Sulwhasoo Clarifying Mask

What is this product?

Sulwhasoo 옥용팩 (Clarifying Mask) is a 120ml peel off mask from AmorePacific's prestige line, sold in one size with no bundle variant. Polyvinyl alcohol at position 2 forms the film and bentonite at 10 adsorbs surface debris, so the exfoliation is mechanical and happens when the dried film is pulled off after 20 to 30 minutes. Denatured alcohol sits at position 3 and the formula is fragranced, with limonene and linalool declared. The brand's own home use test on 45 Korean women in 2020 scored perception only, reaching 100 percent on smoothness, cleanliness and keratin tidiness and 93 percent on brightness, with no report published. Antioxidant and clarity claims built on Solomon's seal powder and honeysuckle extract do not survive a contact time that ends in removal. Best suited to oily congested skin wanting a weekly resurfacing; sensitive, dry and barrier compromised skin are the cautions, and the brand's own precautions exclude broken skin.

What makes it different?

Two things separate it from the peel off format generally. First, the brand publishes the parameters of its own supporting study, panel size, dates and agency included, which is rare enough that the four percentage figures can be graded rather than guessed at, and those figures are perception scores rather than instrument readings. Second, the ingredient story is built on a Korean herbal register, Solomon's seal powder at 6 and 19, honeysuckle at 15, rehmannia, peony, lotus, lily, ginseng and licorice below, which is positioning rather than measurable benefit in a product removed within half an hour.

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
• POLYVINYL ALCOHOL
• ALCOHOL DENAT.
• GLYCERIN
• BUTYLENE GLYCOL
• POLYGONATUM SIBIRICUM ROOT/RHIZOME POWDER
• PEG-75
• 1,2-HEXANEDIOL
• PEG-60 HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL
• BENTONITE
• XANTHAN GUM
• AMMONIUM ACRYLOYLDIMETHYLTAURATE/VP COPOLYMER
• FRAGRANCE / PARFUM
• LIMONENE
• LONICERA JAPONICA (HONEYSUCKLE) FLOWER EXTRACT
• ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN
• PORTULACA OLERACEA EXTRACT
• PROPANEDIOL
• POLYGONATUM ODORATUM RHIZOME POWDER
• HONEY / MEL / MIEL
• DISODIUM EDTA
• LINALOOL
• NELUMBO NUCIFERA FLOWER EXTRACT
• POLYGONATUM OFFICINALE RHIZOME/ROOT EXTRACT
• REHMANNIA GLUTINOSA ROOT EXTRACT
• PAEONIA ALBIFLORA ROOT EXTRACT
• LILIUM CANDIDUM BULB EXTRACT
• PANAX GINSENG ROOT EXTRACT
• GLYCYRRHIZA URALENSIS (LICORICE) ROOT EXTRACT
• TOCOPHEROL

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 21 lines this product advertises against the ingredient list and public documents. 3 of them hold up. The rest are only partly right or have nothing behind them.

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