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be sonatural, Face masks, read from the back

Eighty-one against seven

Shiseido Vital Perfection LiftDefine Radiance Face Mask vs SK-II Facial Treatment Mask

Two premium Japanese sheet treatments a few euros apart per use, and one prints more than eleven times as many ingredients as the other. The Shiseido is a two-piece kit, so its pack carries two separate lists - 81 entries between them. The SK-II pack carries seven, full stop.

Shiseido Vital Perfection LiftDefine Radiance Face Mask

Shiseido

Vital Perfection LiftDefine Radiance Face Mask

€11.86 per use · 81 ingredients

Read the full list →

SK-II Facial Treatment Mask

SK-II

Facial Treatment Mask

€15.00 per use · 7 ingredients

Read the full list →

The short answer

  • €11.86 a use against €15.00. The gap in price is small; the gap in list length is not.

  • The Shiseido list carries seven declared fragrance allergens, essential oils and drying alcohol. The SK-II list carries none of the three.

  • A long list is not automatically a worse one - more entries can mean more actives. But if what you are screening for is fragrance, this pair is the whole argument in two lists.

Side by side

Shiseido Vital Perfection LiftDefine Radiance Face Mask compared with SK-II Facial Treatment Mask
AttributeShiseidoSK-II
Price€71.16€89.99
Per use€11.86●€15.00
Pack6 treatments (12 sheets: 6 x Mask 1 + 6 x Mask 2)6 sheets
FormatSheetSheet
Brand fromJapanJapan
Made forDry, Normal, MatureDry, Dehydrated, Combination, Normal
Aimed atFirmness, Dullness, Brightening, Fine linesHydration, Dullness, Texture
Ingredients81across 2 lists7
Fragrance-freeNoYes
No essential oilsNoYes
No drying alcoholNoYes
Vegannot statednot stated

Prices are indicative, captured once from the source recorded on each product page, and they drift. Per-use figures marked ≈ are estimated from the pack size at a typical application rather than counted off a sheet count.

4 ingredients in common

Masks aimed at the same thing usually share most of their base - water, a humectant, a thickener, a preservative system - and differ further down, below the ≈1% line. Counted by encyclopaedia entry, not by printed row: several printed names can resolve to one substance.

On both lists

Only in Vital Perfection LiftDefine Radiance Face Mask

Only in Facial Treatment Mask

What stands out in each list

Worked out from the ingredients by matching them against the encyclopaedia, not from the packaging claims - so a brand cannot earn a kinder summary with better marketing.

Shiseido Vital Perfection LiftDefine Radiance Face Mask

  • Contains fragrance

    Listed as Parfum/Fragrance, which can stand for dozens of undisclosed aroma chemicals. Fragrance is one of the most common causes of cosmetic contact allergy.

  • 7 declared fragrance allergens

    EU law requires these to be named on the pack: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Tetramethyl Acetyloctahydronaphthalenes, Limonene, Hexyl Cinnamal, Citronellol, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil, Linalyl Acetate.

  • 3 essential oils

    Naturally derived, and a frequent trigger for reactive skin: Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Citrus Aurantium Peel Oil, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil.

  • Phototoxic citrus oils

    Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil can carry furocoumarins, which increase sun sensitivity unless the oil is furocoumarin-free.

  • Contains drying alcohol

    Alcohol appears at position 34, well down the list, so the amount is likely small.

  • Exfoliating acids

    Contains Tartaric Acid. Use sunscreen the following day; EU law caps these.

  • 5 concentration-capped ingredients

    EU law sets a maximum for Potassium Hydroxide, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil. Products on sale in the EU must comply. It also sets one for Aluminum Glycinate, Aluminum Hydroxide, which products must comply with from 1 January 2027.

  • 4 ingredients flagged for pregnancy

    Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia (Bergamot) Fruit Oil are usually avoided or used with caution during pregnancy. This is what the ingredient entries say, not medical advice, so ask your midwife or doctor.

SK-II Facial Treatment Mask

  • 1 ingredient flagged for pregnancy

    Sodium Salicylate is usually avoided or used with caution during pregnancy. This is what the ingredient entries say, not medical advice, so ask your midwife or doctor.

  • No fragrance or declared allergens

    Nothing in the list is Parfum/Fragrance or an EU-declared fragrance allergen.

  • No drying alcohol

    No ethanol, alcohol denat. or isopropyl alcohol in the list. Fatty alcohols such as cetearyl alcohol are not drying and do not count.

  • Short list - 7 ingredients

    Fewer ingredients means fewer things to react to, and makes it easier to work out what caused a reaction if you do.

These pairings are chosen by hand, because they say something. Neither mask paid to be here and neither link is an affiliate link - see how this site is paid for. To line up a different two, or a third, build your own comparison.

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