A printed PET / AL / LDPE foil sheet-mask pouch (about 4 × 10 cm) carries an industry floor of around 100,000 pieces per design at large converters and around 30,000 at smaller ones, because rotogravure cylinders cost RMB 850–1,500 (≈USD 120–210) per colour and the line runs at a speed that makes a short run uneconomic. The cycle is 15–20 days including plate making with ±10% over- or under-run. To get to 30,000 or below: use a smaller converter, share one structure and cylinder set across designs, buy printed roll film from about 100 kg (≈RMB 45/kg) for a form-fill-seal line, or put a pressure-sensitive label on a plain stock pouch from about 500.
What the pouch is
A sheet-mask pouch is a three-side-seal sachet, typically 100–160 mm long, holding a folded mask (about 4 × 10 cm folded) and 20–30 ml of serum, with a tear notch. The standard structure is a pure-foil laminate, PET / AL / LDPE: a printable PET face, an aluminium foil barrier, and a PE sealant that meets the serum. It is printed by rotogravure on the PET face, laminated, slit and converted. The barrier is the point — on foil structures oxygen and moisture transmission are held at ≤0.1 per m² per 24 h, which is what keeps a water-based serum with actives from oxidising for two years.
A metallised alternative, PET / VMPET / PE, uses vacuum-deposited aluminium on a film instead of foil. It costs about 30% less per unit than pure foil and gives a good but lower barrier (pinholes matter). The barrier comparison is on foil vs clear laminate for a sheet mask pouch; the structures table is on flexible packaging and pouches.
Why 100,000: the cylinder and the line speed
Rotogravure prints from engraved chrome cylinders, one per colour. Each cylinder costs RMB 850–1,500 (≈USD 120–210) — electro-engraved or conventional — so a six-colour design is RMB 5,000–9,000 before a single pouch is made. Text-only artwork can use cheaper line plates. The cylinders are then mounted on a wide-web press that laminates and slits at speed, and a run that stops after a few thousand metres spends more time in make-ready than in printing. Large converters therefore set a floor of about 100,000 pieces per design for a 4 × 10 cm pouch; smaller plants, with narrower presses and lower overheads, set it at about 30,000. Both quote 15–20 days including plate making and a ±10% over- or under-run that is normal for an extruded and printed product — agree in writing who pays for the surplus.
| Route | Realistic minimum | Set-up cost | Factory-gate lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printed foil pouch, 4 × 10 cm, large converter | Around 100,000 pieces per design | Gravure cylinders RMB 850–1,500 (≈USD 120–210) per colour; text-only can use line plates | 15–20 days including plate making; ±10% over/under is normal |
| Printed foil pouch, smaller converter | Around 30,000 pieces per design | Same cylinder cost | 15–20 days |
| Printed roll film for your own form-fill-seal line | From about 100 kg (≈RMB 45/kg printed); unprinted from 30–50 kg (≈RMB 38/kg) | Cylinders per colour | 15–20 days; needs a dedicated filling machine |
| Stock film, custom print (sachet, stand-up, spout) | Set by the print run on stock film | Cylinders or plates, +5–7 days on new artwork | 25–35 days door to factory gate |
| Digital-print short run (simple sachets, sleeves) | About 100–500 | None | 10–15 days |
| Pressure-sensitive label on a plain stock pouch | From ~500 | Label print run only | Inside the label lead time |
| Folding carton to hold the pouches | 2,000–5,000 | Cutting die, low cost | 10–15 days after artwork approval |
All minimums are indicative partner-factory practice and confirmed per project. The published industry floor for cosmetic packaging generally is 5,000–10,000 pieces per item; pouches are the exception in the other direction, and the MOQ index shows them beside every other format.
Four ways to 30,000 — or lower
1. Route the design to a smaller converter
The most direct route. A smaller plant with a narrower press quotes about 30,000 per design at the same cylinder cost and the same 15–20 day cycle. The trade is capacity and, sometimes, colour consistency between reorders — hold a sealed golden sample and specify print register at main image ≤0.3 mm. For a brand launching one mask at 30,000 pieces this is usually the answer.
2. Share one structure and cylinder set across designs
The minimum is per design because it is per cylinder set. If three mask variants share a common printed base (same structure, same background, same brand block) and differ only in one colour or a variable panel, the shared cylinders carry the volume and only the changing colour is re-engraved. 3 × 10,000 becomes one 30,000 run with one or two extra cylinders. Ask the converter to lay out the artwork this way before engraving.
3. Buy printed roll film and fill on your own line
Printed roll film is sold by weight from about 100 kg at ≈RMB 45/kg (unprinted from 30–50 kg at ≈RMB 38/kg). Yield depends on pouch size — roughly 1,200 pouches per kg at 6 × 9 cm, 1,500 at 6 × 8 cm, 1,600 at 5 × 7 cm for sachet sizes — so 100 kg is a six-figure count of small sachets. The catch is the sentence in the middle: it needs a dedicated form-fill-seal machine at the filler. This is a route for a contract filler, not a founder hand-filling.
4. Label on a plain pouch
The cost-saving route below every print floor: a plain foil or metallised stock pouch with a pressure-sensitive label, from about 500 pieces. The label carries the design, the pouch carries the barrier. It reads less premium than a printed pouch, and the label adhesive must be checked against the serum (24 h contact, 10 rubs, no lift), but it is how a brand tests a mask at 1,000 units before committing RMB 5,000–9,000 of cylinders. Sachet-sized digital print at ~100–500 exists for simple designs, though not usually on the foil mask structure.
What the pouch is signed against
Whatever route sets the quantity, the pass marks are the same, and they are numeric. The mask pouch is the one cosmetic pack where a weak seal or a pinhole is a customer complaint every time.
| Test | Method / standard | Pass threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Heat-seal strength — top seal | QB/T 2358 peel | ≥60 N/15 mm |
| Heat-seal strength — side seals | QB/T 2358 peel | ≥65 N/15 mm |
| Barrier | GB/T 1037 (WVTR), GB/T 1038 (OTR) | ≤0.1 g/m²·24 h; ≤0.1 cc/m²·24 h on foil structures |
| Interlayer peel (delamination) | GB/T 8808 | AL/PE ≥2.5 N/15 mm |
| Compression | Filled to net content, 200 N for 10 min | No burst, no leak |
| Vacuum seal | Filled with water, −0.06 MPa for 1 min | No leakage |
| Solvent residue | GB/T 10004 | ≤10 mg/m² |
| Cold / heat / light | 30 ml of bulk sealed in; −10°C (or −18°C) 7 days; 50°C 7 days; light cabinet 7 days | No visible change against the control |
| Thickness | Micrometer, 0.001 mm | Total laminate within ±8% of the standard sample |
| Print register and position | Steel rule, 0.5 mm | Main image ≤0.3 mm; other ≤0.5 mm; position ±2 mm; barcode grade C or better |
| Microbiology (irradiated lots) | Plate count | Total bacteria ≤10 CFU/g; yeast and mould ≤10 CFU/g; irradiation certificate per batch |
| Acceptance | ISO 2859-1 AQL | Agreed per defect class |
The gates behind these numbers are on the QC standards; the formula rules — foil for vitamin C and retinol, a PE sealant inside for anything above ~30% ethanol — are on the formula × packaging compatibility matrix.
Lead time and the rest of the pack
Printed pouches are one of the two formats that run shorter than founders expect: 15–20 days from sample approval including cylinders, or 25–35 days door to factory gate on a stock-film custom print. A custom structure or a new sealant is 55–75 days. Multiply by 1.3 and add 15 days across Chinese New Year. The mask pouch is filled by the contract filler, not the pouch converter, so the 2,000–5,000-piece folding carton that holds five or seven pouches is sequenced against the mask, not the pouch. The calendar is on lead time and the China production calendar; sachets and mask pouches for treatment lines sit in the skincare packaging solution, and the questions to ask a converter are on how to evaluate a China packaging supplier.
Vella is a Guangzhou-based beauty packaging solutions provider — a sourcing partner, not a factory — that routes mask pouches, sachets and roll film to partner converters matched to the run size (the 30,000 versus 100,000 floors), itemises the cylinder cost and holds the cylinders for reorders, and signs the pouch against seal, barrier and irradiation thresholds before production. Partner factories operate to ISO 22716 / GMP; empty packaging only.
Common questions
Launching a sheet mask at fewer than 100,000?
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