Cosmetic Face Masks and Formulation

TAGS:  Skin Care      Natural/ Organic   

1. What are Cosmetic Face Masks?
2. Facial Masks – Types & Key Ingredients
3. Mask Formulations – Considerations & Challenges
4. Trends in Mask Formulations

Cosmetic Face Masks

With all kinds of face masks on the market, combined with a new rise in social networks and new bright colors, it's easy to see why it's an exciting time to be a face mask enthusiast.

After the COVID-19 pandemic struck the globe, many areas of life have changed, which include skincare habits. Appearance-enhancing products like cleansers and moisturizers and therapies such as exfoliators/scrubs and masks witnessed the largest rise in 2020.

The moisturized and hydrating masks market is projected to rise due to stressful lifestyles and increasing pollution. As a consequence, customers are always searching for products that concentrate on blemish/acne-prone skin, dark circles, blackheads, allergic skin, and so on.

Benefits & Main Purpose of Facial Masks

Face masks, (which are typically called masks), are considered occlusives — that is, they cover the skin — delivering nutrient-rich ingredients to enhance the look and consistency of the skin. They achieve this by coating the facial skin for around 10-20 minutes. This allows sufficient time for the ingredients to reach the skin surface for optimum efficacy.

There are numerous benefits of face masks for the users, primarily based on the ingredients they are formulated with. Facemasks can provide a concentrated shot of enriching ingredients to plump, moisturize as well as tone the face. The mask locks in moisture or an ingredient(s) to the skin and produces a protective layer that either hydrate, moisturizes, dries, or removes dead cells from the skin based on the ingredients used in the formulation to help the skin repair itself.

Thus, depending on the skin concern, a face mask may contain:

• Salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide for acne
• Vitamin C for hyperpigmentation and fine lines
• Hyaluronic acid for dry skin, and
• Glycolic acid for oily skin.

Faster, intense moisturization, skin replenishment, and regeneration, excess oil extraction and reduction, as well as skin revitalization, are the key cosmetic purposes of facial masks.

Let’s explore the different types of facial masks & their key ingredients in detail...

Facial Masks – Types & Key Ingredients

The face masks may be categorized into three primary classes from a physicochemical perspective: emulsions, gels, and suspensions. However, masks of today usually come in one of four different types:

Peel-off Masks – Achieve Bright Skin & Quick Removal of Dead Cells

Peel-off masks are spread as a continuous coating over the whole face and peeled off after the prescribed duration of time, typically for 30 minutes. These masks have a rubber-like consistency which allows for quick removal while being free from messiness.

They essentially strip the exterior skin layer of dead skin cells as the polymer matrix is removed,
causing a brighter, new layer of skin to show underneath.

They may be used for various skin conditions as well.

• Some products have ingredients including glycolic and salicylic acid that exfoliate and fight acne.
• Other products contain plumping hyaluronic acid or antioxidants such as vitamins C and E.

Sheet Masks – Address Skincare Problems with Active Ingredients

Sheet masks are face-shaped materials that impregnate nourishing serums, which are put on the face to offer skin regeneration benefits. The sheet is usually made of soft, flexible materials such as fiber, paper, or gel, whereas the serum incorporates one or more active or organic ingredients to address a particular skincare problem.


Sheet masks are widely popular since they are skincare preparations that may include active ingredients that carry out their intended purpose to the best extent. Most contain ceramides, hyaluronic acid as well as antioxidants, which intensely hydrate the skin and enhance complexion, smooth fine lines, and minimize dryness. For example, they may contain active ingredients for skin lightening, anti-aging, and anti-sebum production.

The mask sheet helps to stabilize the formula and gives it the requisite consistency such that only a small quantity is needed in terms of stabilizers and thickeners. The sheets keep the ingredients of the mask from evaporating and improve the penetration impact of the active ingredients into the epidermis. In contrast to regular serum or emulsion, a sheet mask may be conveniently placed in a sterile sachet, ready for use.



Of all types of masks, sheet masks have been the most dominant, gaining the most market share among all types of masks and being the fastest growing over the last few years. Consumers enjoy sheet masks because they're convenient, lightweight, and they're known to work well.

Charcoal/Clay Masks – Eliminate Pollutants & Toxic Substances from the Skin Surface

These forms of facemasks are important cleansing products with a thick cream consistency in which charcoal and clay are incorporated which also tends to build the viscosity.

Charcoal Face Masks – Ash is produced when anything is burnt, but activated charcoal is pure oxygenated carbon usually derived from bamboo that is very porous and has a surface area of around 1,000 square meters per gram. Despite the reality that there is insufficient data to justify the usage of charcoal face masks, many people do use them. Nonetheless, since activated charcoal can trap heavy metals and other contaminants that are present within the body, some have proposed that it can also eliminate pollutants and other toxic substances from the skin surface.

The most significant property of activated carbon is its efficient adsorption ability. The usage of charcoal has a detoxifying, purifying, and lean exfoliating effect for the skin, capable of absorbing several times its mass in oil.



Clay masks – Treatment options for clays include utilizing ionizing radiation or thermal treatment. As a certified brand of natural or organic products, if you wish to include clay in your products, you need to verify with the source you are buying from to confirm that they do not use irradiation techniques.


Clay masks, which are high in minerals, may be useful for skin wellbeing. When choosing a clay, the most significant reason is always that the clay contains a particular mineral, not just color. It is also essential to take note of its properties and area of origin, because the quality of clay plays a crucial role in its long-term performance as well as skin benefits. Clays, whether they are kaolin or bentonite will extract excess oil from the face. If one suffers from oiliness or breakouts, a clay mask may help.

Gentle Clays are particularly nice on very dry or allergic skin. The higher medium intensity clays like Sea Clay perform better with the various types of skin. Stronger clays such as bentonite are better reserved for those whose skin is oily.

Mud and clay masks are deemed healthy by customers even though they are not plant-based but are originating from the soil, and therefore hold much of the ground's natural resources, even microbes.

The downside of these properties is the extremely challenging preservation of clays. They can absorb certain kinds of preservatives included in the formulation, fully de-activating the preservation process.

Leave-On Masks – Wake Up with Completely Rejuvenated Skin

Leave-on masks are the emollient crème-gel or cream formulations added to the face, left on for fifteen to thirty minutes (or overnight) and the excess applied afterward. They should never penetrate the skin quickly, if at all, but retain long-term effects that continue for at least 15 minutes. Afterward, the customer should add or leave-on the mask overnight to wake up with a completely rejuvenated appearance.

They contain a higher concentration of emollients and lipid ingredients as opposed to a normal cream and hence they have hydrating and emollient properties. The skin repair and moisturizing roles are on an optimal level when the skin is well hydrated, providing the natural look and feel of smoothness.

Also called sleep masks, the Overnight formulations, which are of a more effective hydrating impact, are quite common. Adding products such as glycolic acid, curcumin, and shea butter into the skin overnight allows sufficient time for them to absorb and yield benefits.



Now that we've learnt about the basic facial masks available in the industry, let's study the considerations and challenges to be kept in mind while formulating face masks. Also, check out the key beauty trends followed by customers increasing the demand of face masks worldwide.

Formulation Considerations and Challenges

The high viscosity of a facial mask is obtained by utilizing powders including talc, kaolin, silica gels, and clays in the formulation, whilst preventing the undue inclusion of air, which is also of concern in the manufacture of toothpaste.


Furthermore, over time, powders may begin to hydrate and turn into a form that is identical to “rocks”, and this transition can happen during the shelf life of the product.

Likewise, slow hydration occurs with hydrophilic polymers where techniques must be formulated to overcome the challenges.

Thickeners to Address Formulation Challenges

Key cosmetic ingredient suppliers provide a large variety of superior and good efficiency thickeners and stabilizers with:

• High dispersibility
• Low irritancy
• Pleasant sensation, and
• Comfortable contact to the skin

Their products are ideal to formulate face masks and will allow the final products to answer today’s consumers’ increasing needs for their beauty routine.

Mask Type	Considerations/Challenges
Sheet Masks	The serum consistency should be thin and of low viscosity to allow it to sink into the fabric and other sheet materials and be easily rinsed away thereafter. Avoid the usage of mask-type serum in the formulation. Choose the materials for the sheet to improve hydration, while still serving as a shield that minimizes evaporation and traps heat.
Charcoal Masks	Ensure the activated charcoal is provided with a Certificate of Analysis indicating no microorganisms before its usage in cosmetics. The most popular formulation for charcoal masks are is emulsions with low oil content utilizing high HLB emulsifiers. It is, therefore, necessary to create stability and viscosity in the formulation to hold the charcoal homogeneously without settling over the entire product's shelf life. Also, excess emulsifiers are required to clean up the carbon, oils, and dirt from the skin.
Clay Masks	Clay powders are often very large particles, so they require substantial stabilizing in formulations for long shelf life. Clay masks will therefore require a base that can provide consistency and stability. Preferably select an anhydrous base. Owing to the potential allergic reaction of the colorants in the base and stringent restrictions on the colorants in several countries, only inorganic colorants may be used. Use high-performance, electrolyte-resistant polymers for conditions that need long-term exposure to a range of electrolytes, charge, active ingredients, pigments, and oxides.

Mask Formulations – Key Trends

Switch to Greener Alternatives – People have demonstrated an increasing shift toward organic/natural/green skincare products. The usage of organic/natural/green cosmetic products has gained market supremacy over traditional products over the last few years. Product attributes that support nature-based claims are the top-selling face masks in the global facial mask industry.

One of the main reasons why natural skincare products have been popular is that it provides improved outcomes for those who are sensitive to chemically-based skincare products. Moreover, the perception of synthetic ingredients causing damage to both animals and humans has sparked a switch to organic products.

Preservative-free options are trending because of the reality that anhydrous formulations do not require a preservative. While several alternatives are being created to substitute synthetic preservatives, people also appear to be wary of the alternatives.

Other prominent trends in the beauty masks industry include:

• The creation of custom face masks
• The technology procurement of facial masks, and
• The shopping of cosmetic products online