COSRX
COSRX Advanced Snail Hydrogel Eye Patch 90g (60 patches)
The patch is the product, not the carrier.
Seaweed gel rather than fabric soaked in essence, with snail secretion third of twenty-one.
Cool, and it grips.
What these patches do
Sixty hydrogel eye patches in 90 g of gel, built on Snail Secretion Filtrate and Niacinamide at positions three and four, set into a carrageenan gel by mineral salts.
Hydrogel is a different object from a sheet mask
A sheet mask is a piece of non-woven cloth or cellulose soaked in essence. A hydrogel is a solid formed out of the essence itself — there is no carrier underneath.
Look at how it is built. Carrageenan (5) is a polysaccharide from red seaweed. It gels only when the right ions are present, and here they are: Potassium Chloride (18) and Calcium Chloride (13). Potassium is what makes kappa-carrageenan set firm; calcium sets the iota form softer and more elastic. Having both is how you tune a patch that holds its shape but still bends around an eye socket.
Carob Gum (7) is there for a specific reason — locust bean gum and carrageenan interact to make a gel more elastic and less brittle than either alone. Guar Gum (12), Cellulose Gum (16) and PEG-90M (21) complete the network.
Six gelling agents out of twenty-one ingredients. Almost a third of this formula exists to make the patch a solid.
What that buys you
A hydrogel holds far more water per gram than fabric and releases it slowly, which is why the instructions say twenty to thirty minutes rather than the fifteen a sheet mask gets before it starts drying and pulling water back out of your skin.
It also grips. Under-eye skin moves constantly, and a gel patch stays put where a cloth one slides.
And there is a trade-off worth naming: a hydrogel cannot carry oil. Look at the list — there is not one oil, ester, silicone or fatty alcohol in it. Everything here is water-soluble, because anything else would break the gel. That makes these patches weightless and completely non-greasy, and it also means they hydrate without adding any lipid.
What is actually treating the skin
Strip out the gel network and the working formula is short: glycerin, snail secretion filtrate, niacinamide, betaine, sucrose, allantoin, adenosine and dipotassium glycyrrhizate.
That is a sensible under-eye set. Niacinamide and adenosine are the two actives; allantoin and the licorice salt work on the look of irritation; the rest hold water. Snail filtrate at position three is a genuinely high placement — it is the ingredient this line is named for and it has not been demoted to the tail.
Twenty-one ingredients, no fragrance, no essential oil, no colour and no alcohol. On eyelid skin, all four of those absences count.
Key ingredients
Ingredient · What it is, and what it is used for
- Snail Secretion Filtrate
- Filtrate of snail secretion. Third on this list. Not vegan.
- Niacinamide
- Vitamin B3. Studied for evening out the look of tone, for the look of pores, and for breakout-prone skin — which is why it turns up in so much of this catalogue.
- Carrageenan
- Polysaccharide from red seaweed. The gel itself — it sets in the presence of potassium and calcium.
- Potassium Chloride
- Mineral salt. Provides the potassium ions carrageenan needs to set firm.
- Calcium Chloride
- Mineral salt. Provides calcium ions, which set a softer and more elastic gel.
- Ceratonia Siliqua (Carob) Gum
- Locust bean gum. Interacts with carrageenan to make the gel elastic rather than brittle.
- Cellulose Gum
- Plant-derived polysaccharide. Part of the gel network; adds slip.
- Adenosine
- Purine nucleoside. One of the few ingredients Korea approves a wrinkle-care claim for.
- Allantoin
- Heterocyclic diureide. Used to calm irritation.
- Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate
- Licorice root derivative. Used to calm the look of redness.
- Glycerin
- Polyol. A material skin already contains, so it reads as its own; used to pull in water and hold it. Second on this list.
- Sucrose
- Table sugar. Used to pull in water and hold it, and it keeps the gel supple.
Who it is for
Labelled for soothing and moisture. Suits tired, dry or crepey-looking under-eye skin, and suits contact-lens wearers and sensitive eyes better than most, because there is nothing volatile in it. Contains a snail-derived ingredient, so not vegan.
How to use it
- Lift a patch out with the tweezers in the jar — fingers introduce bacteria into a 60-patch pot.
- Place it under the eye, smooth side down, and press the edges flat.
- Leave for 20 to 30 minutes.
- Remove and pat in whatever remains rather than rinsing.
- Keep the jar in the fridge if you want the cooling effect; the gel firms up and grips better cold.
Details
- Contents
- 60 patches, 90 g total
- Format
- Hydrogel — the patch is the formula, not a soaked cloth
- Wear time
- 20 to 30 minutes
- Contains
- Snail secretion filtrate — not vegan
- Ingredients
- 21, published in full below
Full ingredient list
Water, Glycerin, Snail Secretion Filtrate, Niacinamide, Carrageenan, 1,2-Hexanediol, Ceratonia Siliqua (Carob) Gum, Betaine, Hydroxyacetophenone, Allantoin, Chlorphenesin, Cyamopsis Tetragonoloba (Guar) Gum, Calcium Chloride, Butylene Glycol, Sucrose, Cellulose Gum, Adenosine, Potassium Chloride, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Ethylhexylglycerin, PEG-90M
In label order, unedited.
Ships from Korea.
