How to Use Korean Toner Pads: Textured Side First

"How to use Korean toner pads" gets typed into search bars constantly, and the honest answer changes depending on which pad is in your hand. Some have a raised side and a smooth side. One popular bestseller doesn't have a textured side at all. A few are quietly delivering a real acid while they're at it.

Written for: anyone who just added a two-sided cotton pad to their routine and isn't sure which side goes where, or whether "safe for daily use" on the label applies to every pad in this category. Checked September 10, 2026.

Opening card: How to Use Korean Toner Pads — Textured side first, smooth side second, except one popular pad has no texture at all

The Embossed Side Buffs, the Smooth Side Finishes

Anua's Heartleaf 77 Toner Pad and Round Lab's Birch Juice Cleansing Pad both use the same two-sided disc, and both brands give near-identical directions for it. Anua's own product page says to "swipe embossed side across face avoiding eyes and lips," then "flip to smooth side and press onto skin as a hydrating mini face mask." Round Lab's listing for the Cleansing Pad puts it almost the same way: wipe with "the embossed side, and finish off with the soft side."

A cotton pad's raised honeycomb texture on one side, the same kind of embossed pattern used on two-sided toner pads — Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels

The raised honeycomb pattern is doing light mechanical buffing, sweeping off the flaky top layer and leftover sunscreen or makeup. The smooth side afterward isn't a second cleanse. It's a calming pass, pressed rather than wiped, meant to leave hydrating ingredients sitting on the skin instead of rubbing them off again.

Anua's own ingredient list backs up why they call this safe for twice-daily use: Houttuynia Cordata (heartleaf) Extract makes up 77% of the formula, and the rest is soothing extras like centella and madecassoside. There's no acid doing the exfoliating here. The texture is.

Some By Mi's Pad Is Delivering an Acid, Too

Some By Mi's AHA-BHA-PHA 30 Days Miracle Truecica Clear Pad looks like the same idea: an embossed side and a soft side, same wipe-then-flip motion. Soko Glam's listing for it instructs you to wipe "the T-zone and areas where dead skin cells typically accumulate" with one side, then "flip the pad to the soft side, and gently wipe the entire face."

Where this one splits from Anua's is what's soaked into the pad. The ingredient breakdown on IncideDecoder lists Salix Alba (Willow) Bark Water at 85% as the base, and Betaine Salicylate at 0.5% further down — willow bark is a natural source of salicin, chemically related to salicylic acid, and betaine salicylate is a formulated BHA in its own right. That 0.5% sits well under the 2% ceiling allowed in over-the-counter BHA products, but it's still real chemistry, not cosmetic buffing. The embossed side here is delivering an acid onto skin you're also physically buffing in the same swipe.

Quote card: dermatologist Ranella Hirsch on exfoliating toner frequency — "As a general rule of thumb, less than you think, and less than most labels say."

Some By Mi's own liquid toner version of this formula tells you to use it every cleanse: "After cleansing, soak a cotton pad with the toner and gently wipe over your skin." Board-certified dermatologist Ranella Hirsch, interviewed by The Zoe Report, draws a more conservative line on exfoliating toners generally: "As a general rule of thumb, less than you think, and less than most labels say." The same piece breaks frequency down by skin type — oily skin one to three times a week, normal skin once or twice, dry or sensitive skin once a week or every other week — and cosmetic biochemist Krupa Koestline adds the specific risk: daily use of a highly acidic AHA toner "can cause damage to the skin's microbiome, disrupt your natural skin barrier, and make your skin dry and dehydrated."

I'd start this pad at three nights a week and watch for tightness before pushing higher, whatever the box says.

Round Lab's Bigger Seller Has No Textured Side At All

Round Lab makes two different birch pads, though, and only one of them has the embossed-and-smooth design above. The Cleansing Pad does. The Birch Juice Moisturizing Pad, the more widely stocked of the two and the one most reviews mean when they just say "Round Lab pad," doesn't.

Ulta's product listing describes it as a "thin yet highly absorbent 3-layer sheet," and the directions match: "gently wipe the entire face along the skin texture, avoiding the eye area. Alternatively, leave the pad on areas that need soothing for 3-5 minutes for targeted, intensive care." One side, one motion, no flip. It's a moisture-delivery sheet built around Aquaxyl (a patented xylitol-and-glucose blend from birch and beech), not an exfoliating tool at all.

A hand holding round white cotton skincare pads over a small dish, the everyday format toner pads come in — Photo by Sarah Chai on Pexels

Same brand, same "birch juice" name on both boxes, and two products that do genuinely different jobs. If you bought the Moisturizing Pad expecting the buffing side the Anua and Some By Mi pads trained you to look for, you'll spend a while running your thumb over a perfectly flat sheet wondering if you got a bad batch.

What Three Pads Cost Per Use

Checked September 10, 2026. Anua's Heartleaf pad runs $23.00 for 70 pads at the brand's US site, about 33 cents a swipe. Round Lab's Moisturizing Pad is $28.00 for 80 at Ulta, 35 cents a use. Some By Mi's Truecica Clear Pad is $24.31 for 70 at Soko Glam, also 35 cents, though its own European shop prices the same 70-count tub at €19.50 — about $22.70 at the EUR/USD rate on September 10, 2026, roughly $1.60 less than the US listing for the identical pad.

None of these are expensive on a per-use basis. Where the money goes is frequency: an Anua pad used nightly lasts about ten weeks, and a Some By Mi pad used three times a week (the pace I'd recommend) stretches past five months. Run through the acid pad like the mild one and you're just replacing it twice as often as your skin can handle anyway.

Check the ingredient list before you buy, not the brand name on the front. "Textured side" can mean gentle buffing, a real BHA, or nothing at all, and only one of those needs you to slow down. Which one's sitting in your bathroom right now?

This is a running news series, not a one-off post — new stories go up twice a day, roughly 7am and 7pm Korea time.

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