OnSkin Safe Choice Is Here to Help You Find Safer Beauty Products
Onskin Content Team
Your guides through the skincare chaos
Choosing safer skincare, haircare, or makeup shouldn’t feel like a chemistry exam. That’s exactly why we created Safe Choice—a science-based distinction mark inside the OnSkin app to help you quickly spot beauty products made with ingredients that pose little to no known or suspected common health risks.
If you’ve ever scanned a product and wondered, “Okay, but is this as safe as it gets?”, Safe Choice is here to answer that.
What Is OnSkin Safe Choice Exactly?
OnSkin Safe Choice is a distinction mark we assign to cosmetic formulas that score a 95 or higher on OnSkin’s safety scale (out of 100). Products with this mark are made entirely with ingredients that present no or negligible risk of common health concerns, as determined by OnSkin’s medical and scientific experts based on current, authoritative scientific research and regulatory data.
How We Decide What Makes the Cut
Every product scanned into OnSkin is evaluated using its full ingredient list, as disclosed by the manufacturer. Nothing is skipped—including ingredients responsible for function, stability, texture, color, and scent.
Our experts review each ingredient against four primary safety criteria:
1. Endocrine disruption and reproductive toxicity. Could this ingredient interfere with the endocrine system?
2. Carcinogenicity. Is there credible evidence linking it to carcinogenic effects?
3. Allergy risk. How likely is it to cause allergic reactions or irritation?
4. High-concentration alerts. Does it pose risks if used above certain thresholds?
Each ingredient gets its own safety profile. These profiles are then combined using our unique scoring formula, which evaluates the overall hazard picture and assigns a final safety score. And only products with safety scores of 95 or higher earn the OnSkin Safe Choice mark.
Why We Created Safe Choice
The beauty industry is regulated, but regulation alone doesn’t mean all ingredients are equally safe or ideal for long-term, daily use.
OnSkin’s representative said: “Product use may involve several health-relevant uncertainties that shouldn’t be overlooked. While toxicology depends on dose, factors such as frequency of use, exposure routes, predisposing conditions, coverage area, cumulative effects from multiple products within a personal care routine, bioaccumulation potential of certain substances, and the need for some chemicals to meet strict purification and processing requirements so the final product is safe may all influence real-world risks. With Safe Choice, our goal is to highlight formulas that keep people on the safest possible side—because safer alternatives are available on the market.”
Where You’ll See Safe Choice in the App
Safe Choice is assigned to individual formulas (not specific products or brands), since product compositions can vary by region due to regulatory and manufacturing differences.
When a product qualifies, you’ll see a Safe Choice badge in the product’s certification section in the app.
A Quick (But Important) Note
Keep in mind that Safe Choice reflects the general population risk. It doesn’t account for rare reactions or individual sensitivities.
That’s why we always recommend these two things:
1. Always do a patch test before using any new product.
2. Flag ingredients you personally want to avoid in the OnSkin app—you’ll get your personal alerts, no matter how high the product’s overall score.
Your skin is unique, and the app is built to respect that.
Independence Comes First
To be clear, OnSkin doesn’t partner with brands or accept payments to influence scores. All safety ratings (including OnSkin Safe Choice) are based on current authoritative scientific evidence.
Today, our database includes over two million skincare, haircare, makeup, and fragrance products from around the world. And it keeps growing thanks to the requests of the users of our app, which is now available on both iOS and Android. With Safe Choice, we’re more excited than ever to help you find products that are built with safety in mind.
FAQ
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Where do I start with OnSkin?
Download the app and think of a product you’d like to know more about. Then, go to the main screen and choose how you’d like to get the info —by manually looking it up in the search bar, by scanning its barcode, or by simply taking a picture of the packaging. Once you’ve done any of these, you can see how safe the product is and if it suits your skin or hair (if this analysis is available).
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What is Safety Rating, and how is it calculated?
In OnSkin, we base product rates on ingredients. Each is closely studied by our medical team and then evaluated. This way, each product gets a score from 0 to 100, with 100 as the safest level.
Safety Levels
- Excellent (76–100)
- Good (51–75)
- Not great (26–50)
- Bad (0–25)
These scores are backed by the latest scientific studies. You can find links to the resources we’ve used on each ingredient page. To assess the safety of product ingredients, we evaluate them according to the following parameters/criteria
- Endocrine disruption risk / Reproductive toxicity
Indicates the probability of mimicking, blocking, or interfering with the body hormones.
- Сarcinogenicity
Measures the potential risk of inducing cancer.
- Allergy risk
Estimates the probability of an allergic reaction.
- High concentration alert
Determines the risk of being unsafe in certain amounts.
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What is Skin Match?
Based on the info you input about your skin type, age, skin care goal, and other “settings,” OnSkin checks how well a product is tailored to your unique skin needs — it’s basically like a dermatologist helping you find the right products, minus the fees and the long wait. The product you’re checking might be labeled as It’s a match!, Hit-or-miss, or Not a match for you. The app also detects ingredient groups such as Anti-acne, Anti-inflammatory, Moisturizes, May be drying, Comedogenic, and others — by tapping one, you see exactly what ingredients from this or that group are in the product.
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I seem to have a problem with using the app. Who should I contact?
Please reach out to us at [email protected], and we’ll carefully look into your issue. Your ideas for improving the app are also very welcome!
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Do you have an Android version?
Not yet! Hey Android users, we hear you, and we're thinking about making an Android version, but we haven't started the development yet.
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