Dextrin

What it is

Dextrin is a gum produced by the incomplete hydrolysis of starch. It starts from the same material as maltodextrin but is broken down less far, so the chains are longer - which is why dextrin thickens water where maltodextrin mostly carries and binds. Safety assessments list it as an absorbent, binder, bulking agent and aqueous viscosity-increasing agent.

What it does well

• Thickens a water-based mask so it stays where you put it

  Building viscosity in water is the function the safety assessment records, and it is what dextrin is doing in a hydrogel or sheet-mask essence. It is a texture ingredient, and the report makes no claim beyond that.

  Moderate evidence

Worth knowing

• Texture only, with no effect of its own on skin

  Testing across this class of gums indicates they can be mild skin irritants but are not sensitisers, and their molecular size makes skin penetration unlikely. Nothing about dextrin acts on skin; it is there so the formula behaves.

Where the EU stands

Sources (1)

Every link goes to the original: a journal, a PubMed record or an EU document.

1. [1]
   Safety Assessment of Polysaccharide Gums as Used in Cosmetics (Final Report)

   Cosmetic Ingredient Review Expert Panel · 2015

   Dextrin is named among the 105 polysaccharide gums the Expert Panel concluded are safe in the present practices of use and concentration in cosmetics. The report defines dextrin as a gum produced by the incomplete hydrolysis of starch and lists its functions as absorbents, binders, bulking agents and aqueous viscosity-increasing agents. Checked 16 August 2026.