Original research

How Much PDRN Is in PDRN Skincare? We Checked 50 Labels

By PDRN Guide Editorial Team · published · data last verified · download the data (CSV)

"PDRN" and "salmon DNA" are on the front of a fast-growing number of skincare products. Almost none of them say how much is inside. So we went to the one place a brand has to be accurate: the ingredient list. We pulled the full list for 50 PDRN products from 22 brands from live brand and retailer pages, confirmed most of them against a second source, and recorded where the DNA sits and what the label discloses.

Key findings

  • 14 of 49 products with a DNA ingredient print the dose on a label. Those doses span roughly a million-fold range, from 10,320ppm down to 10ppb.
  • 7 of those 14 disclose less than 100 ppm (0.01%).
  • 7 products market an ingredient that isn't DNA as their "PDRN", and 1 contains no DNA ingredient at all.
  • 6 products list their DNA as the very last ingredient. Only 7 of 49 place it in the top ten.
  • 4 products advertise a purity figure ("99% pure", "100% pure") that describes the raw material, not how much is in the bottle.

1. Where brands disclose a dose, it ranges from about 1% to parts per billion

Some Korean labels print the concentration of an ingredient next to its name, and a few brands state a figure on their product pages. Where the label itself gives a number for the DNA, here's what it says:

10 ppb 100 ppb 1 ppm 10 ppm 100 ppm 1k ppm 10k ppm TOSOWOONG Pink Peptide 12 PDRN Serum 10,320ppm Genabelle PDRN Enriched Recovery Balm 5,000ppm TOSOWOONG Pink PDRN Niacinamide Milky To… 5,000ppm medicube PDRN Pink Peptide Eye Cream (so… 3,000ppm medicube PDRN Pink Cica Soothing Toner (… 1,000ppm medicube PDRN Pink Collagen Capsule Cream 200ppm medicube PDRN Pink Caffeine Overnight Wr… 115ppm medicube PDRN Pink Collagen Exosome Shot… 10ppm medicube Salmon PDRN Pink Collagen Jelly… 3ppm medicube PDRN Pink Collagen Jelly Toner … 1ppm medicube PDRN Pink Niacinamide Milky Toner 1ppm MEDIHEAL PDRN Lifting Toner Pads 100ppb VT Cosmetics PDRN Reedle Shot 100 0.05ppm medicube PDRN Pink Caffeine Collagen Eye… 10ppb
Label-disclosed DNA concentration, logarithmic scale: each gridline is ten times the one to its left. Source: brand labels and product pages, linked from each product's page in our database.

At the top, TOSOWOONG Pink Peptide 12 PDRN Serum discloses 10,320ppm, about 1%. At the bottom, medicube PDRN Pink Caffeine Collagen Eye Patch discloses 10ppb, which is 0.000001%. Several products from the same brand sit at opposite ends of the chart, so the brand name tells you little. The individual label does.

2. Some "PDRN" isn't DNA at all

PDRN stands for polydeoxyribonucleotide: DNA fragments, traditionally purified from salmon or trout sperm. On 7 labels, the ingredient sold as "PDRN" is something else:

VT's "100,000 ppm PDRN" is the clearest example. 100,000 ppm is 10%, which fits the ginseng extract VT sells as "PHYTO PDRN" (listed third in its PDRN Essence 100), not the Sodium DNA listed last. VT prints the DNA dose on a sister product: 0.05 ppm. Plant-derived DNA is a separate case. Brands such as The INKEY List and Beauty of Joseon use Sodium DNA or Hydrolyzed DNA from plants, and we count that as DNA.

3. Position tells you more than the marketing does

Most labels don't state a dose, but ingredient order still carries information. Ingredients above 1% must be listed in descending order. Across the 49 products with a DNA ingredient, the median sits about halfway down the list, and 24 are in the bottom half. 6 list it dead last:

At the other end, only 7 products place DNA in their top ten ingredients:

Where a formula contains a preservative that is legally capped at 1% or less, anything listed after it must also be at 1% or less. That's how we know, for example, that the DNA in The INKEY List PDRN Serum is at 1% or less, even though the brand advertises "20,000 PPM (2%)". That figure most plausibly describes the diluted raw material rather than the DNA itself. In total, the label proves the DNA is at 1% or less for 15 of 49 products.

4. "99% pure" is not "99% of the bottle"

Purity figures are the most misread numbers on PDRN packaging. "99% pure salmon DNA" describes the raw material before it's diluted into the formula. It says nothing about how much ends up in the product:

What this does and doesn't mean

A small amount of PDRN isn't proof that a product doesn't work, and a large amount isn't proof that it does. PDRN is a large molecule that penetrates intact skin poorly. Most of the human evidence for it comes from injections, not creams (see topical vs injected PDRN). Many of these products are well-made hydrating formulas whose benefits come from glycerin, niacinamide or hyaluronic acid.

What the labels do show is that "PDRN" on the front of a box tells you almost nothing about what's inside. The same word covers a disclosed 1% of salmon DNA, a trace measured in parts per billion, a ginseng extract and a lactobacillus ferment. If PDRN is the reason you're buying, read the ingredient list, or look the product up in our PDRN product database.

Method

We collected ingredient lists from brand pages first, then INCIDecoder, Olive Young, Sephora, Ulta, YesStyle and Amazon, and confirmed 45 of 50 lists against at least two independent sources. Where sources disagreed, usually after a reformulation, we used the brand's current list and note the disagreement on the product's page. Label-disclosed doses come from the ingredient list itself or the brand's label, never from marketing copy alone. The full method, the sources for every product, and the data are on the database page. We have not tested these products on skin, and this isn't medical advice.

Using this research

You're welcome to cite or reuse these findings and the data with a link to this page. Suggested citation:

PDRN Guide. "How Much PDRN Is in PDRN Skincare? We Checked 50 Labels." Published . https://www.pdrnguide.com/research/pdrn-label-study/

Found a label that has changed, or a product we should add? Email editorial@pdrnguide.com. Product links on our database pages go to Amazon, where we earn a commission on purchases. That never decides what we report.