When it comes to choosing the products you use on your skin every day, how much attention do you pay to the ingredients within those products? Industry jargon and product claims can make finding the right products confusing and challenging.
Skin care checkers make it easy to understand all ingredients in products, as well as the safety and efficacy of those ingredients. These websites and apps explain beauty industry jargon, so you can make informed decisions about your skin care products.
Read on to find the best websites and apps to check ingredients in skin care products.
Skin care ingredient checkers offer a large database of products and ingredients. Usually, all you need to do is type the product name in the search bar to find the products you use or are interested in using.
Some apps also offer a barcode scanner, making it even easier to find the exact product you’re using.
Search results and available product information will vary depending on the tester you use. In general, after finding the product, you will see information such as:
- types of ingredients
- safety and toxicity information
- effectiveness
- user experiences
- risk level
- ingredients that are potential allergens
- ingredients that can aggravate acne
- similar or alternative products
Most ingredient checkers offer ingredient lists for skin care, hair care, and makeup products.
To help you take better care of your health, we thoroughly review any product or brand we recommend for medical credibility, social impact, and good business practices.
We feel a responsibility to our community to make well-considered recommendations that have been reviewed and approved by our team of medical experts.
Through our research process, we look at accuracy, ease of use, customer experiences, and industry standards.
better overall
think dirty
Think Dirty is a popular ingredient checker app with over 36,000 reviews on the Apple App Store. The app has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.
This app focuses on analyzing the chemical effects of ingredients for potential long-term health effects. The barcode scanning feature works with over 2 million beauty and personal care products from Canada and the United States.
Think Dirty offers easy-to-understand ingredient information and a clear rating of whether the product is “clean,” “dirty,” or somewhere in between.
If you don’t see the product you’re looking for in the app, you can scan the barcode and ingredient list and they’ll analyze the product for you.
Best for multiple languages
INCI Beauty
INCI Beauty is an independent French company that was established in 2017.
The website claims that it is the most complete application on the market. INCI Beauty evaluates around 15,000 different chemicals that can be used in personal care products.
The app can be translated into five languages, making it accessible to a wider range of people. INCI Beauty rates products on a scale of 1 to 20. The number places products in categories from good to controversial.
The best for the widest range of health products
EWG Healthy Living
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) created the EWG Healthy Living app to help people make healthier choices for their lives and the environment.
The EWG Healthy Living app doesn’t just cover beauty products, its database also provides information on food and household cleaning products. The website currently claims to have ratings for more than 120,000 food and personal care products.
The app averages 3.3 out of 5 stars on the Apple App Store, with some users complaining about organization and ease of use.
The best for creating a skin care regimen.
Good face
The Good Face Project created the Good Face app to help users understand their products and create a personalized skincare regimen.
The app makes it easy to understand the product you’re interested in with a database of over 80,000 ingredients.
With the personalized skincare regimen feature, you can easily find alternative products and keep track of the products that are most effective for you. The app also allows you to ask questions and share product information.
The Good Face app has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on the Apple App Store.
Most complete database
yuka
Yuka is a mobile application that provides information on food and cosmetic products. The database contains more than 1.5 million food products and 500,000 cosmetic products. The company is constantly testing new products, with around 800 new products tested daily.
Simply use the search bar or scan the product for a full list of ingredients. Yuka rates products based on four risk levels: no risk (green dot), low risk (yellow dot), moderate risk (orange dot), and high risk (red dot).
Yuka has a 4.7 out of 5 star rating from over 2,400 user reviews on the Apple App Store. Reviewers say that the app is easy to use and useful.
The best to find products.
sort the skin
The Skinsort website helps you find the best products for your skin type and concerns. You can easily search for products by combining more than 60 filters to sort and find the perfect product for your needs.
After you find the right product, you can customize a routine and see how the products work together. Then add any product you’re interested in to your “shelf” to make notes about the product, how your skin reacts, and your preferences.
The database contains information on the safety and efficacy of more than 27,000 skin care ingredients.
The best to learn the purpose of the ingredients.
skincharisma
The Skincarisma website focuses not only on the safety of the ingredients, but also on teaching what the ingredients are doing for your skin. The search bar allows you to list your product preferences. From there, it will help you find the right products for you and your skin type.
The site lists all the ingredients, safety, efficacy, and warnings about a product.
best for allergies
code verification
The CodeCheck app makes it easy to find out if there are allergens or irritants in your food or personal care products.
Simply create a profile in the app with your preferences or allergies, then scan products as you shop to find out if they’re safe.
The app quickly tells you if food or cosmetic products are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and lactose-free. It also checks the content of parabens, microspheres, paraffins and sugar.
CodeCheck has an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 175 reviews on the Apple App Store.
Best for community reviews
beautypedia
Beautypedia was created by beauty expert Paula Begoun, the founder of Paula’s Choice. Their team of experts is committed to uncovering the facts and research on skin care products to reduce advertising and marketing.
The website gives products a rating between 1 and 5 stars. Beautypedia also offers features to help you search for the best skin care products.
In addition to the review by the expert team, you can easily read customer product reviews on the site.
Best for DIY beauty
detox me
Detox Me is an app designed to reduce toxins in all areas of your life. The app has six main categories: Home, Food & Drink, Clothing, Personal Care, Cleaning, and Kids.
The app offers advice on products to avoid, information on ingredients, and alternatives to toxic chemicals. You can also get DIY reminders, tips and recipes to replace commercial products.
The best for sensitive skin
Skin SAFE
SkinSAFE is another app developed to help you evaluate your beauty products. The app is designed to help people identify and avoid ingredients that bother sensitive skin. SkinSAFE was developed using test data with input from Mayo Clinic.
The app claims to help people take the trial and error out of trying products to easily stay away from products that can cause sensitive skin to react. All products are listed with markers to tell you what ingredients they are free of and safety information.
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