What this site is, and what it isn't

Education, not medical advice

Everything on DermApproved — product reviews, ingredient pages, therapy guides, question libraries, blog articles, calculators, and quizzes — is published for general educational purposes. It describes what is publicly documented about ingredients, formulations, conditions, and the therapies clinicians use. It does not constitute medical advice, and it is not a substitute for consultation with a physician, dermatologist, pharmacist, or other qualified health professional.

Skin conditions vary enormously between individuals, and several common conditions closely resemble one another. General information cannot account for that. Decisions about whether a condition is present, what is causing it, and how it should be managed belong to a clinician who can examine the skin in person and take a full history.

No clinician–patient relationship

Using this site — including creating a free account, completing a skin profile, entering results into a tool, or saving photographs to a private library — does not create a clinician–patient relationship with DermApproved, with its editors, or with any clinician who has reviewed or commented on its content. No one at DermApproved examines a reader, forms a clinical impression of a reader, or takes responsibility for a reader's care.

Content described as reviewed by a named clinician has been checked for factual accuracy against published guidance. Such a review concerns the accuracy of the page. It is not an opinion about any individual reader, and it does not extend the reviewer's professional responsibility to anyone reading it.

Personalisation is not assessment

Several parts of the site adapt to information a visitor chooses to enter — a skin type, a concern, an age band, ingredients to be filtered out. This is preference matching. It selects which of the site's existing pages are shown first, in the same way a search filter narrows a catalogue.

It is not an assessment of anybody's skin, and no output of it should be read as one. A concern selected on this site is a stated preference, not a confirmed condition; the site has no way to verify it and does not attempt to. Verdicts, grades, scores, and matches describe products measured against published evidence — never a person. A verdict such as “Strong choice for acne” is DermApproved's assessment of how well a product's ingredients fit a concern, read from a published rule over the documented standing of its actives; it is not a claim that the product treats, prevents or cures anything, and no product on this site is represented as a drug unless its own labelling says so.

The same applies to the severity calculators and self-scoring tools. Instruments such as these are used in clinical practice by trained assessors alongside an examination. Self-scored, they give an approximate picture useful for tracking change over time and for describing a problem accurately at an appointment. They do not establish what a condition is.

Therapy guides and prescription information

The therapy guides describe how dermatologists approach particular conditions, including prescription medicines and in-office procedures. These descriptions exist so that the shape of care is legible before an appointment rather than after it, and so that the limits of over-the-counter skincare are stated honestly.

They are written from published clinical guidance and the studies cited on each page, and they describe therapies at the level of what a treatment is and what the evidence shows about it. They contain no dosing guidance, recommend no specific medicine to any reader, and rank no drug against another. Which therapy is appropriate in a given case, if any, is a clinical decision that depends on an examination, a history, and factors no web page has access to.

Prescription medicines carry risks, interactions, and contraindications that are not exhaustively listed here. Any medicine should be discussed with the prescribing clinician or a pharmacist, and information published on this site should never be used to start, stop, adjust, or substitute a prescribed treatment.

Signs that need a clinician promptly

No page on this site is a reason to postpone care. Circumstances in which published guidance is consistent that a clinician should be seen without delay include: a mole or pigmented lesion that is new, changing, bleeding, or does not heal; a rapidly spreading rash; skin that is hot, swollen, or painful with fever; any eye involvement alongside a skin condition; a severe blistering reaction; and any skin change accompanied by difficulty breathing or swelling of the face, lips, or tongue, which is a medical emergency.

In an emergency, the correct action is to contact local emergency services or attend an emergency department — not to consult a website.

Accuracy, currency, and error

Content is researched against published sources and cited where a specific claim rests on a specific study. Formulations change without notice, prices change constantly, availability differs by market, and clinical guidance is revised as evidence accumulates. Information accurate on the date of publication may not be accurate on the date it is read, and no warranty is given that any page is complete, current, or free of error.

Ingredient lists in particular should always be confirmed against the physical packaging before use, especially where an allergy or a specific sensitivity is involved. Corrections are welcome and acted on — they can be sent through the feedback page.

How the site is funded

DermApproved earns affiliate commission on some links to retailers. When a product is bought through one of those links, the site may receive a small commission at no additional cost to the buyer. This funds the research and writing.

Commission does not influence what is written. Products are assessed by a published, reproducible method against evidence, not against commercial terms; brands cannot pay for coverage, for a verdict, for a grade, for a place on a list, or for an editorial recommendation. The methodology and how the site works pages set out exactly how grades are produced.

The therapy guides carry no monetisation at all — no affiliate links past the over-the-counter section, no advertising, no sponsorship, and no referral commission of any kind, including from telehealth services. Where the honest answer is that a clinician is needed, there is nothing on the page for the site to sell.

External links and third-party content

Pages link to published research, clinical guidelines, regulatory documents, brand sites, and retailers. Those destinations are not controlled by DermApproved and their content is not endorsed by it. Statements made by manufacturers about their own products are treated as claims to be assessed, not as established fact.

Limitation of liability

This site and everything on it are provided on an “as is” basis, without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, DermApproved and its contributors accept no liability for any loss, injury, or damage arising from reliance on information published here, from the use or misuse of any product mentioned, or from any delay in seeking professional care.

Where local law grants rights that cannot be excluded, nothing on this page limits them.