Journal
What the back of the box says
Pieces about the things an ingredient list will tell you if you know how it is constructed, and the things it is not obliged to tell you at all. Every number here is counted from the 215 ingredient lists on this site when the page is built, not typed in once and left to go stale.
Topics
16 pieces
- 5,941ingredient entries read
Start hereIngredients7 min read
What is actually in a face mask
We read the back of every mask on this site, 215 of them, 5,941 printed ingredient entries. Most of a face mask is water, nine ingredients do most of the remaining work, and not one substance in the whole corpus is banned in the EU.
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- 41%of advertised ingredients sit below the line
Reading a label8 min read
The ≈1% line: why the hero ingredient sits near the end
EU law orders an ingredient list by weight, but only down to 1%. Below that, a brand may print in any order it likes. On the masks we have read, 61% of a typical list sits in that free-for-all, and 41% of the ingredients advertised on the front of the box are down there with it.
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- 117of 215 masks print one word for it
EU rules9 min read
What “Parfum” is hiding, and what changed on 31 July 2026
One word on a label can stand for dozens of substances. 117 of our 215 masks print it. Since 31 July 2026 the EU requires far more of what is inside it to be named individually, and on these labels, 10 of the 21 named allergens are ones that only recently had to be there at all.
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- 45/215masks contain a volatile alcohol
Ingredients8 min read
Alcohol in a face mask: position is the whole story
Two different things on a label are called alcohol, and only one of them dries your skin. Of our 215 masks, 45 contain the volatile kind, and where it sits in the list matters more than whether it is there at all.
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- 0 of 10notorious preservatives found on these labels
EU rules8 min read
Preservatives: the most feared line on the label
A water-based mask that is not preserved is a microbiology experiment you hold against your face. 103 of our 215 masks name a preservative the EU licenses for the job; most of the rest are preserved too, by ingredients that are legally something else.
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- 167×between the cheapest and dearest use
What it costs8 min read
What you are actually paying for
A face mask on this site costs anywhere from 0.09 to 15.00 euros per use, a spread of 167 times. We went looking for what the extra money buys on the ingredient list. It is not a longer list, and it is not more actives. Mostly it is the absence of perfume.
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- 149/215masks carry no pregnancy flag
Ingredients8 min read
What gets flagged for pregnancy, and what actually matters
149 of the 215 masks on this site carry nothing we flag for pregnancy. Of the 66 that do, exactly 1 ingredient in the whole corpus is one we grade as avoid. The rest is precaution, and most of it is plants.
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- 89%start with water, whatever the format
Reading a label7 min read
Sheet, clay or hydrogel: what actually changes in the formula
We sorted 215 masks into 10 formats and read what the ingredient lists do differently. Water is still the first entry on 89% of them, so the format is mostly a delivery decision. But three of the 10 change the formula in ways you can see from the pack.
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- 17%of botanical entries give an English name too
Reading a label12 min read
The words an ingredient list is not allowed to use
EU law does not let a pack write "vitamin C" in its ingredient list. It must use the name in the Commission's glossary, which for a plant is Latin. Only 7% of the 5,941 entries we have read bother to translate themselves, and on the 6 masks named after vitamin C the back of the box declares 4 different molecules.
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- 12.5-20minutes, what a sheet mask pack asks for
Using a mask7 min read
How long to leave a face mask on
Short answer: as long as the pack says, and not a minute longer. We read the instructions printed on all 215 masks on this site. 167 of them state a time, the middle of the range is 10 to 15 minutes, and the reason the upper end matters is that the hydration a mask produces is measurable, temporary, and gone within the hour either way.
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- 2-3times a week, the commonest printed instruction
Using a mask7 min read
How often should you use a face mask
Two or three times a week is the commonest instruction printed on a pack, but only 35 of the 215 masks on this site state a frequency at all. The other 180 leave it to you, so this is what decides it: not the format, and not the marketing, but whether the ingredient list contains something with a limit.
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- 177of 203 packs name the same first step
Using a mask6 min read
Where a face mask goes in your routine
After cleansing, before everything else. That is not a preference: 177 of the 215 masks on this site put cleansing in their own printed instructions, which makes it the single most agreed-upon step in skincare. What happens after the mask comes off is where the packs stop agreeing, and the format tells you why.
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- 18 May2026, the day the new limits came into force
EU rules8 min read
The new EU limits, and what they change for a face mask
A Commission Regulation in force since 18 May 2026 puts concentration limits on three things face masks contain, 28 of the 215 here among them. The limits are written per product type, so one ingredient can carry two very different ceilings - and which one applies to your mask depends on whether you rinse it off. Nothing in a bathroom cabinet needs throwing away.
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- 73% vs 28%of European and Korean lists here print Parfum
Ingredients7 min read
Korean vs European face masks: what changes on the list
Both groups answer to the same EU law, so the differences are habits of formulation rather than rules. Across the 75 Korean and 127 European masks on this site, the habits are consistent and one of them dominates everything else: 73% of the European lists print Parfum against 28% of the Korean ones.
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- 8oils on these labels are established human allergens
Ingredients10 min read
Essential oils in a face mask, and what air does to them
36 of our 215 masks carry an essential oil, and 19 different ones appear across the labels. The EU treats them as perfume, the safety literature treats most of them as allergens, and the part almost nobody mentions is that the oil in a jar you have opened twenty times is not the oil the safety opinion assessed.
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- 79of 215 masks pass a fragrance-free name test
Reading a label9 min read
“Fragrance-free” has a test, and it is not the ingredient list
79 of our 215 masks pass the fragrance-free test we run over the printed list. The test a claim on the front of the box is supposed to meet is a different one: it asks what an ingredient is doing in the formula, not what it is called - which is a question no ingredient list can answer.
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