Maltodextrin

What it is

Maltodextrin is what you get when starch is partly broken down, usually by enzymes: a linear chain of glucose units, fewer than twenty of them. Safety assessments list its cosmetic roles as absorbent, binder, dispersing agent, emulsion stabiliser, film former and skin-conditioning agent. That spread is the point - it is a workhorse that helps a formula hold together, and it turns up across every mask format on this site.

What it does well

• Holds a formula together and helps it spread evenly

  Binding, dispersing and film-forming are all well-characterised functions of this class of starch fragment, and they are the reason it is in the formula. None of them is a claim about skin. Molecules this size are unlikely to penetrate the skin barrier at all.

  Moderate evidence

Worth knowing

• Low in the list, it is often the carrier an extract arrived on

  Powdered actives and extracts are commonly supplied already diluted onto a carrier, and maltodextrin is one of the usual ones. So maltodextrin sitting next to an impressive-sounding extract near the end of a list is a hint about how little of that extract is present. It is ordinary formulating practice, not a trick.

  Matters most toAnyone weighing up a mask on the strength of a named extract low in the list.

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

   Maltodextrin 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 it as the saccharide material obtained by hydrolysis of starch, containing fewer than 20 glucose units, and lists its functions as absorbents, binders, dispersing agents, emulsion stabilisers, film formers and skin-conditioning agents. Animal and human testing indicates these gums can be mild skin irritants but are non-sensitisers, and their molecular size makes skin penetration unlikely. Checked 16 August 2026.