Heather Orchard
- Feb 27, 2022
- 7 min read

Think Dirty App. Review

Updated: Mar 8, 2022

We have all seen "natural" "clean" "organic" and even "vegan" products become the newest

biggest trend that has entered the market within the last 5 - 10 years. From everything to cleaning products, personal care products, baby products, food, vitamins, supplements, and much more!

Society as a whole has become more aware and considerate about the products they are purchasing and consuming. With all of the new information, we have right within our fingertips anything can be researched, found, taught, and learned directly from the world wide web.

There are plenty of great reasons to begin using natural skincare products. A 2015 study found that natural ingredients such as plant extracts were a safe and cost-effective alternative to synthetic products. Not to mention, the plant extracts were also found to be beneficial to the skin, too.

Behind the App. - Creator of Think Dirty

Based out of Toronto, Canada, Lily Tse is the creator of the Think Dirty - Stay Clean App., which has reinvented the way more consumers purchase the products they use on a daily basis.

About the App.

The Think Dirty - Stay Clean App launched in 2013 and was created to help consumers to learn about the potentially toxic ingredients that are in cosmetics and personal care products.

The app has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars. The barcode scanning feature works with over 2 million beauty and personal care products from Canada and the United States.

What is so great about The Think Dirty - Stay Clean App is that it’s free, easy to use! Not only does it give you a breakdown of each product's ingredients and score's its overall "cleanness" but it also allows for customers to rate the product, leave reviews, and provides a "shop now" button to direct links of where you can purchase products directly from the app. I really love that if you want to you can also just type in a brand or product name in the search bar to view products, if you aren't in the store shopping or don't have a barcode for current products you have at home and have been using.

To check products at the store before you buy them you can scan the products bar code and the Think Dirty App will pull up the product, customer rating of the product, and the breakdown of the products ingredient list "clean" "half and half" "dirty" and "not rated." Every product is rated from 0-10, with 0 being completely safe and 10 being the least safe.

Using the Think Dirty App. is much easier to use than having to google cosmetic ingredients. There are some well-known and reliable cosmetic ingredient websites out there, one that is the most popular is the EWG Healthy Living website. Although, if you're anything like me, I strive for convince and efficiency in everything I do, so the Think Dirty App. is the faster alternative for me.

If you didn't know I am a huge makeup and skincare junkie. After I downloaded the Think Dirty App. I began scanning and searching all of my favorite beauty products as well as what I currently use and what I have stored on my makeup vanity. Now, I was already prepared for some of my favorite products to not be the cleanest, and it be honest they weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be. What actually surprised me was that some of the products that I thought would be clean weren't. That was insightful for me to see and be more cognitively aware of.

What qualifies a product to be natural?

Having been in the makeup industry and in the marketing industry for a very long time, it is not shocking that brands use deceptive marketing and advertising tactics to sell themselves as nature-based, mineral-based, or plant-based to make consumers believe that their products have the cleanest, healthiest, and purest form of ingredients, when in all actuality that is just a partial truth.

So, what qualifies products to be natural? Unfortunately, there is no real definition or answer for what qualifies as natural products. Even the FDATrusted Source is unable to regulate what is marketed as “natural,” as there is still very little research that has gone into understanding the benefits of natural products.

The Department of Agriculture may certify products as being "natural" as well as some skincare agencies such as NATRUE could certify products as being "natural" - in other words, not all-natural products are regulated.

Sourced from Healthline, "Natural could mean naturally occurring, naturally derived, or nature-identical. Because of this, it is always important to check the ingredients of the product."

What I Look For:

When shopping for "clean" beauty and self-care products: Non-GMO, Paraben-Free, Vegan, Organic, No Hormones or Antibiotics, Non-Toxic, Chemical Free, Alcohol-Free, No Artificial Fragrances, No Added Colors, and Cruelty-Free or Not Tested on Animals.

Using the Think Dirty App was a lot of fun to do and was very educational as well. To say the least, I will be going through all of my beauty products - tossing some and replacing a bunch with cleaner healthier options.

Here are my "Holy Grail" beauty products that I will be keeping:

Here are some beauty products that I will be replacing:

Here are some beauty products that I will be buying:

How to "like" and "share" products from Think Dirty

If you love the product, just tap the “heart" icon. You can also share your favorite products with friends on social or through text. I even love that you can click the "shop" button and it takes you directly to the product's website to purchase directly from the manufacturer. Think Dirty emphasizes that you buy products through their affiliate links to keep the app free.

How to Shop from Think Dirty

Another feature about the Think Dirty App. is the "shop" button, which allows you to buy products right away, directly from their affiliate websites.

Think Dirty Beauty Box

The company has also jumped on the subscription box bandwagon. This box contains 8 to 10 hand-picked luxury beauty items that are rated clean! It is valued at over $300, and you can get it for just $129. However, if you pay upfront for 12 months of boxes, you will only pay $69.95 a month!

For something a little cheaper, there is also the Clean Beauty Roulette Box. This will contain a selection of clean beauty goodies – a minimum of $150+ worth of beauty + wellness products, including makeup, skincare, and more!

You can get information about all the products included here.

Is the Think Dirty App Accurate?

This has been a very diverse topic. Think Dirty's ratings are determined based on publicly available data released by non-profit and government agencies in North America regarding the health and safety of the individual components found in personal care products. There are still some substantial gaps in data.

Think Dirty assess the overall risk of a given product based on the potential health impacts of its published ingredients. Each ingredient listed on the product label or manufacturer’s website is evaluated for documented evidence of Carcinogenicity, Developmental, Reproductive Toxicity, Allergenicity, and Immunotoxicity.

Sourced directly from the Think Dirty website, "Evaluations are performed by a Chemistry Team and Advisory Board, all of whom have extensive experience in relevant fields such as Medicine, Biochemistry, Biology, Physiology, Environmental Toxicology, Environmental Health and Safety, and Chemical Engineering. These members have a track record of working with Health Canada, the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency, Environment Canada, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and other related government and not-for-profit agencies."

If a product has a "blue checkmark" it has undergone heavy research to be certified by credible certifiers, the overall product ratings will be reviewed and evaluated on a case by case basis. Not very many products have this checkmark of certification.

How Are Products Rated?

Sourced directly from the Think Dirty website, "If several ingredients in a given product receive high ratings, the product itself is automatically assigned a Think Dirty® rating of 10. It is important to note that even though some of the ingredients in personal care products may be present in very small quantities, the likelihood of significant repeated exposure is high due to the frequency with which personal care products are typically used. It is widely acknowledged that even low-level exposure to known toxins can have deleterious effects on human health if the exposure is repeated and long-term."

On a case-by-case basis, some products’ overall ratings might not default to the highest rating of any given ingredients. For example, if the total percentage of 4-7 rated ingredients is less than 5%, the outcome of the overall ratings might not default to the highest rating of any individual ingredient. This is where information is skewed on how each product is rated. I tend to disregard this rating and look over the total ingredients, separating the clean ingredients from dirty ingredients to the ones that are still potentially harmful or part clean/dirty. Now I am navigating towards more brands that I know and can verify that are truly clean, vegan, organic,

* The information below is directly sourced from the Think Dirty website:

• Barcode Scanning: 1.9 Million cosmetics and personal care products majority from Canada and the U.S. have been submitted to the Think Dirty - Stay Clean App. and a database of 4.5 k brands.

• Search by Ingredients (Premium): Unlock to get detailed information about its usage, health impact, sources, and also which products contain such ingredients.

• Search by Curated Categories (Premium Feature): Unlock to access our curated specialty lists such as Mineral Sunscreens, SLES-Free Skincare, Vegan Makeup

• Dirty Meter®: A comprehensive rating is given, along with detailed (but easy-to-understand) information on ingredients, certifications, and health impacts.

• My Bathroom Rating: Keep track of what’s already in your bathroom. Learn your current bathroom rating, and track your progress on “cleaning” it up.

• Upvote Non-Rated Products: Let your voices be heard! Upvote and we will aggregate user responses and reach out to brands on users’ behalf to encourage them to get their products verified and rated.

• Shopping Lists: Save products to make shopping faster and easier.

• Shop Now: Buy products directly from Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Well.ca, Sephora.com, Amazon.co.uk.

• UPC Submission: Are we missing a product? Use your device's camera to scan its barcode and capture the list of ingredients with OCR, then submit it to us. For registered users who submit products, we thank you and will notify you once they are in our database.

Click Here To See Think Dirty's Top 10 Products In Each Beauty Category