My skin profile
Describe your skin once and the whole site adapts to it — which products, routines and guides are shown first, and the reading worth the time.
About a minute. Everything after them is optional.
Your skin type Essential
Oil balance only — sensitivity is question 2, so you can be oily and sensitive Not sure? Take the 2-minute quiz →Every product we review lists which skin types it suits and which it doesn’t. Your answer powers the strongest single match signal on the site — “a best-for match for your oily skin”, or “listed not ideal for dry skin”, on every card and review you open.
How sensitive is your skin? Essential
This is the “sensitive skin” question — a separate axis from oily/dry, so most reactive skin is also oily, dry or combinationReactive skin changes verdicts: we flag formulas that score low on gentleness, anything fragranced, and common irritants — before you find out the hard way. Resilient skin gets the opposite courtesy: fewer needless warnings.
Your concerns & conditions Essential
Pick the 2 that bother you most — plus up to 2 scalp or nail concernsEvery product carries an evidence-based grade (A–F) per concern, and your picks decide which grades badge the cards you see — plus which reading, therapy guides, and new launches surface below. Capped at two because two is what a card can show: product cards carry two personal labels, so a third concern would never appear on one. Two also keeps the picks honest — the third is usually the “and also, I suppose” one.
Anything that has reacted on you? Essential
The strongest answer on this page — anything carrying these is marked “Not for you” and moved out of your lists into a collapsed “Hidden for your profile” sectionEvery other answer on this page moves a product up or down. This one takes it off the table. If a family has burned you before, no grade should talk you back into it, so anything carrying it drops into a collapsed “Hidden for your profile” section on every list — one tap from inspection, never silently censored — with the reason named on the product itself. Pick only what you actually react to: each one you tick is a real slice of the catalogue you stop seeing, and a preference you merely dislike costs you good products for nothing.
Not sure what counts as one? Read up on fragrance, essential oils, silicones, drying alcohol, chemical uv filters, parabens, sulfates, menthol or camphor and propylene glycol.
Anything we should flag? Optional
One tap if either applies — or “Neither applies” to check it offThese turn a warning on rather than filtering products away. Pregnancy flags every product whose ingredients aren’t considered safe in pregnancy — retinoids above all — on the page where you’d otherwise have to check the INCI list yourself; the guidance is the same if you’re trying to conceive, which is why one toggle covers both. Isotretinoin flags the exfoliants, extra retinoids and drying formulas most prescribers have you pause mid-course. Both stay flags rather than filters because those calls belong to you and your doctor, not to us.
Five more that decide how the site reads for you — sunscreen advice, how hard we push actives, which content branches you see (shaving, hormonal), how big a routine we build, and which ingredient conflicts we warn about.
Your skin tone Optional
How your skin responds to sun — the Fitzpatrick scaleThe Fitzpatrick scale measures sun response, not ethnicity. It tunes sunscreen picks — untinted mineral filters that leave a white cast, iron-oxide tints that add visible-light protection — and how carefully we pace irritating actives: on deeper tones, irritation can leave dark marks (post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation) that outlast the product.
Your age range Optional
Calibrates actives guidance — skin under 18 rarely needs potent actives, and the same concern deserves a different weight at different ages. It’s advisory only: your age never decides a match by itself.
Gender Optional
It routes content, never a match — and “prefer not to say” counts as answeredTwo branches of our library only apply to some people, and serving them to everyone is how a personalised page stops feeling personal. One is facial hair — shaving, beards and the skin underneath carry their own conditions (razor bumps are a diagnosis, not a grooming failure), and that is a growing body of answers, articles and products most readers never need. The other is hormonal: cycle-linked breakouts, pregnancy and menopause change what works, and some prescription routes are prescribed to one group and not the other. It never changes a product’s grade or filters the catalogue — your skin decides that, not this.
How much skincare do you actually do? Optional
Honest routine-sizing. If you keep skincare to a product or two, we’d rather point you at the one product that earns its slot than a six-step shelf — and the Routine Finder starts at the right size for you. There’s no correct answer here.
What you’re using now Optional
Actives already in your routine at least weekly — pick all that applyThe safety question. Some ingredients genuinely clash — benzoyl peroxide can deactivate prescription tretinoin, and a second retinoid or extra acids multiply irritation without adding results. Knowing what’s already in your routine lets us flag a real conflict on the exact product you’re looking at. Tick one and a few optional follow-ups appear — they are what stop those warnings being blunt. Adapalene holds up beside benzoyl peroxide where tretinoin does not; a salicylic cleanser is not the exfoliation load a weekly peel is; and a retinoid you started three weeks ago deserves a different answer from one you have used for years.
Ranking and availability — your price band breaks ranking ties, and your region shapes prescription guidance as we wire it in.
Your budget per product Optional
Within the same grade, products in your price range rank first, and anything above your band carries a note with its price. Nothing gets hidden — an A-grade stays an A-grade at any budget.
Where you shop Optional
Honest answer: today this changes the least of any question here. It doesn’t affect matches or grades — it’s groundwork for regional prescription guidance (adapalene is off-the-shelf in the US but prescription-only in Canada; azelaic acid 20% is a pharmacy purchase in Australia and prescription in the UK), which we’re wiring into the therapy guides. Answer it if you like; skip it freely. It stays on this device like everything else.
Saved on this device — no account needed. A free account backs it up and puts it on every device you sign in on. How your data works.