Mamonde Flora Glow Rose Liquid Mask

What is this product?

Mamonde's Flora Glow Rose Liquid Mask is a first-step exfoliating toner for people who want dead-skin removal without a stinging acid: its PHA is gluconolactone, printed third of just 24 ingredients, and Mamonde markets that as a 10 percent PHA formula. Two of its headline ingredients do not survive a read of the label: 8-form hyaluronic acid is refuted by an ingredient statement that lists five, and rose peptide is overstated, since the only peptide material on the list is a hydrolyzed vegetable protein at 100 ppm with no plant named. It is certified vegan by the Korea Agency of Vegan Certification and carries no fragrance in its 24 ingredients.

What makes it different?

The PHA choice is the real differentiator. Gluconolactone is a polyhydroxy acid with a larger molecule than glycolic or lactic acid, so it works more at the surface and stings less, which is what makes a 10 percent figure plausible on skin that cannot take an AHA. The list is also unusually bare for the category at 24 entries, with no oil, no butter, no fatty alcohol and no fragrance anywhere in it. Where Mamonde overreaches is the evidence. Its 99.3 and 99.0 percent dead-skin reduction figures are measured immediately after use, its 100 percent glow improvement comes from 30 women with no control group, and its 8-form hyaluronic acid is five forms on its own statutory list. Same-line siblings step the PHA from 2 percent in the hydrogel mask up to 20 percent in the ball mask, so this 10 percent sits mid-ladder.

What is in it?

The full ingredient list as the brand publishes it, in the printed order. Each name links to what we know about that ingredient.

Key ingredientWorth a closer look

• WATER / AQUA / EAU
• BUTYLENE GLYCOL
• GLUCONOLACTONE
• GLYCERIN
• DIPROPYLENE GLYCOL
• PROPANEDIOL
• TROMETHAMINE
• PANTHENOL
• 1,2-HEXANEDIOL
• PPG-13-DECYLTETRADECETH-24
• POLYSORBATE 80
• ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN
• SODIUM METAPHOSPHATE
• DEXTRIN
• THEOBROMA CACAO (COCOA) EXTRACT
• ROSA DAMASCENA FLOWER EXTRACT
• SODIUM HYALURONATE
• HYALURONIC ACID
• HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN
• PROPYLENE GLYCOL
• TOCOPHEROL
• HYDROLYZED HYALURONIC ACID
• SODIUM HYALURONATE CROSSPOLYMER
• SODIUM ACETYLATED HYALURONATE

Ingredients with no mark are ones we found nothing notable about, and when marks overlap on one ingredient we show the caution first.

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 12 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. 2 of them hold up. The rest are only partly right or have nothing behind them.

Claims translated from Korean, originals preserved.

Each line is quoted as the brand published it, and each one was read on its own against the ingredient list and the documents the brand publishes.

How we read these lines