How We Read Labels

Four layers, in order

Skin-care shelves are arranged by brand and by promise. We arrange this site by the order in which products go on your skin, because the order is the one thing a basic routine really needs to get right. Every product entry sits in exactly one of four layers, and the homepage stacks those layers like a cross-section: the first thing you apply sits closest to the skin, the last thing sits on top.

The full ingredient list, on every entry

Every product entry prints the product's complete ingredient list in a monospace strip, in the same order and spelling the label uses. We do not shorten it, we do not skip the long chemical names, and we do not rearrange it to put the attractive ingredients first. The two to five ingredients we discuss in the entry are highlighted in the strip, so you can see where they fall in the list.

Position in the list matters because, under FDA rules, cosmetic ingredients are generally declared in descending order of predominance, with an exception for ingredients present at one percent or less, which may be listed in any order after the rest. That is why an ingredient named on the front of a pack but printed near the end of the list tells you something. For sunscreens, the active ingredients and their percentages are printed separately at the top of the Drug Facts panel, and we print them the same way. Our guide How to Read an Ingredient List on a Skin-Care Label explains the details.

How a product earns a page

Every product entry has to pass the same checks before we write it up. If it fails one, it does not get a page.

• An established brand with a live listing on Amazon.com. We open the listing ourselves and confirm the title, the brand, the exact size or variation, and that it can be ordered. We do not write about products we could only find through a search page or a reseller.
• The label, read in full. We compare the ingredient list on the Amazon listing with the brand's own current product page and print the one we can best confirm, saying which source we used. When the two disagree, for example because a formula changed, we say so on the page.
• Front-of-pack words, checked against the back. "Fragrance-free", "gentle", "hypoallergenic" and "non-comedogenic" are the brand's own words. We report them as the brand's claims and check the ingredient list for what they do and do not mean. Where a term has no official definition, we say that too.
• A price with a date on it. Every price on this site says when we saw it, which size and which seller, and gives a price per ounce where that helps comparison. A price is only true on that day. We never write "currently", and we ask you to check the Amazon page before buying.
• Evidence in proportion. For key ingredients and for general skin-care guidance we use primary and authoritative sources: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the American Academy of Dermatology, the National Institutes of Health and its MedlinePlus service, and peer-reviewed research on PubMed. We describe what those sources say, with the hedges left in.
• A place in the order. Each entry says which layer the product belongs to, with one honest sentence per layer, and gives a short numbered sequence for where it goes in a morning or evening routine. The steps say when and how to apply it, following the label's own directions, not what will happen to your skin.

How we make money

Derma Vitality News earns money in exactly one way: the Amazon Associates program. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Every product button on this site goes to that product's Amazon listing, and if you buy through it we receive a small commission from Amazon at no extra cost to you.

There is no other affiliate program, no direct-seller link, no sponsored post, no paid placement, and no free product accepted in exchange for coverage. A brand cannot pay for a page here, and the commission rate on a product plays no part in whether it gets one or in what the entry says. The full version is in our Affiliate Disclosure.

What we do not do

• We do not test products on people or in a laboratory. We are a small editorial team. We read labels, listings and sources; we do not run wear tests, SPF tests or lab analyses, and we never imply that we did.
• We do not give medical advice. Nothing here is written for your particular skin. If you have a skin condition, use prescription skin products, are pregnant or nursing, or react to a product, talk to a dermatologist, pharmacist or other clinician. That caution sits on every relevant page on purpose.
• We do not promise what your skin will do. No outcome photos, no timelines, no promises about how your skin will look. A routine here is an order of steps; what it does for you depends on your skin.
• We do not write for conditions. Our entries and guides are written for a healthy adult with no known skin condition. We do not present any product as a remedy for anything, and we keep condition names out of our headlines.
• We do not invent people. The byline on every page is Derma Vitality News Editorial Team. There is no fictional dermatologist reviewing entries and no named influencer or celebrity, because we would rather you judge the sourcing than a face.
• We do not sell or ship anything. Every purchase happens on Amazon under Amazon's own terms. See Shipping and Returns.

Who writes this

Derma Vitality News is published by ELEMENTAL HERBS, INC., a company based in Morro Bay, California. The pages are written and maintained by a small editorial team of ordinary adults. We are not dermatologists, pharmacists or cosmetic chemists, and we do not claim to be. What we bring is a process: open the listing, read the whole label, check the brand's own page, find the authoritative source, date the price, write it plainly, and say when we could not confirm something.

Corrections

If something on this site is wrong, we want to fix it: a price that has moved, an ingredient list that has been reformulated, a percentage we misread, a source we described too generously, a link that has died. Write to us through the Contact page with the page address, the sentence or ingredient you believe is wrong and, if you have one, a source we can open ourselves.

When we confirm an error we correct the page and update its date. If the correction changes what the entry actually says about a product, we add a short note on the page saying what changed. We do not quietly rewrite history.

How often pages are reviewed

Every product entry and guide carries the date its label or sources were last read. Our working rule is to re-open every Amazon listing we link to at least once a quarter, confirming that the ASIN still leads to the same product and size, that it can still be ordered, and that the ingredient list has not changed, and to re-check a price whenever we touch a page for any reason. Between reviews a listing or a formula can change without telling us, which is why the date on the page is the only date that counts. If you are relying on an ingredient list, for example to avoid something you react to, read the label on the product you actually receive.

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