Site-wide label analysis

What is actually in Medicube products

By the Medicube Picks editorial team · ingredient lists read 2 August 2026 to 6 August 2026 · how we work

Short answer

We read the published ingredient list for 67 Medicube products and counted what is in them. 21 list fragrance and 46 do not. 39 contain an animal-derived ingredient, which is why Medicube is not a vegan brand: PDRN is salmon DNA and collagen is animal collagen, so two of the biggest ranges are animal-derived by definition. 41 products carry no fragrance, no fragrance allergen the EU asks to be named, and no drying alcohol.

Medicube publishes full ingredient lists, but one product at a time. Read together they answer questions the marketing does not: how much of the range is scented, what makes it non-vegan, and which products contain nothing a reactive skin usually needs to avoid.

67products with a readable list

21list fragrance or parfum (31%)

39contain an animal-derived ingredient

41no fragrance, no labelled allergen, no drying alcohol

Is Medicube vegan? No, and the reason is the flagship ingredient

This one has a clear answer. PDRN is polydeoxyribonucleotide taken from salmon, and Medicube says so itself: it is the selling point of the whole PDRN range. On the label it appears as Sodium DNA. Collagen is animal collagen. Between them they account for most of the 39 products where we found an animal-derived ingredient.

Animal-derived ingredient	Products it appears in
collagen	32 of 67
salmon DNA (the PDRN itself)	24 of 67
salmon egg extract	7 of 67
elastin	7 of 67
milk protein	3 of 67
pearl	2 of 67
beeswax	1 of 67
salmon milt extract	1 of 67
keratin	1 of 67

Read from the published lists. Synthetic beeswax is not counted here: it is made in a factory, not by bees, and counting it would have made this table wrong.

The 28 products where we found no animal-derived ingredient

These are the ones to look at if you avoid animal ingredients. Read this as "nothing animal-derived that we could identify on the list", not as certified vegan. A list says nothing about testing policy or where a supplier sourced an ingredient.

Fragrance: 21 of 67 lists have it

Fragrance is a single INCI name that stands for an undisclosed blend, so a product that lists it may contain dozens of scent components that are never named. The EU asks for a specific set of fragrance allergens to be named separately once they pass a threshold, and those we can count.

Named fragrance allergen	Products
Limonene	5
Linalool	3
Geraniol	2
Hydroxycitronellal	2
Citral	2
Benzyl Alcohol	2
Benzyl Salicylate	1
Hexyl Cinnamal	1
Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone	1
Citronellol	1
Benzyl Benzoate	1

6 of the 67 products name at least one of these. A product with fragrance but no named allergen is not allergen-free; it means nothing crossed the threshold that requires naming.

Drying alcohol, and why the position matters more than the presence

Alcohol denat and SD alcohol are the drying kinds, unlike the fatty alcohols such as cetearyl alcohol, which are emollients and do the opposite job. Only 4 of the 67 lists we read include one, and where it sits changes what it means: near the top there is a lot of it, near the bottom it is usually carrying an extract.

Product	Position in its own list	Reading
medicube Scalp Serum with Rosemary PDRN	2 of 90	High: a real amount
medicube Body Peel Shot with Hypochlorous Acid	2 of 35	High: a real amount
medicube Red Serum 2.0	5 of 62	High: a real amount
medicube Triple Collagen Serum 1.85 fl.oz - Nourish dull	7 of 43	Upper third

The 41 products with none of the three

No fragrance, none of the fragrance allergens the EU asks to be named, no drying alcohol. That is a narrow, checkable claim rather than a promise about how your skin will react, and it is the most useful starting shortlist we can build from labels alone.

Medicube for sensitive skin →

About "toxicity ratings"

People search for a Medicube toxicity or hazard score. There is not one, and we are not going to publish a number we cannot stand behind. Scores of that kind rate an ingredient by its name rather than by how much of it is in the bottle, and a cosmetic ingredient list does not carry concentrations. What a label genuinely supports is the counting on this page: whether fragrance is declared, whether named allergens appear, and where drying alcohol sits.

The other honest limit is the list itself. Order means descending concentration only down to about 1%, after which the manufacturer chooses the order. So we say "third of forty", never "3%".

Frequently asked questions

Is Medicube vegan?

No, not as a brand. We found an animal-derived ingredient in 39 of the 67 lists we could read. The two biggest reasons are collagen and the PDRN itself: PDRN is salmon DNA, so the whole PDRN range is animal-derived by definition. 28 of the products we read contained no animal-derived ingredient that we could identify, and those are listed on this page. That is not the same as certified vegan: a list does not tell you about testing policy or supply chain.

Is Medicube fragrance-free?

Some of it. 46 of the 67 lists we read do not include fragrance or parfum; the other 21 do. Fragrance is a single INCI name that covers an undisclosed blend, so a product listing it may contain scent components that are never named individually.

Does Medicube use drying alcohol?

Rarely. 4 of the 67 lists we read include alcohol denat or SD alcohol, and where it sits matters more than whether it is there. The positions run from 2 of 90 to 7 of 43. High in the list means a lot of it; far down means a trace, often as a solvent for an extract.

What is Medicube’s toxicity rating?

There is no such score, and we will not invent one. Hazard scores rate an ingredient by name rather than by how much of it is in the product, and skin safety depends on concentration, formulation and how a product is used. What can honestly be counted from a label is what this page counts: whether fragrance is listed, whether the fragrance allergens the EU asks to be named separately appear, and where drying alcohol sits.

Which Medicube products suit reactive skin?

On the label evidence alone, the 41 products with no fragrance, no labelled fragrance allergen and no drying alcohol are the safest starting point. That is a narrower claim than "gentle": it means nothing in the list is a common avoidable irritant, not that the product will suit you. Patch test either way.

Where do the ingredient lists come from?

The manufacturer publishes most of them on its own product pages; a few come from the Amazon listing instead. We have not verified any of them against the physical pack, and formulas change without announcement, so the read date on each product page is part of the claim.

We have not tested these products. Everything here is read from the listings, the published ingredient lists and what buyers report, not from hands-on use. Everything above is counted from published ingredient lists. What that means.

Where these counts come from

Ingredient lists for 67 products read from the manufacturer product pages, with a few from the Amazon listing where the brand page did not carry one, read on 2 August 2026 to 6 August 2026.
Fragrance allergen list the fragrance allergens the EU Cosmetics Regulation requires to be named separately on the label.
Position in the list counted from each published list; INCI order implies descending concentration only above 1%.

That PDRN is derived from salmon is Medicube's own claim, made on its product pages.