The Under-Eye Mask Phenomenon: A Deeper Look

The beauty world, the internet, and I have spent a week asking who copied whose sliced hydrogel eye patches. The truth? Nobody copied a formula. They all got the same new kitchen gadget under the false pretense of exclusivity, poured different juices into it, and sprinted to be the first to launch.

Last Thursday, Fenty Skin teased the Dew N Plump Fresh-Sliced Hydrogel Eye Patches: an air-tight tube, one twist, one sad little slice of jelly, “the first of its kind,” coming soon. Then the Glow Recipe Exopeptide Caffeine Brightening and Depuffing Fresh Slices appeared in the identical cylinder. Then Huda Beauty’s first real skincare swing, Undereye Jelly Patches, same slot, same slice, same “how did we all show up in the same dress?” energy. Then Vitamasques—yes, the sheet-mask people—started teasing a scrape pack they say they have been producing since last November.

By the time the Spider-Man meme went viral on Instagram thanks to Fenty Skin, it became clear something suspect was going on behind the scenes. The real story: Seoul had already been selling the same packaging since July. Wonder Bath’s Slice Serum (pore, spots, lift; 60 sheets) has been on wonderbath.com the whole time for $29. The brand is still South Korea only, with a U.S. launch date that is “soon” in the way landlords say “the super is coming.” Fenty’s rumored price tag was in the low $40s. Same deli slicer. Different turkey.

Huda Kattan bluntly weighed in on eyepatch-gate on Instagram: “I think it’s pretty obvious that we all got screwed over by the same packaging supplier. Formulas are different, but we were lied to on exclusivity with the packaging supplier. Pretty crazy.” Glow Recipe has been insisting the gels are not twins and that the pack is only part of the equation. Wonder Bath, the true original, left a note on social: there is room for everyone.

How Does the Eyepatch Slicer Work?

Stop picturing a stack of eye patches drowning in goo. Think of the new design like a cake tin with a horizontal knife. Yesterday, Glow Recipe posted a video to their Instagram lifting the curtain on how the physics of the slicer work, as the pack moved down a lab supply line pouring pink formula into branded components.

What Supplier Sold Everyone the Same Packaging?

Obviously there’s a mystery packaging manufacturer that everyone used, but no one will reveal. Is it because brands don't want more of the same flooding the market? Or is it an issue of learning how much packaging really costs versus retail? A source close to LVMH exclusively told Marie Claire, "It's not a custom Fenty mold. If it were, LVMH/Kendo would never allow it on the open catalog." That led to an in-depth search to find the packager.

The closest public match for the hardware is not a mystery contract manufacturing organization (CMO) in Guangzhou. It is a stock component on a packaging marketplace: Samhwa 100ml PP Fresh-Slice Hydrogel Eye Patch Dispenser (SEP-F100M-01-A-IP), molded in Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do. One rotation shears one patch. The chamber holds 60 to 70 slices. Samhwa Co., Ltd. — 삼화, Uiwang-si, one of Korea’s big-three packagers, is primarily backed by private equity firm KKR as of last fall. Based on publicly available bill of lading information, the manufacturer has shipped the slicer to Maybelline, YSL, Innisfree, Dr. Jart+, L’Oréal, and a “+5” other brands that should make every beauty director sweat. Wonder Bath’s people, who I spent the wee hours of the morning on the phone with, have described Samhwa as a packaging house shopping the design, which is how four (now five) pipelines fill at once.

The packaging photos show liquid hydrogel pouring into a figure-eight well—the same as Glow Recipe's recent video. That well is the negative of two under-eye crescents spooning. The gel sets in the jar, and a blade in the lid advances the loaf a few millimeters, shearing a kidney-shaped slice through a slot. The catalog copy is already the launch caption: “Fresh slice hydrogel eye patch grinder, fully sealed, zero contact.” MOQ (minimum order quantity) 5,000, about six weeks. Inpackedpackaging.com has not yet revealed our request for Samhwa's price per unit based on their MOQ.

Can All These Sliced Eyepatch Formulas Be Different?

Samhwa sells empty genius. They do not mix your niacinamide. Whoever fills the well—a CMO, an in-house kitchen, a lab that also does sheet masks—pours their own mixture into the same cake tin.

That is why Glow can load exopeptide and caffeine, Fenty can do niacinamide plus Kalahari melon and star fruit, Huda can do whatever jelly she is calling a first skincare act, Wonder Bath can split the SKU into pore / spot / lift, and Vitamasques can keep the caffeine-and-collagen house style they already sell in foil packets. The polymer backbone is usually some wet cocktail of glycerin, gums, hyaluronic acid, water, and a gelling agent that sets sliceable. The brand story lives in the pour: caffeine for the “I have a podcast” crowd, fruit juices for the Fenty crowd, PDRN or peptides if you need to spice up a press release. Different recipes. Same loaf pan. You can taste the difference and still be watching the same cooking show.

Who Really Had the Eyepatch Exclusive?

Wonder Bath had the packaging to themselves from July into September 2026. They are still Korea-only. A packager can sell a quiet window—ie. don’t shop this SKU to the big U.S. accounts until Q3—without that window being a patent. Vitamasques saying they have been making a scrape pack since November 2025 is a big tell: the tool was already in circulation while prestige brands were still under the impression that their launches would be the “first of its kind” in fall 2026.

Are More Eyepatches In the Pipeline?

If Impacked’s “brands shipped to” line is even half right, scrape-and-slice packs will not stay a four-hand pileup. They will become the cushion compact of 2027: a stock mechanism every prestige line feels obligated to “interpret.” Expect Maybelline and L’Oréal mass versions that cost $16 and look like the same turkey. Expect YSL to do it in a heavier, gorgeous cap and call it a ritual. Expect Innisfree and Dr. Jart+ to act like they invented hygiene. Expect a dozen indie brands to buy the 5,000-unit MOQ, wait six weeks, and start rolling out marketing materials.

What we’ve seen over the past week is the premiere of a factory loaf—with different toppings. Fenty’s teaser, Glow’s influencer barrage, Vitamasque’s cheeky teaser, and Huda’s creator video all marketed the same shiny new design entering the American retail space. But let it be known: Wonder Bath was first.

The Eyepatch-Gate Takeaway

The consumer is not crazy for feeling punked, but the gels can still work. The hydrogel can still depuff a red eye. The honesty problem is upstream: marketing a purchase-order window as an invention. If you want the original, wait for Wonder Bath to clear customs or buy from the Korean site and accept the shipping. If you want the American cut, just be well aware of what you’re holding—a Korean packager’s aspic, portioned on demand, dressed for multiple different parties.

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