Imagine hovering over the skincare aisles at retail stores like Target, Walmart, or if you prefer drugstores,C.V.S or Walgreens. You’re tired of skimming through the ingredients of personal care products, not knowing what any of it means… Now, what is Hyaluronic acid, or Alpha-Hydroxy Acid? How are these ingredients good for my skin? How do I know there are no synthetic fragrances in these mysterious products? Will it damage or break me out with mysterious, sebaceous acne clusters the next morning? Nobody should be going over these 30-minute mental spiels in the middle of the store after promising yourself you’re just here for a quick errand. I’ve been in the same shoes with internal monologues about drug store skincare products, then end up coming home with a St. Ives Apricot Scrub (we all know how we feel about St. Ives’ irritating micro-beaded exfoliant scrubs).
We all need a useful gadget to check out what products are right for our skin and don’t contain hazardous ingredients that risk health conditions for us in the future. Recently, through the wondrous world of #BeautyTok (the side of TikTok encompassing all-things beauty), there is a free app called Yuka introducing itself on people’s For You pages. Yuka is a barcode app that can scan your groceries and personal care products, placing them on an excellent or poor scoring system by analyzing the ingredients included. You can scan your makeup, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, body wash, moisturizer – basically every product you apply contact to your skin. The app has a 4.7-star rating – sounds promising to me!
Yuka was first introduced in 2017 and was launched in France by founders Benoit and Francois Martin, accompanied by their friend, Julie Chapon. They coined the app’s name after the region of Yucatán, Mexico, inspired by Benoit’s wife’s hometown. The Yuka project is in collaboration with a nutritionist, Anthony Berthou who reads and validates the articles posted on their page.
Yuka evaluates beauty products by analyzing every ingredient and assigning them to a risk level according to potential carcinogenic, allergenic, or irritant factors. The ingredients are classified into four risk categories with ‘risk-free’, ‘low risk’, ‘moderate risk’, or ‘hazardous’ options. It relies on numerous sources of ranging opinions from official organizations such as SCCS (European Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety), ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety), ANSM (French Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products), CNRS (French Center for Scientific Research, and IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). Additionally, there is independent scientific research and international scientific databases backing up Yuka’s end results. After this rundown of Yuka’s functions, what are people thinking about this new discovery, and –most importantly– is it legit?
TikTok content creators call Yuka their health and wellness lifesaver because it advises them to buy what products aren’t hazardous. In a viral TikTok video captioned, “This app got me scanning everything!”, a content creator scanned their hygienic products in their bathroom. It turns out that Tree Hut’s Firming Shea Sugar Scrub contains a large number of chemicals, scoring a 47/100 with a rating of “poor.” Then, they scanned Johnson’s Aloe & Vitamin E Oil, scoring a mere 49/100. And finally, what seems to be this creator’s saving grace, their plant-based Honey Pot Normal Foaming Wash achieved a perfect rating of 100/100. However, due to multiple products being scored low, users voiced their fears about their own products in the comment section: “I don’t need this type of negativity in my life…what if my favorite product is bad.”
My Final Verdict
With all this Yuka hype on Tiktok, I put it to the test to see if it’s accurate and for possible reality checks about my daily hygienic products. Let’s check out who the culprits are sitting on my vanity:
- CeraVe’s Hydrating Cream to Foam Cleanser: 24/100
- Dove’s Coconut Dry Spray: 15/100
- Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure Castile Soap: 93/100
- Dickinson’s Pore Perfect Toner: 100/100 (Excellent!)
- Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water: 79/100
After a lot of shocked gasps from low-rated products followed by pats on the backs from scanning a few safe beauty products, I’ve come to the conclusion that this app is accurate, but certainly not in my favor. It’s a deliverer of bad news and it’s scary to know how many hazardous ingredients are in my favorite products… the less I know the better. However, it’s essential to be mindful of environmentally unethical products while shopping. After detecting bad products, Yuka recommended alternative healthier products with safer ingredients and positive ratings. I’ll definitely have those products noted for a future shopping spree. Hopefully, this new discovery is helpful for those who want to buy the right beauty products without feeling guilty afterward.