your personal taste. All seem to be $17
• Swaddle Designs: If you want your mask with a softer touch, these baby-soft masks are the way to go
• Kosan Travel: These reusable masks have an antibacterial treatment so they’ll stay smelling fresh. They’ve also got a waterproof exterior layer
• Jackthreads: Again, if you want to find your voice while your lips are covered, there’s a huge range of designs here
• Shinesty: If you’re after something a little bit more outlandish to “cover your pie hole”, like masks featuring Joe Exotic, Hulk Hogan’s mustache, or Snoop (fo’ shizzle), head on over and pick up something that’ll make grocery shopping more amusing

And if you want something a little bit more stylish, Fashionista has a list of fashion brands that are making masks for the effort. If you still want KN95-rated masks, even though they really should be left for medical workers, n95maskco has them in stock, with 3-day shipping. If you’re in Canada, we can recommend 72 Hours, as they have a huge stock of KN95 and also ECAN95 masks.

Chinese online storefronts

Okay, so these are pretty much like the Chinese versions of Amazon Marketplace. The bonus of these ones is that you can find masks that you can’t find anywhere else, like Xiaomi’s nifty pollution filters that have a small fan to make it easier to breathe through. How cyberpunk.

I’ve used all three of these to buy items in the past, and I wouldn’t hesitate to rebuy from any of them. Just keep in mind that shipping estimates are just that and that any global shipping is likely impacted by the coronavirus.

Aliexpress

Aliexpress is the in-stock, consumer version of the wholesale retail giant, Alibaba. You can get all kinds of reusable masks, like my favorite, the Xiaomi Purely. This high-tech mask has a small, rechargeable fan to make it easier for you to breathe through the layers of filter material. Nifty

Banggood

Banggood is yet another Chinese storefront, like eBay or Amazon Marketplace. You can get both disposable and reusable masks in all kinds of types, shipping is usually 15-25 days or so once your order is placed.

Gearbest

Gearbest has a huge selection of reusable masks, with the usual 15-60 days shipping time. Hey, at least shipping is (mostly) free!

Now you know where to get face masks to help in the coronavirus spread reduction efforts. If everyone starts wearing a mask when they leave the house, the length of time we have to stay indoors will hopefully reduce.

What do you think? Have you been wearing a mask? Where did you get yours? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.