Antioxidant activity of hydrogen water mask pack composed of gel-type emulsion and hydrogen generation powder
Kwon HJ, Han SB, Park KW. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2020;21(24):9731.
Study at a glance
Human
Twenty volunteers who passed a 24-hour patch safety screen; the full text does not report age or sex distribution.
A gel mask containing 20% H₂-generation powder was mixed immediately before use and applied each morning for four weeks. · Bench testing of 0.1 g powder in 100 mL water found preparation-dependent peaks up to 0.551 ppm H₂ after three hours. The H₂ concentration or release dose of the actual facial mask was not measured or reported.
Daily morning use for four weeks, assessed at baseline, two weeks and four weeks.
At four weeks the H₂-mask side increased moisture by 34.63%, reduced sebum by 24.06% and increased skin density by 18.41%; corresponding reported comparator changes were 16.51%, a 9.55% sebum reduction and 9.93% greater density. The paper reports P<0.01 for selected within- and between-condition comparisons but does not provide a complete endpoint-level numerical table.
Small short cosmetic study, demographic details absent, unclear randomization/blinding, products with different ingredient mixtures, actual facial H₂ exposure unmeasured and mechanistic claims not directly tested. Korean public research grants funded the work; authors declared no conflict.
What kind of evidence is this?
Human
Four-week within-person split-face cosmetic comparison plus laboratory powder-characterization experiments
Skin, wound and aging research
Other forms
Information not yet classified
Some editorial classification fields are still pending. The source-reported outcomes and result are shown below; Hydrogenology does not infer a positive or negative signal from prose automatically.
Methods
Twenty volunteers who passed a 24-hour patch safety screen; the full text does not report age or sex distribution.
Twenty participants applied the H₂-generating pack and a commercial comparison pack to opposite sides of the face.
Daily morning use for four weeks, assessed at baseline, two weeks and four weeks.
A gel mask containing 20% H₂-generation powder was mixed immediately before use and applied each morning for four weeks.
Locally generated H₂ in a topical gel mask — not Brown's gas, not inhaled and not H₂-rich drinking water.
Bench testing of 0.1 g powder in 100 mL water found preparation-dependent peaks up to 0.551 ppm H₂ after three hours. The H₂ concentration or release dose of the actual facial mask was not measured or reported.
A commercial mask applied to the opposite side of each participant's face; products differed in multiple ingredients and allocation/blinding were not described.
Outcomes and reported result
Facial moisture, sebum and ultrasound-derived skin density; pre-use irritation and microbiological/heavy-metal checks were also described.
At four weeks the H₂-mask side increased moisture by 34.63%, reduced sebum by 24.06% and increased skin density by 18.41%; corresponding reported comparator changes were 16.51%, a 9.55% sebum reduction and 9.93% greater density. The paper reports P<0.01 for selected within- and between-condition comparisons but does not provide a complete endpoint-level numerical table.
The complete free PMC article, figures, methods and disclosures were checked for participant number, split-face exposure, formulation, absence of applied H₂ dose, comparator composition, reported outcomes, funding and conflicts.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit.
Limitations and applicability
Small short cosmetic study, demographic details absent, unclear randomization/blinding, products with different ingredient mixtures, actual facial H₂ exposure unmeasured and mechanistic claims not directly tested. Korean public research grants funded the work; authors declared no conflict.
Short-term biophysical skin measurements in screened volunteers; it does not establish treatment of skin disease or isolate H₂ from the rest of the formulation.
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Read how records and evidence assessments are prepared.
Sources and record status
PMID: 33419292 · DOI: 10.3390/ijms21249731
Free full article in PubMed Central.
Complete PMC article and PubMed metadata; full-text extraction checked 9 August 2026.
10 August 2026
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