AUA – Ask Us Anything

Q: How is Think Dirty funded?

A: Think Dirty was seeded by our founder, the Canadian government, grants from non-profit startup organizations, and a few angel investors who have no affiliations whatsoever with any beauty industry. To keep an independent business sustainable, our founder decided early on that the monetization model must strike a balance between meeting users and brand partners’ needs. Our mission is to connect to both users and clean beauty brand partners. Building and maintaining our database takes time and resources. Working with clean beauty brands who value these efforts is the best way to keep Think Dirty sustainable and independent. This allows us to keep the app free and be accessible for everyone while working toward our mission. While we are a for-profit business, we are also purpose-driven. This means that our values come first and monetization comes second. We will never compromise our standards in order to increase our revenue. Being a for-profit business allows us to support clean beauty brands in a sustainable way and help to enact real change in the industry.

Q: Can any beauty brands pay to improve their ratings by providing false or misleading information?

A: Absolutely not, brands are able to supply additional information such as fragrance components in order to improve the accuracy of their rating.

Q: Are brands required to form paid partnerships with Think Dirty in order to update their ratings with more accurate information?

A: No, a partnership is not required to perform an update of a product listing. There is a one-time fee associated with a product update. Please fill out this form to start this process.

Q: Why does Think Dirty charge a fee when brands simply want to update their listings?

A: We are a small team and we do our best to provide the most up-to-date and accurate information. The process of reviewing new information and updating a listing is extremely time-consuming. In order to pay our team members fairly for their time, we must be compensated for the time spent on the update.

Q: Why is fragrance often listed as an 8 in Think Dirty rating, even when it is 100% natural?

A: Due to an industry loophole, companies are not required to disclose fragrance components. This is due to the fact that most fragrances are proprietary formulations (its intellectual property is owned by the company). Even 100% natural fragrance can still have hidden undisclosed components, which could be potentially toxic. In order to protect our app users, we err on the side of caution when it comes to fragrance. The fee we charge is for the time and efforts to have this process carried out.

Q: Can a company update its fragrance rating if its formulation is truly non-toxic and they have a clear internal policy of how they source ingredients?

A: Yes, we encourage companies to reach out and provide documentation of the composition of their fragrance if they believe it meets our standards. This is the only way to verify if the fragrance formulation is truly non-toxic. In order to complete this review, we provide the protection of a mutual non-disclosure agreement. This allows companies to disclose, in detail, their unique fragrance formulation without fear of it becoming public knowledge. We review these components and adjust the rating accordingly. In these cases, you will have the fragrance listed as “Non-toxic proprietary fragrance”. This allows companies to protect their fragrance formulation while allowing us to protect and inform consumers.

Q: What does a partnership entail?

A: We partner with brands both big and small to help promote them to new audiences. Our goal with these partnerships is to help grow these amazing clean beauty brands who are revolutionizing the industry. Our Verified Brand Partners. are distinguished in-app by a green verified checkmark ✅. You will also see them featured on our social media pages. All Verified Brand Partners are fully vetted and must meet our standards. This includes vetting their fragrance components. We will not promote brands or products that don’t meet our rating criteria of being between 0-3 on the toxicity scale.

Q: Is your company associated with P&G?

A: We are aware of the misinformation about this already debunked information since 2018, we have written a lengthy post to clarify. We can assure you that we have not been bought by P&G nor any other company. We remain an independent company, P&G does not own shares in our company nor are they investors. We are owned by our original founder Lily Tse. Our main goal is to highlight and explain the possible impacts of a given product on an individual’s health, and our rating methodology reflects that singular commitment.