I thought I had “discovered something fantastic for Apple & Android Phones” that was an easy tool to help people make good decisions when it comes to purchasing personal care products.
Skin Deep® boasts that “EWG’s Cosmetic Database is the world’s largest safety reference tool for personal-care products.”
If this is true, there must not be many databases out there.
With a database of over 74,000 personal care products, 2,500 brands and 9,000 ingredients I would think that about 70% of the products I had in my bathroom were on the database. How wrong I was.
After downloading the app on my mom’s Andriod, I spent over an hour trying to scan products I use. Most often, the bar code was unreadable. When it was successfully scanned, the product was usually not listed in the database. I could search the product manually and occasionally find it. The bar code scanner did work for big brand names that I had, so maybe I am just the misfit with the strange beauty regimes… or Skin Deep needs to add more than 74,000 products to their database.
Bar code scanned successfully and sent me straight to this page.
I thought the safety ratings were great, although a little deceptive for people who do not have severe allergies to things such as fragrance. Some of the ratings were very high only because of specific ingredients that can cause allergic reactions in some people. I appreciate this knowledge, especially for people like me. I also appreciate being told when there are carcinogens in the products I use and having extra info about all hazardous ingredients and their side-effects.
My skin is super-sensitive. I mostly use holistic/natural/dermatologist tested brands that are free from fragrance and chemicals. Also, I try to buy cruelty-free and try not to buy from large corporations. This may be why Skin Deep didn’t work too well for me.
If you click on the ingredient, it will show more data about the listed hazards.
Another thing that bothered me about this app is how often it crashed when I tried to scan a bar code. Using a Public Mobile phone may be the reason for this, but it was still really annoying having to re-open the app all the time.
Technological flaws aside, this database is full of great information that is, as Dr. Steve Brule would say “for your health”… and the environment’s.
It’s good to know what kind of ingredients are in the things you pay for and if they can be harmful.
I know I just said some negative things, but I do think there is good information in this app. If you want to try it:
Download the app for Apple devices here
Download the app for Android here
So there it is! An updated post about SKIN DEEP APP: Instant Feedback on Personal Care Products.
& something [un]related.
ARISETOTRASH 