PDRN 100 Hyaluronic Acid Glow Pad

The K-beauty toner pad has a simple job description: soak a round cotton pad in toner, let the user swipe it across their face, call it a day. It is efficient, hygienic, and travel-friendly. But Anua looked at this established format and decided efficiency was not enough — they wanted each pad to feel like a condensed facial treatment.

The result is a pad with two distinct sides that serve genuinely different purposes. The smooth cotton side works as you would expect from any toner pad: a gentle swipe that picks up residual impurities and delivers the first layer of the essence. Flip it over, though, and the gel side changes the experience entirely. It feels like pressing a thin, cool, serum-soaked compress against your skin — not quite a sheet mask, but something more intentional than a swipe-and-go toner step. This is where the interesting ingredients do their work.

And the ingredient list here is genuinely stacked for a toner pad. Niacinamide sits at fourth position, high enough to suggest a meaningful concentration. Three forms of hyaluronic acid — full molecular weight, hydrolyzed, and sodium hyaluronate — provide that layered hydration approach that has become Anua’s signature across the PDRN line. But it is the peptide payload that elevates this beyond typical toner pad territory. Hexapeptide-11, oligopeptide-1, oligopeptide-2, and oligopeptide-3 create a four-peptide communication network targeting collagen stimulation, cellular renewal, and firming. For a product you swipe on in thirty seconds, that is a remarkably ambitious ingredient lineup.

The PDRN — Sodium DNA derived from salmon — makes its appearance mid-list, accompanied by lecithin which likely serves as a penetration enhancer. There is an interesting synergy here with the adenosine that sits earlier in the formula: since PDRN works partly through adenosine A2A receptor activation, having free adenosine present creates a kind of double-tap on the same signaling pathway. Whether the concentrations in a toner pad are sufficient to produce meaningful clinical effects is debatable, but the formulation logic is sound.

The texture experience is satisfying in a way that feels distinctly Korean in its attention to sensory detail. The smooth side glides without dragging, picking up just enough to feel productive. The gel side deposits a visible layer of essence that absorbs within about thirty seconds, leaving behind a dewy sheen that photographers would recognize as the glass skin look. It is not greasy, it is not sticky, and it layers well under everything from vitamin C serum to sunscreen.

Hydrolyzed collagen appears twice in the formula — both as hydrolyzed collagen and collagen extract — along with the Bacillus/Soybean Ferment Extract that adds a probiotic dimension to the formula. Turmeric root extract, coptis japonica, and the Terminalia ferdinandiana (Kakadu plum, one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C) round out a botanical lineup that leans antioxidant without introducing sensitizing essential oils.

The honest limitations center on economics and format constraints. At $23 for 60 pads, you are paying roughly 38 cents per pad. If you use one pad morning and evening, that is 76 cents a day and the jar lasts exactly one month. Compare that to the Booster Toner from the same line at $21 for 250ml, which lasts two to three months, and the cost-per-use math favors the liquid toner significantly. You are paying a convenience premium for the pad format and the dual-sided design.

The pads themselves, while nicely sized at 7cm, require two pads per session if you want full face and neck coverage. One pad covers about two-thirds of the face comfortably. This is standard for K-beauty toner pads but worth noting for anyone who assumes one pad means one complete application.

For oily skin types, the gel side may deposit more moisture than desired, particularly in humid conditions. The formula is clearly calibrated for dry-to-normal skin seeking maximum hydration, with the niacinamide providing just enough oil-control crossover for combination types.

The format does have genuine advantages beyond convenience. The physical wiping action of the smooth side provides very mild exfoliation that accumulates over daily use, helping to smooth texture without any chemical exfoliating acids. The gel side’s sustained contact ensures better ingredient delivery than a quickly-absorbed liquid toner. And for skincare minimalists or travelers, a single jar replaces both toner and a stack of sheet masks.

Anua has created something that occupies a genuinely useful niche: more than a toner pad, less than a sheet mask, and loaded with ingredients that justify taking the format seriously. Whether the convenience premium is worth it depends on how you value your time versus your per-use costs. For the person who wants PDRN, peptides, and glass skin in under a minute, this is one of the most efficient delivery systems available.

Formula