Asked, and answered.

There are five ways to check a product in MySkinIQ:

• Search by name: Type any product name into the search bar on the Research tab. MySkinIQ searches its catalog of thousands of personal care products and returns instant results.
• Paste a URL: Copy the product link from any online retailer — Amazon, Sephora, Ulta, Target, and others — and paste it into the search bar. MySkinIQ will retrieve and analyze the ingredient list automatically.
• Scan a barcode: Tap the barcode icon and point your camera at the product's barcode. Works with most standard retail barcodes.
• Scan a label: Tap the camera icon to photograph the ingredient list on a product label. Our AI extracts the ingredients directly from the image.
• Enter ingredients manually: Tap "Enter List" and paste or type the full ingredient list. This is useful for products not yet in our database or for checking a custom formulation.

MySkinIQ gives you a personalized verdict based on your individual allergen profile — not a generic risk rating. The three verdicts are:

• Clear: No ingredients match your known allergens or cross-reactive compounds. This product looks safe for your skin based on your profile. Note that "Clear" is profile-specific — it means this product appears safe for you, not necessarily for everyone.
• Caution: One or more ingredients may be a concern based on your profile — either a direct allergen match at lower risk, a cross-reactive compound, or an endocrine disruptor you've flagged. Tap the flagged ingredients to understand why each was flagged and make your own judgment.
• Avoid: This product contains one or more ingredients you are known to react to based on your allergen profile. We'll also suggest safer alternatives that don't contain those ingredients.

If you haven't set up your allergen profile yet, verdicts are based on a set of commonly reported contact allergens. Setting up your personal profile significantly improves the accuracy and relevance of every verdict.

Your allergen profile is the core of how MySkinIQ works — the more accurately it reflects your sensitivities, the more useful every verdict becomes.

• Go to the Profile tab in the app.
• Tap My Allergens or Set Up Profile.
• Browse allergens by category (Fragrances, Preservatives, Metals, Rubber Chemicals, etc.) or search by name or synonym.
• Add each allergen from your patch test results. If you don't have patch test results, you can add allergens you've identified through reactions.
• Your profile is saved to your account and syncs across devices when you're signed in.

We recommend entering allergens using the exact names from your patch test report, since the app recognizes hundreds of INCI synonyms for each compound.

MySkinIQ supports multiple family member profiles so you can check products for everyone in your household.

• Go to the Profile tab and tap Family Members.
• Tap Add Member and enter the person's name and their allergen profile.
• When checking a product, you can switch between profiles to see how it rates for each family member.

This is especially useful for parents managing a child's contact dermatitis alongside their own sensitivities.

Our product catalog is continuously expanding, but we don't yet have every product. If a product isn't in our catalog:

• Try searching by UPC barcode — this often finds products that name searches miss.
• Try pasting the Amazon or retailer product URL — MySkinIQ can often retrieve ingredient information directly from the retailer's listing.
• Use the label scan or manual entry options to analyze any product regardless of whether it's in our catalog.

When you analyze a product not in our catalog, your analysis helps improve coverage for everyone. Products analyzed by multiple users are prioritized for catalog addition.

Barcode scanning is highly reliable for products in our catalog. Label scanning uses AI image recognition and is typically accurate, but works best when:

• The ingredient list is photographed in good, even lighting with no shadows.
• The text is in focus and not obscured by reflections or wrinkles in the packaging.
• You photograph the entire ingredient list in a single image rather than cropping it.

For critical safety decisions, we recommend verifying the extracted ingredients against the physical label before finalizing your assessment.

MySkinIQ is designed for personal care and cosmetic products — anything applied to the skin, hair, or nails. This includes:

• Moisturizers, serums, and facial creams
• Cleansers, toners, and makeup removers
• Shampoos, conditioners, and hair treatments
• Sunscreens and SPF-containing products
• Body washes, soaps, and deodorants
• Makeup and cosmetics (foundation, blush, lipstick, mascara, etc.)
• Nail polishes and nail treatments
• Baby and children's personal care products
• Fragrance and perfume

MySkinIQ is not designed for food, medications, or household cleaning products, and the allergen database is specifically built for topical contact allergens rather than ingested allergens.

Contact dermatitis is an inflammatory skin reaction caused by direct contact with a substance. It comes in two main forms:

• Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD): An immune-mediated delayed hypersensitivity reaction. The immune system becomes sensitized to a specific chemical — often through repeated low-level exposure — and subsequently reacts when it encounters that chemical again. Reactions typically appear 12–72 hours after contact and present as redness, itching, blistering, or oozing in the areas of contact.
• Irritant contact dermatitis (ICD): A direct physical damage reaction not involving the immune system. Any substance that disrupts the skin barrier can cause ICD if the exposure is sufficient. It tends to appear quickly and affects areas in direct contact with the irritant.

MySkinIQ focuses primarily on allergic contact dermatitis and the chemical allergens known to cause it, as identified by standardized patch test series (NACDG, European Baseline Series).

Cross-reactivity occurs when your immune system, sensitized to one allergen, also reacts to structurally similar chemicals that share a common molecular component. This is a critical concept that most allergen apps ignore completely.

For example, if you're allergic to Balsam of Peru (Myroxylon pereirae), you may also react to cinnamon, vanilla, clove, orange peel, and eugenol — compounds that share similar fragrance chemicals. Knowing your single allergen isn't enough if you're still exposed to a dozen cross-reactive compounds in products labeled "fragrance-free."

MySkinIQ maps active allergens into usable cross-reaction families, so when you flag an allergen, the app also screens for related compounds in that family. This is the primary difference from simpler single-ingredient checkers.

The North American Contact Dermatitis Group (NACDG) is a cooperative research organization that performs the largest ongoing patch test surveillance study in North America. Their standard patch test series — currently 80 allergens — represents the chemicals most commonly identified as causing allergic contact dermatitis in North American patients.

We use the NACDG series as our core allergen list because:

• It reflects real-world prevalence data from tens of thousands of patch-tested patients.
• It's updated regularly based on emerging allergen trends.
• It's the series most commonly used by dermatologists in the United States.
• The companion European Baseline Series covers additional allergens relevant for European and international users.

Endocrine disruptors (EDs) are chemical substances that can interfere with hormone systems in the body. In the context of personal care products, concern focuses primarily on chemicals that can mimic or block estrogen, androgens, or thyroid hormones when absorbed through the skin.

We flag endocrine disruptors as a separate category because many users — particularly parents of young children and people who prefer to minimize chemical exposures during pregnancy — want to know about these compounds independently of allergen status. MySkinIQ tracks its endocrine-disruptor reference data including:

• UV filters (oxybenzone, homosalate, octinoxate) with estrogenic or thyroid-disrupting activity in laboratory studies
• Parabens (methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben) with weak estrogenic effects
• Phthalates, triclosan, and bisphenol compounds

Important note: ED flagging in MySkinIQ is informational. The scientific evidence for harm at typical cosmetic exposure levels is often limited or disputed for individual compounds. We present this information transparently and encourage users to make their own decisions rather than treating every ED flag as a definitive safety concern.

Yes. Preservatives are one of the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis and represent a major category in our allergen database. The most commonly problematic preservatives we screen for include:

• Methylisothiazolinone (MI) and Methylchloroisothiazolinone (MCI/MI) — among the most prevalent sensitizers in recent years, found in rinse-off and leave-on products
• Formaldehyde-releasing preservatives — quaternium-15, DMDM hydantoin, imidazolidinyl urea, diazolidinyl urea, bronopol, and others that release formaldehyde over time
• Parabens — methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben
• Phenoxyethanol — increasingly common alternative to parabens with its own sensitization profile
• Iodopropynyl butylcarbamate (IPBC)
• Benzalkonium chloride and other quaternary ammonium compounds

This is one of the more technically involved parts of the app. Every cosmetic ingredient in a product sold in the US must be listed using its INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients) name — a standardized naming system. However, the same chemical often appears under multiple INCI names, trade names, and common names.

For example, Propylene Glycol is also listed as:

• 1,2-Propanediol
• Propane-1,2-diol
• Methylethylene glycol
• Sirius red (in some colorant contexts)

MySkinIQ maintains a synonym database that maps hundreds of alternate names, trade names, and INCI variants to their canonical allergen identities. When a product ingredient matches any known synonym, it's flagged — not just the "official" name.

Patch testing is the gold standard for diagnosing allergic contact dermatitis. A dermatologist applies small quantities of standardized allergens — typically 80 to 150+ chemicals — to your back using small chambers. These stay in place for 48 hours, then are removed. Reactions are read at 48 hours and again at 96 hours (and sometimes 7 days) to capture delayed responses.

Patch testing is recommended if you have:

• Recurring or chronic eczema, particularly on the hands, face, neck, or eyelids
• Skin reactions that don't respond to standard eczema treatments
• Reactions that seem to correlate with using particular products
• Occupational skin disease from regular exposure to industrial chemicals

Patch testing is performed by dermatologists and allergists, with the most comprehensive testing typically done by dermatologists specializing in contact dermatitis. The American Contact Dermatitis Society (ACDS) maintains a directory of contact dermatitis specialists at contactderm.org.

Patch test reports list allergens by their chemical names, which are often the same INCI names MySkinIQ uses. Here's the best approach:

1. Open the Profile tab and tap Manage Allergens.
2. For each positive or doubtful reaction on your patch test report, search for the allergen by name in the search bar.
3. Tap the allergen to see its synonyms and cross-reactive family before adding it — this helps you confirm you've found the right compound.
4. Add positive reactions with certainty; use your judgment on doubtful reactions (+ or ±) based on whether you experience symptoms in practice.

Some patch test names differ slightly from INCI names. If you can't find a specific allergen, try searching by partial name or a known synonym. If it still doesn't appear, email us the allergen name at [email protected] — we may be able to add it or help you find the right entry.

Yes, absolutely. Many users haven't had formal patch testing and use MySkinIQ to identify potential triggers by tracking their reactions to specific ingredients over time. You can:

• Add any allergens you suspect based on your own observations.
• Use MySkinIQ to compare products that cause reactions vs. products that don't, looking for common flagged ingredients.
• Browse the full allergen list to identify common categories (fragrances, preservatives, metals) that might be worth discussing with your dermatologist.

MySkinIQ is most powerful when combined with formal patch test results, but it provides real value even for users who are self-navigating their sensitivities.

We built MySkinIQ with privacy as a genuine priority, not a compliance checkbox:

• We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
• Health data (your allergen profile, skin type, analysis history) is used solely to provide and improve your experience in the app.
• You can export or delete your data at any time from Settings > Your Data.
• All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest (AES-256).
• We comply with GDPR and CCPA data rights requirements.

For the full details, read our Privacy Policy.

You can delete your account and all associated data directly in the app:

1. Open the app and go to Settings.
2. Tap Delete Account.
3. Confirm the deletion. Your data will be fully removed within 30 days.

You can also request deletion by emailing [email protected] with your account email address. We will confirm the deletion request within 5 business days.

MySkinIQ requires an account to save your allergen profile and sync your data across devices. Account creation is free and only requires an email address and password. We do not ask for payment information, phone numbers, or any sensitive personal information during sign-up.

Without an account, you can still scan and analyze products — but your allergen profile and analysis history won't be saved between sessions.

Some features work offline — specifically, products you've previously analyzed are cached locally and can be reviewed without an internet connection. However, searching for new products, scanning barcodes against our catalog, and AI-powered label analysis require an internet connection. Your allergen profile is also cached locally after sign-in, so verdicts for cached products are available offline.

Currently, MySkinIQ is iOS only. Android development is on our roadmap, but we don't have a specific launch date to share. If you'd like to be notified when an Android version becomes available, send us an email at [email protected] with "Android" in the subject line and we'll add you to the notification list.

Yes, MySkinIQ is free to download and use. Core features — product scanning, allergen profile setup, verdict analysis, and alternatives suggestions — are all free. We do not require a subscription or payment to use the app's primary features.

MySkinIQ generates revenue when users purchase products through affiliate links (primarily Amazon) shown in the app's alternatives recommendations and product pages. When you purchase a product through one of these links, we receive a small commission from the retailer at no additional cost to you. This affiliate model lets us keep the core app free.

We are transparent about this: every affiliate link in the app is disclosed. Our product recommendations and safety verdicts are never influenced by affiliate relationships — a product that contains your allergens will always be flagged regardless of any commercial relationship.

If barcode scanning isn't recognizing a product, try these steps:

• Make sure you're holding the phone steady and the barcode is well-lit and fully in frame.
• Try scanning from slightly further away — sometimes the camera focus is better at 10–15 cm distance.
• If the barcode is damaged or curved (on a bottle, for example), try searching by product name instead.
• Some older barcodes use formats not universally supported — if the barcode scan fails, try the product URL or manual entry options.

If the label scan returns no or incorrect ingredients, the most common causes are:

• Poor lighting or shadows over part of the ingredient text
• The image is blurry — try tapping the screen to focus before capturing
• The ingredient list spans multiple lines or columns — try photographing the entire panel in one image
• Very small font on the label — move closer and tap to refocus

If the extracted ingredient list looks wrong, you can manually correct it using the Edit option before saving the analysis.

This can happen for a few reasons:

• Synonym mismatch: The ingredient may be listed under a name not yet in our synonym database. If you identify a missing synonym, please report it to [email protected].
• Label scan error: The ingredient name may not have been correctly extracted from the label image. Review the extracted ingredient list to check.
• Wrong product in catalog: If using catalog search, make sure you've selected the right variant of the product (size, region, formulation).

We take accuracy seriously — please report any confirmed misses to [email protected] with the product name and the allergen that should have been flagged. Every report helps us improve.