SkinSAFE 4+

Better since update - but still needs improvement

I appreciate that the app now tells you which ingredients in a product are unsafe for you instead of just telling you the product is unsafe.

I do wish they would do a better job of auditing / combining submissions. I search for facial cleaners for example and it looks like there are 150 results that are safe for me when in reality there may be a third of that. The same products are listed over and over again, some because one is the 3 oz versus the 8 oz and some because an extra word was added in a submission (I.e. hydrating facial cleanser versus facial cleanser) even though it is the same product. Very frustrating to scroll through all the duplicates.

Ideally they would allow for custom lists as well. After scrolling through all those duplicates, if I find a product I want to try I would like to add it to a list so I don’t have to search for it again. The only two options currently are use daily or got a reaction. I use favorites for something I’ve used and like whether I am currently using or not.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for taking the time to share your valuable feedback with us. We understand your concerns and appreciate your patience as we continuously strive to improve the SkinSAFE app experience.

We acknowledge the issue of product duplicates and understand how this can be frustrating. As you rightly pointed out, some products have multiple variations, such as different sizes or slightly different names. Please keep in mind that sometimes the same product can have multiple formulations. To address this, we are flagging these variations at the product level to make it easier for you to pick the right version. We are actively working on refining our product database to minimize these duplicates and provide a more streamlined search experience.

We're excited to share that we're in the process of developing a more advanced search feature. This will prioritize the top 10 products that match your 'Safe for Me' preferences based on safety and availability. We believe this will significantly enhance your product search experience.

Regarding your suggestion for custom lists, we completely agree with you. Currently, we offer three types of lists: 'Favorites', 'Use Every Day', and 'I Reacted'. These can be directly tagged to a product from the search results. However, we understand the need for more personalized options. Therefore, we're working on introducing the ability to create custom lists you can name according to your preference. This feature will allow you to save and categorize products more effectively, reducing the need for repeated searches.

We value your feedback as it helps us to improve and serve you better. Please continue to share your thoughts and suggestions with us. We're committed to making SkinSAFE the best possible resource for your skincare needs.

Will there be a new update soon?

I was suggested to use this by my dermatologist after doing patch testing that tested for my skin allergies. They helped me upload all results to my account. I noticed that the app hasn’t been updated in 4 years. It’s screen ratio isn’t even set up for recent iPhones as it doesn’t take up the whole screen. I’ve been on the actual website and it looks great there, but you can’t scan barcodes from there. I am really looking forward to an update for this app before it goes out of compatibility for a new iOS. It would also be nice to see on the app itself if a product is actually safe for me or not like it shows on the website. Currently, it shows the ingredients and other safety factors but does not show the icon that specifically says safe or not safe for me. I told my dermatologist that the app has not been updated in 4 years and there’s a chance it will stop being compatible with new phones on a new iOS. I hope that there’s an update before that.

Works for me!!

I actually like this app! I have a propylene glycol allergy and the scanner on this app really helps me weed out the products that are bad for me. I would say that they REALLY need to hire a UI/UX designer to make the app more efficient and user friendly. There are small parts of the app that don’t work properly like the delete button on the search bar and actually searching. I would highly recommend to just try to scan your product. If you want to use the search bar and can’t find your product I would use their actual website instead.