1. Do you have any tips on evaluating the reliability of scientific studies/journal articles?

I know some key things to check: the article’s citations, the conflict of interest statement, the sample size and methodology if it’s a study, other papers published by the author. And I have a solid grasp on utilizing critical thinking skills.

But I was wondering if there were other red flags to look out for? For example, I know some articles are peer reviewed and some aren’t – is there an easy way to check this and is that one of the things to look for?

2. Do you know of any sites/apps that allow one to reliably track or quickly check products for specific ingredients/find products that don’t contain said ingredients?

I was recently diagnosed with an allergy to sodium benzoate which I’m sure you know is in a LOT of stuff. I need to replace most of my soaps, hair care products, skincare products, etc. and it’s proving to be very frustrating and time consuming because I haven’t found an easy way to just look up a list of specific products with specific features (like scent, usage concerns, etc) that don’t contain sodium benzoate.

I’ve tried all the popular ones I could find (SkinSafe, Yuka, Think Dirty, Clearya, INCI database) but unfortunately I keep running into issues where they’re either difficult to use/buggy, don’t reliably have accurate lists of ingredients, or don’t have a large selection of products available in my country (US). I’m hoping there’s a better way to do this than just manually checking the ingredients of every product available in a specific category in a store or on a store’s website. :/

That’s fantastic to hear! I’m really happy to have helped 🙂

A while back, when I was preparing for a trip to Hawaii (before I found your channel), I was searching for a good sunscreen to take with me. I stumbled across the EWG sunscreen ratings, and I remember how overwhelmed I felt reading about “toxic” ingredients and “unsafe” products — I was so scared I couldn’t even sleep that night!

Since then, I’ve dug deeper, found more reliable sources, and learned what EWG is really about and why we shouldn’t trust them, haha. Your videos have been a big part of that process. They’ve clarified so many skincare myths and made it easier to navigate all the noise out there.

Thank you for putting in the effort to share such well-researched content. It’s incredibly helpful for those of us without a science background!

Best regards,
Marina

#fangirl