NEEDLY Anti-Trouble Pad

What is this product?

A Korean exfoliating toner pad from NEEDLY, a jar of 60 two-sided pads, 250 g, sold on the brand's own store. The 29 entry list is water and glycol based, with two salicylate forms (betaine salicylate and capryloyl salicylic acid), gluconolactone, citric acid, tea tree leaf oil, allantoin, panthenol and centella; no level is printed for any active and no pH is given. The copy says AHA, BHA, LHA and PHA, but the only alpha hydroxy acid in the list is citric acid. The brand footnotes a four week sebum test in 20 acne-prone adults and a 24 hour patch test in 31 adults at a named clinical centre; its 256 percent headline divides by the after value, which on the same numbers is a 72 percent drop from baseline. No fragrance entry, but tea tree oil is an essential oil. No lived use reports were collected.

What makes it different?

A daily wipe-and-pack pad whose exfoliating claims can be traced on the label: two salicylate forms and a polyhydroxy acid lactone, all at undisclosed levels, in a watery glycol base with tea tree oil. The brand shows more test detail than the copy suggests, naming the centre, dates and panel sizes, but inflates its sebum headline by dividing by the after value.

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 ingredient

• Water/Aqua/Eau
• Dipropylene Glycol
• Butylene Glycol
• 1,2-Hexanediol
• Hydroxyacetophenone
• Betaine Salicylate
• Octyldodeceth-16
• Hydroxyethyl Urea
• Tromethamine
• Betaine
• Sodium Citrate
• Citric Acid
• Disodium Edta
• Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
• Glycerin
• Gluconolactone
• Allantoin
• Panthenol
• Pentylene Glycol
• Cryptomeria Japonica Leaf Extract
• Nelumbo Nucifera Leaf Extract
• Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate
• Centella Asiatica Extract
• Gypsophila Paniculata Root Extract
• Capryloyl Salicylic Acid
• Beta-Glucan
• Ethylhexylglycerin
• Aspartic Acid
• Acetyl Hexapeptide-8

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

We could not place these in the list above: 티트리잎오일, 베타인살리실레이트, 카프릴로일살리실릭애씨드

Did the ad claims hold up?

We checked 21 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. 5 of them look likely, though none are proven outright.

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

What else is worth seeing?

Products we read alongside this one.

• NEEDLY Daily Toner PadAnother product in the same category
• NEEDLY Mild Cleansing PadAnother product in the same category