- Best overall: ThinkDirty
- Best for multiple languages: INCI Beauty
- Best for widest range of health products: EWG Healthy Living
- Best for creating a skin care regimen: Good Face
- Most comprehensive database: Yuka
- Best for finding products: Skinsort
- Best for learning ingredient purpose: Skincarisma
- Best for allergies: CodeCheck
- Best for community reviews: Beautypedia
- Best for DIY beauty: Detox Me
- Best for sensitive skin: SkinSAFE
When it comes to choosing the products you use on your skin every day, how much do you pay attention to the ingredients inside those products? The industry jargon and product claims can make finding the right products a confusing and challenging task.
Skin care checkers make it easier to understand all the ingredients in products, as well as the safety and effectiveness of those ingredients. These websites and apps explain the jargon of the beauty industry, so you can make informed decisions about your skin care products.
Keep reading to find the best websites and apps to check the ingredients in skin care products.
Skin care ingredient checkers offer a large database of products and ingredients. Typically, all you need to do is type the product’s 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 use.
The results of the search and available information about the product will vary based on which checker you use. In general, after finding the product, you’ll see information such as:
- types of ingredients
- safety and toxicity information
- effectiveness
- user experiences
- risk level
- ingredients that are potential allergens
- ingredients that may aggravate acne
- similar or alternative products
Most ingredient checkers offer ingredient lists for skin care, hair care, and makeup products.
To help you take the best care of your health, we thoroughly vet 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-evaluated recommendations that have been analyzed and approved by our team of medical experts.
Through our vetting process, we analyze the accuracy, ease of use, customer experiences, and industry standards.
Best overall
Think Dirty
Think Dirty is a popular ingredient checker app with over 36,000 reviews in 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 information about ingredients and a clear rating for whether the product is “clean,” “dirty,” or somewhere in the middle.
If you don’t see the product you’re looking for on 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 it’s the most comprehensive app on the market. INCI Beauty assesses about 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 from 1 to 20. The number places products into categories from good to controversial.
Best for 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 life and the environment.
Not only does the EWG Healthy Living app cover beauty products, but their database also provides information about food and household cleaning products. The website claims to currently have ratings for over 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 the organization and ease of use.
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 skin care 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 skin care regimen feature, you can easily find alternative products and track which products are most effective for you. The app also allows you to ask questions and share information about products.
The Good Face app has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars on the Apple app store.
Most comprehensive database
Yuka
Yuka is a mobile app that provides information about food and cosmetic products. The database contains over 1.5 million food products and 500,000 cosmetic products. The company is constantly analyzing new products, with around 800 new products assessed daily.
Simply use the search bar or scan the product for a comprehensive list of the ingredients. Yuka rates products based on four risk levels: risk-free (green dot), low risk (yellow dot), moderate risk (orange dot), and high risk (red dot).
Yuka is rated 4.7 out of 5 stars from over 2,400 user reviews on the Apple app store. Reviewers say the app is easy to use and helpful.
Best for finding products
Skinsort
The Skinsort website helps you find the best products for your skin type and concerns. You can easily browse products by combining over 60 filters to sort through and find the perfect product for your needs.
After finding the right product, you can customize a routine and see how the products will work together. Then, add any product you’re interested in to your “shelf” to take notes on the product, how your skin reacts, and your preferences.
The database contains information about the safety and effectiveness of over 27,000 skin care ingredients.
Best for learning ingredient purpose
Skincarisma
The Skincarisma website focuses on not just the safety of ingredients, but also teaching what the ingredients are doing for your skin. The search bar allows you to list your product preferences. From there, it’ll help you find the right products for you and your skin types.
The site lists all the ingredients, safety, effectiveness, and warnings about a product.
Best for allergies
CodeCheck
The CodeCheck app makes it easier to find out if there are any allergens or irritating products in your food or personal care products.
Simply create a profile in the app with your preferences or allergies, then scan products while shopping to learn if they’re safe.
The app quickly tells you if the food or cosmetic products are vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and lactose-free. It also checks for parabens, microbeads, paraffins, and sugar content.
CodeCheck has a 4.5 out of 5 star average rating 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. Her team of experts are committed to uncovering the facts and research about skin care products to cut through the hype and marketing.
The website gives products a rating between 1 and 5 stars. Beautypedia also provides features to help you search for top-rated skin care products.
In addition to the review by the team of experts, you can easily read through customer reviews of products 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 and drink, clothing, personal care, cleaning, and children.
The app offers tips for products to avoid, information about ingredients, and alternatives to toxic chemicals. You can also get reminders, tips, and DIY recipes to replace commercial products.
Best for sensitive skin
SkinSAFE
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 testing data with input from Mayo Clinic.
The app claims to help people eliminate the trial and error of testing products to easily stay clear of products that might cause sensitive skin to react. All products are listed with markers to tell you the ingredients they’re free from and safety information.
Where can I find skin care with certain ingredients?
Skin care checker websites and apps help you find skin care with specific ingredients.
For example, Skinsort allows you to use 60 filters to sort through products with certain ingredients and features.
Is there an app to check ingredients in products?
There are multiple apps and websites available to help you quickly check the ingredients in products. Consider one of the twelve checkers in this list, like Think Dirty, INCI Beauty, CodeCheck, or Skincarisma.
How do I look up ingredients in beauty products?
You can easily look up the ingredients in beauty products using a skin care checker, like Think Dirty, CodeCheck, Good Face, EWG Healthy Living, or one of the other checkers on this list.
Not all skin care ingredients are suitable for everyone. Some ingredients can even cause an allergic reaction for some skin types. Using a skin care ingredient checker can help you learn about all the ingredients in your products and information about them.
It doesn’t have to be challenging to create a safe and effective skin care routine when you have the help of these large databases. If you have further questions about ingredients or products, talk with a dermatologist.
Ashley Braun, MPH, RD, is a health and wellness writer based in Michigan. Her work helps people understand what affects their health, so they can make informed choices to take back the control in their health and wellness journey.