Masks we group for exfoliation

The short read

• The cheapest median application of any concern in the catalogue, against a baseline the table below prints in full. The shelf itself spans a much wider range than that median suggests, and the two ends are named under the price above.

• The grouping is ours: a mask is here because its stated purpose and its formula point at surface build-up, not because we found the word “exfoliating” on the box.

• Every one of the catalogue's exfoliating masks is here. The rest of the shelf is wash-off, sheet, clay and cream, which is most of why the median application is as low as it is.

• Rather more of these masks leave fragrance off the list than the catalogue's share, and rather fewer carry nothing the encyclopaedia flags to check in pregnancy - the shelf is calmer than the catalogue on the one reading and less calm on the other. Almost none contains an essential oil.

What these lists print that others do not

Not the most common ingredients - water is on nearly every list ever written and tells you nothing about who a mask is for. These are the entries that appear far more often on this shelf than across the 219 masks as a whole, counted by encyclopaedia entry rather than by printed name. A name appearing here is a reading of the label, not a statement that it does anything.

• Glycolic Acid5 of 20 here·5 of 219 overall
• Salicylic Acid9 of 20 here·14 of 219 overall
• Cetyl Alcohol5 of 20 here·16 of 219 overall
• CI 77499 / Iron Oxides5 of 20 here·19 of 219 overall
• Lactic Acid5 of 20 here·20 of 219 overall
• Kaolin7 of 20 here·30 of 219 overall
• CI 77891 (Titanium Dioxide)5 of 20 here·24 of 219 overall
• Sodium Hydroxide8 of 20 here·39 of 219 overall

Names without a link have no encyclopaedia entry yet, so we make no claim about them beyond the count.

The sixteen concerns side by side

The dataset sorts masks into 16 concerns, and 4 have a page. One is excluded by the 50% ceiling, because a page over that much of the catalogue is the catalogue with a new heading, and two fall under the floor of 13. Most of the rest are already published under another heading - every oil-control mask is on the oily skin page, every firmness mask on the mature skin page - and re-heading our own indexed shelf is worse than re-heading the catalogue; the build recomputes every one of those overlaps and refuses a page that crosses 85%. Two clear every mechanical test and are left out on a judgement instead, both sitting close to the catalogue baseline on price and list length, and neither is excluded for good. Every figure here is counted across all of them, so the superlatives above are scoped to something you can check.

A mask is usually grouped under more than one concern, so the columns do not sum to 219. The grouping is ours throughout, read from what each mask sets out to do and what its formula suggests.

What these labels print

Seven readings of the ingredient list, each counted the same way across this shelf and across the whole catalogue, so the second column is the baseline the first is worth reading against. Every one of them is a statement about what is printed on a pack - not about what a mask does, and not a verdict on any of them. The pregnancy flag in particular is a reason to read a list rather than a warning: it marks a mask carrying something the encyclopaedia says to check, which is a different thing from a mask being unsafe.

Vegan status is unrecorded for 14 of the 20 masks here, so that row counts only the packs where we found it stated - unrecorded is not the same as not vegan. How far into a list we can read is its own reading: the encyclopaedia has an entry for a median of 84.5% of each list here, against 82% across the catalogue. The rest is printed in names the site cannot yet decode, and an undecoded name is one we make no claim about either way - what we do not know.

Which formats these are

A format is the plainest thing about a mask that is not on its ingredient list - what you buy it in and how you use it - and it explains a good deal of what the readings above look like. A shelf of pots and tubes carries longer, oilier lists than a shelf of sachets, and its price per use is worked out rather than counted.

• Exfoliating7 of 20·35%
• Wash-off5 of 20·25%
• Sheet4 of 20·20%
• Clay3 of 20·15%
• Cream1 of 20·5%

Formats without a link have too few masks in the catalogue to carry a page of their own.

All 20 masks we group for exfoliation

Cheapest use first. Every one is on sale in the EU and has a published ingredient list we could source and check.

• 

  Balea

  Reinigung, Peeling & Maske hautrein 3in1

  18ingredients

  !3 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€0.09 per use

• 

  Garnier

  Pure Active 3-in-1 Charcoal Wash, Scrub & Mask

  25ingredients

  !6 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€0.19 per use

• 

  Luvos-Heilerde

  Clean-Peel-Maske

  29ingredients

  !7 ingredients we would look at twice

  €0.38 per use

• 

  Beauty of Joseon

  Apricot Blossom Peeling Gel

  19ingredients

  ≈€0.45 per use

• 

  Santé Naturkosmetik

  Glow Boost Maske AHA

  29ingredients

  !9 ingredients we would look at twice

  €0.48 per use

• 

  Santé Naturkosmetik

  Pore Control Maske BHA

  29ingredients

  !4 ingredients we would look at twice

  €0.48 per use

• 

  Beauty of Joseon

  Ground Rice and Honey Glow Mask

  35ingredients

  ≈€0.64 per use

• 

  Vichy

  Normaderm 3-in-1 Peeling + Reinigungs-Creme + Maske

  23ingredients

  !6 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€0.77 per use

• 

  Luvos-Heilerde

  Peeling-Maske

  29ingredients

  !7 ingredients we would look at twice

  €0.85 per use

• 

  Balea

  AHA & BHA Tuchmaske

  16ingredients

  !4 ingredients we would look at twice

  €0.95 per use

• 

  I'm From

  Rice Mask

  43ingredients

  ≈€1.30 per use

• 

  Schaebens

  Tuchmaske AHA Peeling

  17ingredients

  !4 ingredients we would look at twice

  €1.45 per use

• 

  DERMASEL

  SPA Totes Meer Maske Peeling

  16ingredients

  !1 ingredient we would look at twice

  ≈€1.50 per use

• 

  Garnier

  Salicylic Tissue Mask

  26ingredients

  !3 ingredients we would look at twice

  €1.65 per use

• 

  The Ordinary

  AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution

  24ingredients

  !3 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€1.80 per use

• 

  The Ordinary

  Salicylic Acid 2% Masque

  19ingredients

  !2 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€2.07 per use

• 

  Dr. Rimpler

  SPECIAL Peel AHA

  16ingredients

  !2 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€2.20 per use

• 

  SOME BY MI

  Real AHA-BHA-PHA Calming Care Mask

  19ingredients

  !1 ingredient we would look at twice

  €2.85 per use

• 

  SKIN1004

  Madagascar Centella Poremizing Quick Clay Stick Mask

  23ingredients

  !1 ingredient we would look at twice

  ≈€5.68 per use

• 

  Susanne Kaufmann

  Glow Mask

  45ingredients

  !7 ingredients we would look at twice

  ≈€10.29 per use