The innovative Think Dirty app makes clean beauty incredibly simple. No more reading impossible to understand ingredient labels and being green washed by beauty companies that still use toxic ingredients. This app makes cleaning up your beauty routine a snap! It’s never been easier to make an informed decision about what’s happening to your skin!
Life just got a whole lot easier for those of us trying to rid our beauty counters of harmful products! This innovative app will become your new best friend. In a nutshell, you scan a product’s barcode or search the database and find the rating or a specific product on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is clean and 10 is toxic. Using this app is absolutely the easiest way to make sure you’re using clean products minus the dirty ingredients! It is a game changer in the world of natural beauty.
Think Dirty has been around for quite some time and has grown significantly since I wrote this article in 2015.
The mobile app launched in the summer of 2013 with more than 68,300 products listed. According to their website, currently Think Dirty has now rated 9.54 brands, with 2.5 product submissions and 26.2 unique scans. Not to mention the 5.62 “dirty thinkers” who love the app.
Using the Dirty Meter, you can quickly and easily identify potentially toxic ingredients in your beauty routine, learn detailed product information, and replace dirty products with ease. Read on to find out why I recently rediscovered the Think Dirty app and how I use it to keep my daughters and I free of harmful chemicals.
What is Think Dirty?
Think dirty is an app that helps consumers rate the health and safety of beauty, personal care and household products.
Think Dirty evaluates products based on the ingredients listed on the package itself or through websites such as non-profit websites as well as government agencies.
“We assess the overall risk of a particular product based on the potential health effects of its published ingredients. Each ingredient listed on the product label or on the manufacturer’s website is evaluated for documented evidence of carcinogenicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, or allergenicity and immunotoxicity.”
Founder and CEO of Think Dirty, Lily Tse is literally leading the cause to take back control of our beauty products. Get serious – The bigger this app grows, the fewer skin care and makeup companies can continue to label their products as “natural” even though they contain harmful ingredients. The more the public boycotts toxic products, the more truly safe products will be available. We need to do our part to let the beauty industry know that toxic ingredients are no longer acceptable.
Not only does Think Dirty rate a product based on ingredient research, but it also allows users to leave product reviews. Think Dirty users can create their own profile where they can save their favorite products they’ve used for others to review.
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Why clean skin care should be a priority:
- There are 80,000 synthetic chemicals that have not been fully tested (Sources: Natural Resources Defense Council). In the US, the cosmetics industry has reviewed only 11 percent of the 10,500 cosmetic ingredients listed by the FDA (FDA 2000).
- Only 11 chemicals are banned in the US. The US is incredibly behind safety standards compared to other countries. Canada has a guideline for more than 650 and the European Union Health Commission has restricted over 1,300 chemicals.
- There are antiquated government regulations on cosmetics that haven’t been updated since 1930. The Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Act of 2013 has finally been introduced and is expected to be passed. However, there is no premarket approval requirement for cosmetics to be sold in the US and Canadian markets.
- There are no legal definitions of “Natural” and Organic. The use of words like “Natural” and “Organic” in cosmetics and personal care products can be used by anyone without proper proof.
- Fragrances are considered a trade secret and do not need to be listed on a product. Manufacturers are not required to label fragrance ingredient lists on the product label. Instead, the generic term “fragrance” is listed, representing a mixture of potentially dozens of chemicals.
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How products are rated:
According Think Dirty’s website:
Our ratings are determined based on publicly available data published by non-profit and government agencies in North America about the health and safety of the individual ingredients found in your personal care products. A list of our data sources can be found in Appendix A.
We assess the overall risk of a given product based on the potential health effects of its published ingredients. Every ingredient listed on the product label or on the manufacturer’s website is evaluated for documentary evidence Carcinogenesis, Developmental & Reproductive Toxicity and the Allergenicity & Immunotoxicityas shown in the table below.
Assessments are conducted by Think Dirty’s founder and advisory board, who have extensive experience in relevant fields such as Medicine, Biochemistry, Biology, Physiology, Environmental Toxicology, Environmental Health & Safety and Chemical Engineering, as well as and history of cooperation with Health Canada , the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, Environment Canada, the US Environmental Protection Agency and other relevant government and not-for-profit agencies.
One thing you might want to know is that Think Dirty automatically scores any product with a scent of 9 or higher. Fragrance is one of the most toxic ingredients. Although some perfumes come from nature, it is difficult to distinguish between different kinds of perfumes.
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How I use the Think Dirty app:
I pay $2.99 a month Think dirty. I’m not one to pay for an app, but I found this app to be incredibly useful. There is a free version that I found completely useless.
To be clear, having 2 daughters at the age where I wear makeup and need skincare, I’ve really strayed from my skincare values. I bought a few makeup items for convenience and price range hoping they wouldn’t be too toxic. Turns out some are good and 2 are really bad choices.
First, I added all of our products to my profile (or bathroom shelf as the app calls it) either using the search bar at the top of the home page or using the barcode feature. I was able to see their ratings and ingredients. I could also go over each individual ingredient and the potential dangers of the ingredient listed.
Once I identified the products that were “dirty”, I was able to use the search function again to find safer alternatives. For example, I typed “blush” into the search. I then used “Sort & Filter” to only show me items that had a rating from 0-3. Please note that if a product is rated 0, it is very likely that it has been uploaded to the app but no ingredients have been added. You can click on the product and easily see its ingredient list. If it has 0 or 1 component, it has not been properly uploaded to the application. If that’s the case, I go ahead and find an item that has it. Once you find a promising product, you can actually press the “SHOP” button on the bottom of the item and go directly to the website (often Amazon unless there is a website) and purchase products right then and there!
Within minutes I was able to find cleaner options for mine and my daughters makeup and skin care! Not to mention, you can also find product reviews to help you narrow down the items.
I will also use the app when exploring brands at retail stores like Target, Ulta, and Sephora. I can use the product barcode feature and quickly find the rating of a particular product before I buy it.
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Think Dirty Beauty Box Subscription:
Think Dirty is now offering a monthly beauty box. These make the perfect gift and also help you get safer products in the easiest way possible! Unlike other beauty boxes, you can buy 1 box or sign up to receive them on a regular basis. Think Dirty partners with clean 0-3 beauty brand sponsors to offer 8-10 hand-selected clean products in each box. The boxes are valued at over $200+ but are on sale for $129 each.
Sign up for 3, 6, 12 months to save more! 10% of all Beauty Box proceeds will go to a charity of your choice.
Get Think Dirty for free!
To get your free 1-week trial of the Think Dirty app, head over to App Store. I highly recommend giving this app a try. Give it a week and see if you find it useful. You may only need a week to clean out your beauty counter and find cleaner alternatives! You can cancel your subscription before your card is charged or at any time afterwards.
That’s genius, right?! You’d be surprised what “natural” products rate highly-It’s scary. So, download this app and you’re going crazy! Finding clean beauty products has never been easier!
xx, Jenny
