Reading a Korean ingredient list: the 60-second method

Korean cosmetics must list every ingredient, in descending order down to 1%, after which order is arbitrary — with one exception worth knowing: packs of 10ml or 10g and under, and free samples, only have to carry the name, the responsible seller, the price and the date information. Read the first five to understand the base, scan for your known actives, then check the last third for fragrance and preservatives. Position matters more than presence.

The descending-order rule and where it stops

Ingredients appear in descending order of concentration until you reach 1%; anything used at 1% or less may be listed in any order. Fragrance (착향제) and colourants (착색제) may also be listed out of order whatever their amount, so position is a strong hint about them rather than a guarantee. This is the single most useful thing to know: an active in the bottom third might be at 1% or at 0.0001%, and the list cannot tell you which.

The first five ingredients

These are the formula. Water, a humectant such as glycerin, an emollient, a thickener — that is the base everything else sits in. If a botanical extract a brand has named the product after appears near the end, the product is mostly not that botanical.

Finding fragrance

Korea requires designated fragrance allergens to be named individually above threshold levels, so look for 향료 or fragrance/parfum, plus specific names such as limonene and linalool. For reactive skin this is the part of the list that matters most.

What the list cannot tell you

It does not reveal exact concentrations below 1%, the pH, the quality of the raw materials, or whether the formula is stable. A good ingredient list is a necessary condition for a good product, not a sufficient one.

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✍️ Written & reviewed by the KoreaPlus Editorial team — dermatologist-informed, cosmetic-science researched & source-cited. Last reviewed: 2026-08-23.

General educational information using cosmetic structure-function wording — not medical advice. Always patch-test new actives. © KoreaPlus.