Think Dirty: App Review

My world has been busy these days, but I’m back to talk beauty because even though I’ve been doing a billion other things, I’m thinking around the clock about everything I want to share with you!

Just yesterday, a friend told me about ‘Think Dirty,’ an app that tells you how toxic your personal care and beauty products are by carcinogenicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity and allergies and immunotoxicities. You can scan your product barcode (great when you’re shopping, but potentially terrifying when the product is already in your medicine cabinet), or searching their database of 81K + products. I’m not necessarily the most committed to using all-natural and organic products, but I’m definitely open to experimenting with natural alternatives. I’m currently loving coconut oil and tea tree oil and use them regularly in my regimen, combined with my other chemical-ridden products. And while I was already expecting many of those to be pretty toxic, it was still pretty alarming to see many of them scanned in as 9s and 10s, 10 being the most toxic. And even more alarming, still, was seeing their carcinogenic toxicity - scary stuff!

My scans included my Lady Speed Stick (yikes!) and Revlon’s Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain (a current favorite — all their new balms are so moisturizing!), which came in at a 6. This was probably one of my less toxic products - go Revlon!

But because I’m aware there are already a number of toxic elements in my own environment that I have no control over, after the initial state of alarm I made peace with the fact that many of the products I love so dearly could do serious harm in the long run. I’ll cross my fingers and hope for the best, but it’s still nice to open up that conversation with myself and begin to consider alternatives. I’m just not yet willing to toss all the wonderful products in my arsenal — they cost money, and are so pretty! And even if I wanted to, the app, which claims to find cleaner alternatives to what you’re using, found no clean alternatives for many of my products. I won’t even begin to ponder why as that may induce another panic attack altogether. And the truth is, I love my Urban Decay products, I love my Tarte products, I love my Caudalie Beauty Elixir (all in the 9s and 10s). I refuse to part with them.

So if you’re more concerned about toxicity than I am, and I know many of you are (I applaud you for loving yourself!), then this app may be super helpful. Some things I noticed while navigating - scanning the barcodes is quick and easy, but there were issues scanning in smaller barcodes (like on the bottom of nail polish bottles). And while the database is supposed to be robust, many of my products didn’t exist. And not no-name products, but big drugstore brands like L’Oreal. They do, however, give you the option of adding products if they don’t already have what you’re looking for and the database continues to grow.

The app itself was created by Lily Tse, who has a family history of breast cancer and learned a lot about toxic chemicals used in cosmetics that can contribute to this and similar cancers; she recently partnered with the Breast Cancer Fund and the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to work on the app. Overall, I think it’s fantastic and I’m keeping it in my phone. I’m excited to see it (and the revolution for safer cosmetics) grow.

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