A sheet mask run with us starts at around 10,000 sheets. Packed ten to a box, that is 1,000 boxes. Take the same enquiry elsewhere and the number that comes back is usually several times higher — often high enough that a brand testing a new market quietly drops the idea.
That gap is the reason this article exists. It is not a promotional discount and it is not a starter package with conditions attached. It comes from how we buy.
Why our minimum sits where it does
We run a lot of volume through a small number of Korean plants, and we negotiate it as one book of business rather than as separate projects. A factory quoting a single brand for a single launch is pricing an interruption to its schedule. The same factory, quoting a partner who brings it continuous work across many brands, is pricing a slot it already planned to fill.
There is also a reason the number is high to begin with. Stopping a line, cleaning it, reconfiguring it for your container and priming it takes about the same time whether the run that follows is short or long. On a short run that fixed time lands on every unit, so a factory answering a one-off enquiry quotes the point where starting the line begins to pay for itself. It is one of the stacked minimums behind any quoted figure, and it is the one that consolidation moves.
We hold that position with plants operating at the largest scale in Korea for this format, and the relationship is close enough that our projects are scheduled rather than squeezed in. Your first order is small. The book it sits inside is not, and that is what the factory is actually responding to.
This is the part most brands never see. The minimum you are quoted has less to do with what your product costs to make than with who is asking.
What 1,000 boxes is actually for
Testing a market you are not yet certain about.
Most first products are wrong somewhere. The scent is close but not right, the claim lands with a different segment than you planned, the price sits one tier off. You find this out by selling, and you cannot sell what you did not make. A market study will not tell you either — it collects opinions, not purchases.
At 1,000 boxes you can seed a launch, supply a retailer trial, send stock to the reviewers who will decide your second order, and still have product on hand while you read the response. If it works, you reorder with real numbers behind the decision. If it doesn't, you have changed direction having spent roughly what proper research would have cost, and you are holding sales data instead of survey answers.
That is why we recommend masks and pads for a first product more often than anything else.
How many sheets go in a box
Ten is the count most brands land on, and it is the one the arithmetic above assumes. It is not the only option, and the choice does more work than it looks like it does.
A smaller pack — five sheets, or a single mask sold at the till — puts a lower price in front of a customer who has not bought from you before, and it turns 10,000 sheets into more units to sell. A larger pack of twenty or thirty reads as a routine purchase rather than a treat, moves more volume per transaction, and suits a customer who already knows the product. The same production run can be packed either way.
What decides it is usually the channel. A retailer trial and a direct-to-consumer launch reward different pack sizes, and the honest answer for a first order is often to pack two of them from one run rather than commit everything to a single format. Tell us where you plan to sell before the carton is designed, not after.
Three formats, one shopper
Sheet masks — a non-woven carrier soaked in essence, sealed in a sachet. Sold as a ritual: single use, with an occasion attached to it.
Mask pads — stacked discs in a jar, dosed with essence, applied to a zone rather than the whole face. A targeted step for customers who have moved past the ritual.
Toner pads — the same physical format doing a different job, replacing the toner-and-cotton step. The category grew by removing a step from the routine, not by adding an ingredient to the shelf.
Reorder rhythm differs too. A sheet mask is used on chosen occasions, so consumption is intermittent and volume comes from gift sets and single-unit sales. Pads are daily, so a 60- or 100-count jar empties in a month or two and the reorder comes round faster. Toner pads sit at the fast end of that, because customers often use two or three at a time.
That difference outlives your first order. Fast turnover clears stock but demands the next production run sooner; slow turnover does the opposite. Plan how you want to run after the launch, not only up to it.
All three reach a similar buyer. What differs is the cost driver: sheet count governs masks, the jar governs pads. What each format needs from a line is set out on our sheet mask manufacturing page and across the mask and pad category. If you are choosing between them on budget, that difference outweighs the formula.
Starting from a proven base is the fast route
The lines we work with hold a range of fill formulas already developed and already tested for these formats — hydrating, soothing, brightening, barrier repair, and the actives that belong with each. You can select one, adjust what your positioning needs, and go to production without running a development programme from a blank page.
Nothing else on the list moves the calendar as much. Developing an essence from zero means concept, formulation rounds, revisions, and testing after each of them. Starting from a base that exists and already carries stability data leaves you with fit, scent, claim and artwork — real decisions, but far fewer, and none that hold the schedule for months.
You are not locked into it. If your product needs a formula nobody else can sell, we develop from a brief and the timeline extends accordingly. But when the question you are trying to answer is does this sell, a proven base answers it just as well and answers it sooner.
The decisions that are still yours
A low minimum does not make the product simple.
Fabric, for masks. Weight and fibre change how a mask sits on a face and how much essence it holds. A mask that lifts at the jaw fails regardless of what is in the essence. The trade-offs are set out in what decides the fabric and the essence.
Dosing and the liner, for pads. Too much essence and the stack sits in a puddle; too little and the last pad in the jar is dry. The liner keeps the top pads from drying out once the jar is open, and it is the component most often cut from a first order by someone who has never opened the finished product in a hot bathroom.
Testing, for both. Stability and preservative-efficacy testing are fixed costs per formula, so on 1,000 boxes they look expensive as a share of the total. Skipping them is how a product separates in a warehouse in July. A proven base helps here too — it arrives with a testing history, so what you are validating is your variation rather than an unknown.
Working with us
We match each project to the line that suits it, hold the specification, and manage the work through to delivered stock. For a mask or pad project that means three things in practice.
We tell you what your real first order will be before you commit to design — the same low-minimum work we do outside this category. We show you which existing bases are closest to what you described, so you can see the shortcut before you decide whether to take it. And we bring testing forward so it never becomes the reason your launch date moves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum order for a sheet mask?
With us, around 10,000 sheets — 1,000 boxes at ten sheets per box. Quotes elsewhere in this category are typically several times that. Ask us about your specific product rather than planning against a general figure, because format and packaging move the number.
Why is your minimum lower than what other suppliers quote?
Because we consolidate. We bring continuous volume to a small number of plants and negotiate across all of it, so a factory is not pricing your launch in isolation. Combine that with a close working relationship at plants running at the largest scale in Korea for this format, and a first order that would be awkward for a single brand becomes routine.
Can we start from an existing formula instead of developing one?
Yes, and for a first product it is usually the better decision. The lines we work with hold proven fill formulas across the main mask and pad positions. Select, adjust, produce — months come out of the schedule and most of the development risk comes out with them.
Is a toner pad cheaper to start than a sheet mask?
Not automatically. Pads are governed by the jar rather than by sheet count, and a custom jar carries tooling that a stock jar does not. A stock jar with strong decoration is usually the lowest entry point in the pad format.
Can one order cover more than one product?
Often, yes, and it is worth raising early. Where formats and components allow it, work can be arranged so a first order covers more than a single item without multiplying what you commit to. Tell us what you are considering and we will show you how it consolidates.
How long does a mask or pad project take?
Starting from a proven base, plan on a season rather than a year. Fit and scent trials, stability and preservative-efficacy testing, packaging lead time and print overlap only partially, and the testing weeks are real calendar time that paying more does not compress.