Vol. I · No. 04  · Summer 2026Know your skin, and where to take it.
Read the label

Check an ingredient list

Paste any ingredient list. We tell you what earns its place, what to question, and whether the formula suits your skin.

Instant, private readingsEditorial, never a diagnosis

Tell us about your skin, optional but worth it

Nothing you paste leaves the page.

The method

How the reading works

The ingredient checker is deliberately unclever. Nothing here guesses at you, and nothing improvises: just our ingredient dictionary, written entry by entry, and a fixed ladder of verdicts applied the same way every single time. The same list will always earn the same reading.

Six verdicts are possible. Approved means nothing we would flag. Approved, with caveats means one or two ingredients worth knowing about. Conditional means the formula depends on your skin. Not our pick for your profile means a clash with a skin profile you selected. Specialist-led only means prescription-strength actives that belong under a clinician’s care. And Not enough to verify means the list was too short or too unfamiliar for a fair reading.

A caution is not a condemnation. Fragrance in a wash-off cleanser is a different conversation from fragrance in a leave-on serum, and an ingredient that troubles a reactive complexion can be a gift to a resilient one. The ingredient checker tells you what is in the bottle; you stay the editor of what goes on your face.

Brand dossiers · Obagi Medical

The first brand to face the full Radiance treatment: fifteen formulas read ingredient by ingredient, from the Professional-C serums to the Nu-Derm system, with a house rating and the watchouts nobody prints on the box.

Read our Obagi brand review

Next: see how we grade whole categories on the product ratings, or read the house rules behind every rating in our product standard.