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Toronto-based entrepreneur Lily Tse has created ‘Think Dirty’, an app that shows you the exact ingredients found in your facial wash or lipstick.
The app lists 68,000 products from North America and Europe, and ranks them on a ‘Dirty Meter’ scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the cleanest and 10 being the dirtiest.
Unlike food or drug manufacturers, cosmetics companies aren’t held to the same stringent labeling standards and this means they can leave potentially harmful ingredients off their product packaging.
The lack of standardization also means that a chemical can go by different names, for example the term “fragrance” can refer to any one of these 3,163 ingredients, which include several well-known hormone disruptors.
Tse sought clarification from public databases to standardize the ingredient names while she was developing the app, which has been downloaded 70,000 times.
To use, scan a barcode or search the product’s name from the app’s database. The app will provide a rating and suggest another product if it falls on the dirtier side of the scale. You can also create product lists and get average dirtiness scores for your existing beauty and cosmetics products.
Tse was spurred to create it as her mom is a breast cancer survivor who is sensitive to chemicals, and hopes this will provide greater transparency for shoppers.
Find out more about the ‘Think Dirty’ app here and download it for free from the Apple store.
[via Fast Company]
Toronto-based entrepreneur Lily Tse has created ‘Think Dirty’, an app that shows you the exact ingredients found in your facial wash or lipstick.
The app lists 68,000 products from North America and Europe, and ranks them on a ‘Dirty Meter’ scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the cleanest and 10 being the dirtiest.
Unlike food or drug manufacturers, cosmetics companies aren’t held to the same stringent labeling standards and this means they can leave potentially harmful ingredients off their product packaging.
The lack of standardization also means that a chemical can go by different names, for example the term “fragrance” can refer to any one of these 3,163 ingredients, which include several well-known hormone disruptors.
Tse sought clarification from public databases to standardize the ingredient names while she was developing the app, which has been downloaded 70,000 times.
To use, scan a barcode or search the product’s name from the app’s database. The app will provide a rating and suggest another product if it falls on the dirtier side of the scale. You can also create product lists and get average dirtiness scores for your existing beauty and cosmetics products.
Tse was spurred to create it as her mom is a breast cancer survivor who is sensitive to chemicals, and hopes this will provide greater transparency for shoppers.
Find out more about the ‘Think Dirty’ app here and download it for free from the Apple store.
[via Fast Company]