How the inthatScore works.
This page is long because we think you should be able to see the whole thing. We don't believe in a single mysterious number for a product as personal as skincare. Every score we give you is traceable to a rule we can show you.
What the score looks like
The inthatScore lives next to the product it describes, so a grade never travels alone. Four pillars, one headline, every ingredient visible if you want to dig.
Oshun
Clay Gel Cleanser
No EU-restricted ingredients, Leaping Bunny certified, and priced a fifth below the category median. Personal fit is strong for oily skin with a salicylic-acid concern.
- Safety88
- Ethics76
- Value92
- Personal Fit80
Sample product. Numbers are illustrative and calculated with the rules described below.
This cleanser scored a B+ because every pillar came in above 75, with Value leading at 92. The only weight pulling the grade down from an A is Ethics, where the brand holds Leaping Bunny but no organic or packaging certification yet.
- Top-scoring pillar
- Value · 92
- Lowest pillar
- Ethics · 76
- Headline weighting
- 45/25/30 generic
- Flags worth reading
- 2 fragrance allergens
INCI-ordered, the way regulators print it. Earlier ingredients appear at higher concentration. Flags come straight from our CosIng overlay — the same file the scoring engine uses for safety deductions.
2 ingredients are flagged. Tap any row for why.
Aqua
Solvent
Kaolin
Clay, absorbent
Glycerin
Humectant
Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate
Mild surfactant
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Co-surfactant
Salicylic Acid
BHA exfoliant
Bentonite
Clay
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice
Soothing
Panthenol
Skin conditioning
Niacinamide
Skin conditioning
Citric Acid
pH adjuster
Sodium Benzoate
Preservative
Potassium Sorbate
Preservative
Linalool
Fragrance component
Known contact allergen — matters if your profile flags it.
Limonene
Fragrance component
Known contact allergen — matters if your profile flags it.
Percentages are only shown when the brand publishes them. We don't invent numbers.
Live prices across merchants we partner with. Preferred is cheapest-or-tied and the cleanest checkout.
Credo Beauty
Free ship over $50
$18.00
Preferred
The Detox Market
Free ship over $40
$18.00
Amazon
Prime eligible
$19.50
The short version
We score every product on four things we can actually measure, and then we weight them by what matters to you specifically. That's it.
Safety. What's in the product, and what's known about those ingredients. We use the European Commission's CosIng database as our regulatory source. We flag ingredients the EU has banned or restricted. We flag known contact allergens. We flag ingredients with solid evidence of endocrine activity at the concentrations they appear in the product.
We do not deduct points for preservatives. We do not deduct points for synthetics. We do not use the word 'toxic' unless we mean it in the literal toxicological sense.
Ethics and sustainability. Verified third-party certifications held by the brand. B Corp, Leaping Bunny, COSMOS Organic, PETA Vegan, Climate Neutral, MADE SAFE, NSF/ANSI 305, Fair Trade, EWG Verified. Also recyclable and refillable packaging where we have the data.
We score certifications, not marketing claims. 'Clean' means nothing on its own. A Leaping Bunny certification is verifiable. We score the latter.
Value. How the price per milliliter compares to the category median. Whether a cheaper formulation-equivalent exists. Whether active ingredients appear at concentrations that justify the price.
This is the pillar people underestimate. A product can score well on safety and ethics and still be a bad buy because it's three times the price of an identical formula under a different brand.
Personal Fit. The other three pillars ask is this product any good? Personal Fit asks is this product any good for you?It re-weights every score against your skin type, your flagged allergens, your stated avoidances, your pregnancy status if applicable, and what's already on your shelf.
Without it, you get a generic score. With it, a product we'd rate a B for the average user can come back as a D for you — or the other way around. That difference is the product. See membership » $7/month, billed annually.
How the pillars combine
Each pillar is scored zero to one hundred. The headline score is a weighted average.
If you're not signed in, the weights are 45% Safety, 25% Ethics, 30% Value. No Personal Fit, because we don't know you.
If you're a paid user with a complete profile, the weights default to 30% Safety, 20% Ethics, 20% Value, 30% Personal Fit. You can adjust these in Settings.
What we deliberately don't do
We don't score based on natural vs synthetic. That distinction is scientifically meaningless. Water is natural. Hydroquinone is synthetic. Poison ivy is natural.
We don't fear-monger about preservatives. Parabens at the concentrations used in skincare have been studied extensively and the evidence of harm is thin.
We don't publish specific concentration estimates. INCI ordering tells us rough concentration tiers. We tell you the tier, not an invented number.
We don't count marketing claims as evidence. “Clean beauty” on a label is not a certification.
Algorithm changes
Every time we change the scoring algorithm, we publish the change here with a date and a brief explanation. Your old scans keep their original-version score. We don't silently revise history.
Ready to see one of your own? Send a photo to whats@inthat.