Beyond the label
theskindex is an evidence-graded index of skincare ingredients and a newsroom for what the science and the regulators actually say.
Most skincare writing starts from a product and works backwards to a justification. We start from the ingredient, the trials, and the regulatory record, and stop where the evidence stops.
What's here
The Index — one entry per ingredient: what it is, what it does, how strong the evidence is for each claim, what concentration the trials used, and what each regulator permits. Safety statements carry a region tag and a source. Formulation ingredients — thickeners, emulsifiers, solvents, preservatives and the like — are marked Functional rather than given an evidence grade.
Articles and the Wire — longer reporting on evidence and regulation, and short dated items from the registers and journals we monitor.
Products — full ingredient lists parsed and linked to the Index, so you can see what's actually in the bottle.
How we work
theskindex is run by a small team: a chemical-engineering graduate studying cosmetic chemistry, and a developer. Most Index entries and wire items are first drafted by our automated desk from regulatory documents and the published literature. A draft becomes a reviewed page only when a named member of staff approves it in our admin; the page then shows who reviewed it and when. Pages that have not yet been reviewed say so plainly, are kept out of search indexes, feeds and llms.txt, and remain reachable only by direct link.
Every Index entry has a public revision history. Dates on the site are real: a page's creation and publication dates are never set earlier than they happened.
We do not sell products, take affiliate commissions, or accept sponsored content. See our editorial policy and methodology.
Contact
General enquiries: a public contact address is being set up and will be published here.