How Analyze Works
Analyze looks at the products in a routine and tells you how they work together. It’s about how your products relate to each other, not how well they suit your skin. That’s a separate question.
What it looks at
Analyze reads the key active ingredients listed for each product and maps them to a set of well-known hero ingredients — things like retinol, vitamin C, niacinamide, AHAs, and BHAs. It then checks for known interactions between those ingredients across your collection.
Because it works from each product’s labeled actives, it sees what’s on the label — not every ingredient, and not concentrations. A product may contain more than what’s shown.
The three outcomes
Every interaction falls into one of three groups:
Avoid — combinations that genuinely work against each other, either by breaking one another down or by meaningfully raising the risk of irritation. These are rare, and when one shows up it’s worth acting on.
Space out — combinations that are fine to use, but work better apart — usually separated by time of day, or with a gap between them, so each one can do its job. You don’t have to give anything up; just don’t layer them in the same step.
Pairs well — combinations that complement each other, where using them together is a good thing.
Evidence and myths
Skincare advice online is full of “never mix these” rules, and a lot of them simply aren’t true. So every interaction we flag is weighed by how well it’s actually supported — established, debated, or myth — and we’ll tell you when a popular warning doesn’t hold up.
For instance, “niacinamide cancels out vitamin C” and “retinol and exfoliating acids can never be used together” are both widely repeated and largely myths. We’d rather show you what the evidence says than scare you off combinations that are fine. We don’t do fear.
What Analyze isn’t
It’s not personalized to your skin. It doesn’t know your skin type, your sensitivities, or what’s worked for you — so a “space out” might be perfectly fine for you, and a “pairs well” might still not agree with you. Your own experience comes first.
It doesn’t capture everything. Concentration, formulation, pH, and the specific form of an ingredient all affect how products behave, and a label can’t tell us all of that.
It’s educational, not medical advice. If you have a skin condition or a specific concern, a dermatologist is the right call.
Analyze is a starting point for thinking about your collection — a knowledgeable second opinion, not the final word.