The Red List
The ingredients, ingredient families and concentration thresholds we screen out when curating products for sensitive, reactive skin. Each entry has a published rationale and a clearly stated rule.
Read the rationale behind each rule
Open any entry for the full evidence review, label-reading guidance and the exact curation rule.
Hard exclusions
6 entriesIngredient and ingredient-family rules used across product screening, with the precise basis stated in each guide.
Fragrance / Parfum
A broad scent category that can hide multiple aroma chemicals and declared allergens behind a single label term.
Hard exclusionSLS / SLES
Two related anionic surfactants excluded from the reactive-skin curation, with SLS carrying the stronger irritancy case.
Hard exclusionAlcohol Denat and drying alcohols
Low-molecular-weight alcohols screened when they appear high in the INCI list as a primary vehicle; fatty alcohols are not included.
Vehicle-level exclusionMethylisothiazolinone (MI/MCI)
Potent isothiazolinone preservatives with a well-documented sensitisation history and tight UK and EU restrictions.
Hard exclusionParabens
A precautionary class exclusion where the regulatory and scientific picture is more reassuring than the marketing narrative suggests.
Precautionary exclusionSelected chemical UV filters
Oxybenzone, octinoxate and avobenzone are screened individually; this is not a blanket rejection of all organic UV filters.
Hard exclusionConcentration-threshold exclusion
1 ruleA strength limit rather than a categorical rejection of the ingredients themselves.