Like millions of consumers, you've probably already tried to decipher the ingredient list of your bathroom products.

Understanding what we use every day on our skin is essential but can often be laborious: incomprehensible ingredient list, tiny font in the corner of a label... It's not always easy to figure it out!

To overcome this, several applications offer to scan your cosmetics to analyze the ingredients they contain for you. Pretty handy!

Yuka, INCI Beauty, Clean Beauty, etc. With them, the INCI list of your products will no longer hold any secrets!
But which one to choose?
What are their advantages and limitations?
We'll tell you everything!

Info point: What is the INCI list?

It's simply the list of ingredients that make up a cosmetic product!
INCI actually stands for "International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients." In Europe, manufacturers are required to display it on the products they sell, so that every consumer can know what they are buying. Today, the INCI list is written in Latin or English.
More precisely, Latin terms designate natural products, and English terms designate chemical substances.

At Les Petits Prödiges, we are aware that the INCI list can sometimes be difficult to understand: that's why we decided to translate it into French for all our products!

So how do you find your way?

Today, many applications exist to decipher the composition of our beauty products. Shampoo, toothpaste, cream or deodorant, everything goes! In the blink of an eye, it's possible to scan all your purchases to better understand their formulation and make the right choices. But often, these applications are so numerous that you end up getting lost.

To help you find your way, we're giving you our top 3 beauty apps and explaining their different advantages/disadvantages.

#1: YUKA

Probably the most well-known application! Initially designed to help users scrutinize the content of their food products, Yuka has been extended to the cosmetics field.
This new functionality follows the same basic principle as food. After scanning the barcode of your products, Yuka analyzes their composition and provides you with a detailed product sheet. The application also offers users the ability to identify the impact of each product on their health, via the assignment of a score out of 100 and a simple color code (Green: Excellent/Good, Orange: Mediocre, Red: Bad).

Today, Yuka is one of the most used "scan apps" by consumers.
And we understand why: The scan is very responsive and for the "laziest" it's ideal: a score out of 100 will help decide in a few seconds whether the product is suitable or not.

However, its scoring system can sometimes be controversial because it does not take into account the quantity of each ingredient in a formula.
As a precautionary principle, the application is generally stricter and has decided to penalize all components with any risk, even a supposed one.
Thus, some ratings can be "relativized" since the presence in tiny quantities of even supposedly harmful products can lead to a very low score.

For example, a product containing 0.02% of a non-dangerous essential oil (but potentially allergenic for some people) could be rated 50/100, just like a product containing 50% essential oil (which could then become riskier in terms of reaction).

On the other hand, without necessarily intending to, Yuka favors foreign products in terms of scoring: cosmetic regulations being stricter in Europe than in the USA, products tend to be better rated.

Why?
For example, a French brand is obliged to detail all the ingredients present in the perfume of its formula, which often lowers its score insofar as these are most often considered allergenic, whereas an American brand will just note "perfume" in its composition, without detailing it...

Lemon essential oil, for example, will lower the score to around 50/100, just because it is a potentially allergenic substance for some people allergic to this essential oil... But not for everyone...
In this logic: 2 identical products in terms of composition could be given a score of 50/100 for a French product (forced to precisely detail the composition) to 100/100 for an American product... Not very fair.

When questioned on this subject, Yuka replies: "Regarding products for which European regulations do not apply, we do not have a solution at present but we are thinking about it."

While awaiting a solution, be vigilant and don't blindly trust the ratings; try to dig a little deeper.

On a large scale, the application remains reliable for consumers looking to track the slightest trace of products that could have an impact on their health, and especially those who don't really want to know more about the ingredients in question but just want to know if it's well rated or not. Quick and practical.

#2: CLEAN BEAUTY

The functioning of this second application is a little different from Yuka's. Clean Beauty requires scanning the INCI list of your cosmetic product to decipher all the ingredients and then identify those that could be controversial. Unlike other scan applications, Clean Beauty does not assign a score or a color code to the analyzed products.

The application has a more pedagogical aim: it allows the user to understand the final purpose of each ingredient, while revealing those that may be harmful. In addition, it offers a complete glossary of ingredients, very useful for understanding the meaning of the elements on the INCI list for yourself.

In short, the application aims to inform the user but does not directly take a stance on the product's impact on their health. Clean Beauty, for example, does not assign "good" or "not great" labels as its main competitors do. This application is therefore not necessarily the best for consumers who want to compare several products or who are simply looking for a score that allows them to position their purchases on a given scale.

#3: INCI BEAUTY

INCI Beauty also allows you to scan your cosmetics via their barcodes, to analyze their respective ingredient lists.
Like Clean Beauty, it has a free search engine, allowing consumers to directly search for a specific product or ingredient without needing to scan it.
For each item, the platform offers a summary sheet with a score out of 20 and a color code according to the product's classification (Satisfactory, Not Great, Controversial...).

As you will have understood, this third and final application is therefore a cross between Yuka and Clean Beauty. Combining both a scoring system and a glossary allowing the consumer to inform themselves, INCI Beauty seems to be the right mix between pedagogy and tracking.

However, the application has a less extensive database than its competitors, and may therefore be limited to the most well-known brands.
Furthermore, INCI Beauty offers its users a top 5 of the most consulted and best-rated products, intended to guide them in their purchasing choices.
This top can sometimes be controversial insofar as it only takes into account mass-market products: the proposed top is therefore not that of the "best products for health" but that of the "best products that are most popular."
These rankings, which tend to influence consumers, should therefore be put into perspective according to certain criteria.

Ultimately, which application to choose?

In terms of final choice, there is no real right or wrong decision.
It all depends on the information you are looking to obtain.
Applications such as Yuka will allow you to quickly access a global product sheet, with a score out of 100, while Clean Beauty will allow you to analyze and understand the purpose of each cosmetic ingredient in more detail.

In short, whatever your choice, it is important to understand that all scores awarded deserve a degree of relativism.
It is possible that all the products you scan with these different applications will not get the same score due to differences in the scoring systems in place.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that in Europe, all cosmetic products are subject to strict tests before being placed on the market, and a zero-tolerance policy applies to dangerous products.

The right reflex is therefore to choose products that are good for you by favoring those with natural formulations, which are less likely to be dangerous for your health. For example, we wrote an article on deodorants and why you should pay particular attention to their composition if that interests you!

At Les Petits Prödiges, we are committed to offering 100% natural cosmetics to enable you and your whole family to adopt a healthy, green and sexy beauty routine!
And what's more, we don't hesitate to communicate about our ingredients, as in this article on the multi-purpose balm!