Mediheal Pads And Sheet Masks: The K-Beauty Mask House And Its Rivals

On 27 July 1875, a woman named Helen M. Rowley was granted US patent 165,955 for an "Improvement in Masks for Medical Purposes". It was a flexible india-rubber face mask, worn during sleep, and it was sold by the Toilet Mask Company in New York and London and advertised in Harper's Bazaar. Somebody in the 1870s lay down at night with rubber on her face and called it self-care. The sheet mask has a longer and stranger family tree than the drugstore aisle suggests.

Mediheal is a fair place to pick the story up again. The company behind it, L&P Cosmetic, was founded in Seoul in April 2009, when the brand says masks were seen as a novelty or a promotional gift. Its whole point of view is that a mask could be "a versatile, professional, and advanced treatment". A two-step sheet mask was registered as a utility model in 2010, and the line itself launched in 2012. Then came the twist I like: when the brand reached the US, its chairman admitted the premium sheet masks were not as popular as expected, because skin types differ, and that the mask pads "created a bigger sensation". A mask house that got famous for its pads. That, in short, is why the first Mediheal grid leads with pads.

The trick is to read the first grid as two jobs. The Madecassoside Blemish Pad is the one for redness and breakouts, and its key ingredients are madecassoside and niacinamide. The Teatree Trouble Pad sits next to it for the days skin feels cranky, and the Collagen Ampoule Pad is the plain hydration one. The Retinol Collagen Lifting Pad is the evening option.

Then the masks: Madecassoside Essential and Collagen Essential for a proper sit-down, and the Hyper Collagen and Hyper Hyaluronate sheets when you want something to keep in a drawer for a bad night.

Patch-test anything new on the skin along your jaw for two or three days before it goes near your whole face. Serums and ampoules from a brand you have never used are the place most people skip that step.

The bottles around the pads are built on the same ingredient families. The Madecassoside Blemish Repair Serum is the liquid cousin of the blemish pad, and madecassoside comes from Centella asiatica, which a review in the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine treats as one of its marker compounds, though the evidence it cites is mostly preclinical. The PDRN Lifting Serum is the newer idea in the row, and the PDRN Derma Cream is its richer partner.

The Madecassoside Derma Cream is the one I would put in a travel bag, because it is a tube and takes up almost no room. For brightening, the Vitamin Derma Ampoule is the pick. The Madecassoside Derma Ampoule Blemish Repair and the Teatree Calming Barrier Ampoule are for the calmer, barrier-minded routine, and the Teatree Calming Hydra Serum is the lightest of the lot.

A pairing I like: a pad in the morning for a quick swipe, then the matching serum at night. One family of ingredients, two speeds.

What I would skip: layering three of these ampoules in one evening because they look good together. Pick the one for what your skin is doing this week.

Set a timer before you put a sheet mask on, because nobody is good at judging fifteen minutes with their eyes closed. Peel it off when the timer goes, even if you feel like lying there longer.

The masks from other brands each do a different kind of thing. Biodance sells its Rejuvenating Caviar PDRN Real Deep Mask and the Bio Collagen Real Deep Mask, and they are the ones you use when you want your skin to look a bit plumper by morning. Dr. Jart+ Cryo Rubber Soothing Face Mask with Allantoin is the direct descendant of Mrs. Rowley's idea, a rubber mask, though thankfully one you do not sleep in.

Sulwhasoo's First Care Activating Single Sheet Mask works as a small gift, a single sachet in a bright orange pack. Abib's Gummy Sheet Mask Heartleaf Sticker is the fun one, and LANEIGE's Cream Skin Milky Hydration Sheet Mask with Ceramides & Peptides is for dry winter skin. Round Lab's Birch Moisturizing Sheet Mask and medicube's PDRN Pink Collagen Gel Face Mask are the ones I would buy in multiples.

What I would skip: a sheet mask as your only step. It is a short-term hydration treat, so follow it with a cream or the moisture leaves with the sheet.

Keep your pads in the fridge door on a hot week, and press one against your cheek for a few seconds before you swipe. The cold does something the formula does not, and it also slows you down, which is the real benefit of any pad.

This is the category that won in the US, so the alternatives are good. Abib's Glutathiosome Vitamin C Toner Pad is the brightening one and Torriden's Dive-In 5D Hyaluronic Acid Toner Pads are the plainly hydrating one, easy to use on very dry skin. innisfree's Green Tea Cooling Toner Pads are for the heat of summer and Biodance's Collagen Gel Toner Pads for Pore Minimizing & Firming Care are the gel-textured kind.

Two more I keep seeing on other people's shelves: Hanyul's Korean Yuja Brightening Toner Pads with Vitamin C and Niacinamide for evening out tone, and AESTURA's A-CICA365 Cooling Relief Toner Pads with centella for skin that turns red easily. medicube covers the pore side with the Zero Pore Pad, and Biodance's Caviar PDRN Dual Gel Toner Pads bring PDRN to a gel pad.

Use the pad first, then press a sheet mask on top while your skin is still damp. It is a bit much for a weeknight, but very good on a Sunday.

What I would skip: rubbing a pad hard across your face as if you were scrubbing a countertop. Swipe gently, then press.

For a first purchase, my pick is the Madecassoside Blemish Pad, because it is the clearest example of what the brand does best, and because I also like that Mediheal's own chairman says the pads are what caught on in the US. The brand says it has sold more than 3.3 billion sheet masks and 32 million toner pads, so it knows both formats.

Use a pad on weekday mornings, keep a sheet mask for Sunday evening, and swap in a rival when you want a different texture. Nobody needs every jar. Helen Rowley slept in rubber for her skin in 1875. You can manage a pad and fifteen quiet minutes. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Cushion Foundation Went From K-Beauty Novelty to Every Luxury Counter and PDRN Serum Is the K-Beauty Ingredient That Followed the Salmon Sperm Facial Online.