I\u2019m standing in Superdrug, holding two bars of soap and trying to decide which one my fragrance-averse husband might prefer. Taking out my phone, I hover the camera over the barcode on each. Ah, just as I\u2019d hoped! One is rated \u201cPoor\u201d with a score of 42\/100 and an orange dot, while the other is \u201cExcellent\u201d with a green dot and a score of 93\/100. No prizes for guessing which goes back on the shelf.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not alone in using Yuka to make up my mind in the cosmetics aisle. The app, founded in 2016 by the French brothers Beno\u00eet and Fran\u00e7ois Martin and their friend Julie Chapon, might be best known for rating supermarket food, but 100 million beauty products are now scanned by its users each month. For many its traffic-light system has become gospel, dictating which brands they buy and which they abandon. Social media is full of videos of people rating their bathroom shelves via Yuka \u2014 and similar apps like Think Dirty and Inci Beauty \u2014 with titles like \u201cProducts I thought were clean\u201d.<\/p>\n
The business coach Tara Keyar Knowles, 34, from Bromley, will \u201conly use Nala\u2019s Baby products now\u201d after getting endless red dots for her former favourites. Meanwhile, the Bridgerton actress Genevieve Chenneour, 27, tells me, \u201cI don\u2019t buy anything that isn\u2019t \u2018Excellent\u2019 on the green scale. For work I can\u2019t decide what goes on my skin, so in my private life I want to keep it simple and clean.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Read more beauty product reviews and advice from our experts<\/a><\/p>\n Yuka\u2019s scoring system for cosmetics is straightforward: products get a coloured dot and a score based on the level of the highest-risk ingredient rather than on its effectiveness or how it\u2019s used. \u201cBad\u201d products (scoring 24\/100 or less) receive a red dot, \u201cPoor\u201d (25 to 49\/100) get orange, \u201cGood\u201d (50 to 74\/100) are given yellow, and \u201cExcellent\u201d (75+) get green. Meanwhile, for the ingredients, a red dot signals \u201cHazardous\u201d, orange \u201cModerate risk\u201d, yellow \u201cLow risk\u201d and green \u201cRisk free\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cEach ingredient is assigned a risk level depending on its potential effects on health or the environment, such as endocrine disruption, carcinogenicity, allergenicity, irritation or pollution,\u201d Chapon explains.<\/p>\n The problem? Many don\u2019t scroll beyond the dot (guilty). \u201cI\u2019m very uninformed about the ingredients \u2014 I only look at the rating,\u201d my friend Catherine, 42, admits. \u201cIt has led to me throwing out 90 per cent of my cosmetics.\u201d<\/p>\n And while it\u2019s easy to label entire brands as \u201cBad\u201d, there is often little consistency. A leading bodycare lotion is \u201cPoor\u201d (11\/100) but its body washes are \u201cExcellent\u201d. Another lotion from a household brand gets a dreaded 0\/100 for containing a paraben preservative \u2014 though Yuka adds, as it often does, that \u201cmore studies are required\u201d.<\/p>\n So, should we listen? After all, being told something contains a potentially \u201ctoxic\u201d ingredient doesn\u2019t scream \u201cbuy me\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2022 Help! I\u2019m addicted to Yuka, the app that rates all my food<\/a><\/p>\n