PDRN masks are sold as the at-home version of the salmon DNA injections offered in clinics. The word on the pack is the same; almost nothing else is. This page reads what four PDRN masks declare, in the brands' own words, and sets that against what a mask as a format can deliver and what has been tested. It does not rank the masks.
For what PDRN is and the injection evidence, see our PDRN explainer. For why topical PDRN is a different question from injected PDRN, see PDRN vs peptides and the PDRN serum page.
What the masks declare
Each list below was read on 28 October 2026 from the brand's own US product page. "Sodium DNA" is the label (INCI) name used for PDRN.
| Mask | Format | Ingredients declared | Sodium DNA position | Other notable actives, by position |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medicube PDRN Pink Peptide Ampoule Mask | sheet | 55 | 30 | niacinamide 4; five peptides at 46–55 (acetyl hexapeptide-8, oligopeptide-29 and -32, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, palmitoyl tripeptide-1) |
| Medicube PDRN Pink Tension Up Mask | sheet (chin and jaw) | 36 | 22 | niacinamide 2; polylactic acid 25; pea peptide 31; NAD 35 |
| Anua PDRN Hyaluronic Acid Capsule 100 Serum Mask | sheet | 45 | 19 | niacinamide 4; several hyaluronic acid forms |
| SKIN1004 Poremizing Glow Wrapping Mask | wash-off or peel-off gel | 41 | 32 ("rose PDRN" on the page) | centella extract 14; hydrolyzed extensin 30 |
Our separate analysis of the Medicube PDRN Pink Collagen Gel Mask found Sodium DNA at position 29 of 43 on that hydrogel mask in October; it is not repeated here.
Three things the table shows that the product names do not:
- PDRN is never a leading ingredient. In all four masks water, glycols, glycerin and usually niacinamide come first. Niacinamide sits in the top four on three of the four lists, which makes it a far larger share of each formula than the ingredient in the product name.
- The PDRN sits after preservative-level ingredients in the Medicube masks. Disodium EDTA, a chelator normally used at around 0.1 percent or less, is listed at 22 on the ampoule mask and at 17 on the tension mask, ahead of Sodium DNA in both. On the Anua mask, Sodium DNA comes two places before Disodium EDTA.
- "Rose PDRN" and "salmon PDRN" carry the same INCI name. SKIN1004 calls its ingredient rose PDRN and Medicube calls its own salmon PDRN; both are declared as Sodium DNA. The list cannot show the source, the fragment length or the purity, which are the properties the injection literature turns on.
Why position cannot give a percentage. US cosmetic labelling (21 CFR 701.3) requires ingredients above 1 percent to be listed in descending order of amount, and lets ingredients at or below 1 percent follow in any order. An ingredient listed after one normally used at 0.1 percent is therefore inside the "1 percent or less" group, but the label does not say where in that group. None of the four brands states a PDRN percentage on the pages read.
What a mask format can deliver
A mask does two things a serum does not: it keeps the formula wet on the skin for longer, and it covers the skin, which slows water loss. That covering is called occlusion.
A 2001 review by Zhai and Maibach in Skin Pharmacology and Applied Skin Physiology found that occlusion changes skin hydration, barrier permeability and lipids, and "often, but not always" increases the absorption of applied chemicals. That is the honest version of the claim behind every mask: more contact time can mean more penetration, for ingredients that can penetrate at all.
The limit is size. The rule of thumb most often cited for skin penetration (Bos and Meinardi, Experimental Dermatology, 2000) puts the practical ceiling for passing intact skin at about 500 daltons. PDRN fragments used in trials run from about 50,000 to 1,500,000 daltons, 100 to 3,000 times larger. Occlusion improves the odds for molecules near the limit; it does not open a route for ones hundreds of times over it. Formulators know this, which is why manufacturers publish work on nanosized, liposome-wrapped or "low-molecular-weight" PDRN. None of the four mask pages read states which kind of PDRN it contains.
What has been tested
PDRN face masks: nothing. A PubMed search on 28 October 2026 joining PDRN, polynucleotides or "sodium DNA" with mask, sheet mask, facial mask or hydrogel returned 34 records. Every title was read. None is a trial of a PDRN face mask on intact skin. Most describe hydrogel wound dressings in animals, injectable polynucleotide gels, or delivery chemistry. The nearest record is a 2024 mouse study (Ha and colleagues, Skin Research and Technology) in which a polynucleotide and hyaluronic acid formulation applied to tape-stripped skin reduced water loss at 72 hours; two of its authors were employed by the product's maker, BRPHARM, and the skin had been deliberately damaged first.
Topical PDRN in any format: one randomized human trial found. In July 2026 a Sichuan University group (Ye and colleagues, PLoS One) reported a 28-day, double-blind split-face study comparing a 0.1 percent medium-length PDRN eye cream with 0.1 percent retinol, and found larger improvements in periocular wrinkle and eye-bag measures on the PDRN side. It compared PDRN with another active, not with a plain cream, lasted four weeks, used a specific 850-kilodalton preparation, and lists one author with a company affiliation while declaring no conflicts. Its result cannot be read across to a mask whose PDRN type and amount are not stated.
The injection trials that give PDRN its reputation are summarised on the PDRN page. They test a different route and a known dose.
What can fairly be said
A PDRN mask is a hydrating mask with a small, unstated amount of a very large molecule in it. The four brands read declare Sodium DNA outside the top third of their lists, after preservative-level ingredients in two of them, alongside niacinamide and humectants in much larger amounts. No trial has tested a PDRN mask on intact skin, and the one randomized topical PDRN trial found used a defined cream, not a mask. Anyone choosing between a mask and a clinic PDRN treatment is choosing between two different things that share a word; the clinic route is a medical procedure to discuss with a dermatologist.
Related reading: collagen face masks, peptide eye patches and PDRN creams. For the clinic version applied after needling, see microneedling with PDRN.
Sources
Opened 28 October 2026: brand product pages — medicube.us pdrn-pink-peptide-ampoule-mask and pdrn-pink-tension-up-mask; anua.us pdrn-hyaluronic-acid-capsule-100-serum-mask; skin1004.com poremizing-glow-wrapping-mask-1 (full ingredient lists as published that day). PubMed search (polydeoxyribonucleotide*[tiab] OR PDRN[tiab] OR "sodium DNA"[tiab] OR polynucleotide*[tiab]) AND (mask[tiab] OR masks[tiab] OR "sheet mask"[tiab] OR "facial mask"[tiab] OR hydrogel[tiab]) (34, every title read). Abstracts: Ha YJ et al., Skin Res Technol 2024, PMID 39300806; Ye R et al., PLoS One 2026, PMID 42430369; Zhai H, Maibach HI, Skin Pharmacol Appl Skin Physiol 2001, PMID 11174085; Bos JD, Meinardi MM, Exp Dermatol 2000, PMID 10839713. US labelling rule: 21 CFR 701.3. Corrections go to the contact page.