EWG's Healthy Living Reviews

by Burp

I just bought a lip balm from Honest because it had the EWG stamp of approval but as soon as I got it out of the box, I saw that the product is contained in a tub of #1 plastic, which is known to leech chemicals. Instead of relying on EWGsHealthyLiving, one should do the research on products, ingredients, and packaging on their own.

Clearly, EWGsHealthyLiving is another way to get people to throw away what they've already purchased, and purchase more things under the guise of being "healthy" or "safe for the environment" without actually being either

by Esh_skin

Search does not work in EWGsHealthyLiving. They have the product, I see the product, but when you search the product (spelled exactly as shown) there are no results. It’s very frustrating. There should be an option to browse by brand name or click on the brand name in a product description to see other products.

by Czechgrl

I believe the developers really need to consider other factors that should be used when rating items, ESPECIALLY animal treatment/welfare. I didn’t see any information about animal testing or ingredients in the make up section. When it comes to animal proteins, I am seeing proteins that are pastures and grass fed get LOWER ratings than animal proteins from factory farms (like Fosters).

I appreciate that there is a rating with plant-based and chemical ingredients, but a lot of work needs to be done to adjust the rating system. As a registered dietitian, I will seldomly recommend EWGsHealthyLiving to my clients since I am not 100% confident in the information given.

by Ivana2016

I’m concerned about EWGsHealthyLiving security because I had created a list and submitted products for review, and now that I login sometime after, I no longer have a present list, and when I look up my submitted products, it shows products that I did not submit. Somehow someone else’s information got into my account, and my information is now deleted.

Additionally, previously it was easy to add products for review, and now I do not see that option in my app.

by Maparoo

I wanted to use EWGsHealthyLiving and see how many toxins I am exposed to since there’s a good possibility I may get pregnant within the coming year. I can’t scan a barcode to bring up anything, nor can I click on the search results. It seems EWGsHealthyLiving has stopped working. It’s also not easy to filter searches or look through the recently added products. I guess I won’t be using EWGsHealthyLiving, then.

by Virginiall04

You can search for a particular brand but if unsure what you want and want to browse it’s hard to narrow down options. For example under “browse” I can go to “hair” and then pick from “baby shampoo”, “shampoo”, or “conditioner”. Let’s say I choose “shampoo”. It simply gives me a giant list of shampoos which seems to start for best (being EWG rated). I can’t go in and filter my search with options such as price, hair type (thin, oily, wavy…), hair goal (volume, shine, frizz control, etc.), or even by the ewg rating. Would also be nice if included helpful reviews and had options to sort by ewg rating, price, top reviews…). And would be extra helpful if also included information on where can purchase from and also how the product smells!!! I’d like a nice clean natural product that is good for my hair but at the same time I’d like to be able to weigh the pros and cons and may rather buy a product that is rated a 2 or 3 if it makes my hair softer and has a really nice smell.

by D*1234*

Really difficult to use, they don’t list products that they have already reviewed for everyone to look through and all the products I’ve scanned don’t exist. Totally not helpful. Good idea poorly executed

by Madge54

I love using EWGsHealthyLiving to select products I am considering purchasing. I even donate to EWG because I value EWGsHealthyLiving. Today, I was disappointed in EWGsHealthyLiving . I tried scanning the barcode for the dietary supplement “Vital Proteins Original Collagen Peptides”, a widely available product - even available at Costco - and what came up was “AspenClean All Purpose Cleaner, Grapefruit & Lavender”. I searched on the name and nothing came up. There is not a way in EWGsHealthyLiving to submit the product unless scanning the barcode brings up no results (something I practice all the time when a scan brings up the option to submit the product).

I’d love it if EWG added another option for submitting a product for review.

by Nickname Or User Name.

EWGsHealthyLiving is a wonderful idea if the owners would fact check what people are uploading. Or, what employees are entering based on user scans? Not sure what the problem is, but there is a problem in accuracy and reliability. How about adding a “report discrepancy” option in EWGsHealthyLiving ?

For example: Peanut butter, Natures Promise organic crunchy, EWS score of 1-when you look at the nutritional label, it does not have saturated fat recorded, which is 2.5%. Organic Teddy creamy PB is scored 3.5 for too much saturated fat, but has the same as Natures Promise? Hampton Farms Organic Natural Peanut Butter, score of 1.7, again, the saturated fat is not recorded properly on nutritional label. And findings are the same as Natures Promise but scored differently? Is nutritional label wrong somewhere else again?

by Ghhjbtg

EWG is helpful to some degree, but you still have to do your own research in order to find out how safe each product really is.

In the ingredients list, one should be able to tap each listed ingredient and obtain its chemical analysis i.e. hazards to skin, hazards to environment etc. A link to a credible source like PubChem would be really good, if you click on any listed ingredient.

Limited database. Please add more products.

by Bayareahealth

EWGsHealthyLiving is great to shop with, my only frustration is there are only a certain amount of items so I have to keep scanning several different items until one pops up that is registered with the EWG app but it’s fantastic when I finally find something that has a good rating. Thank you EWG and please keep updating products and adding more products to your list.
JP

by MKK7

I love being able to find products and determine their hazards to my health. However, I would like to search by type of product, company name, or category. For instance “Fresh rose & hyaluronic acid deep hydration moisturizer”. Fresh is the maker. If you enter just “Fresh” then it might be days before I find the listing. Sephora has this product marked as “Clean by Sephora” but never found it on your database.

by Loyal Trend User

While I very much appreciate the EWG app and always look up products I buy, it often gives me inconsistent results during a search. For example I will find a product I’m interested in during a search and then not be able to find it again even when I put in the exact name. It is very frustrating!

by Keti Kvatadze

It is so amazing that I can check ingredients of
products and see if they are safe. especially in skincare you need to
know every ingredient which is so hard because not everyone can have that much knowledge to know what some ingredients really means, and we buy something we think is good but what it really does is that it helps at some point but harms something else in body. which if I would know I would not even purchase them. Someone had to make it easier for us to protect ourselves from that and EWGsHealthyLiving does it perfectly. honestly can’t understand how something like this can have bad reviews. just an idea to show ingredient lists and explanations is so amazing. of course there are things I can’t find in EWGsHealthyLiving but there are million products and I believe it’s not easy to collect everything which exists.

by Khs1122

This guide is really useful for the breakdown of chemicals, and why they are harmful. For someone who has allergies this has been really helpful to make adjustments to improve my overall health and daily life.

by Feelingawfu

I switched to EWGsHealthyLiving because I couldn’t find more than 5 items on Think Dirty. It was kinda sad, since Think Dirty is super popular. I’m still exploring EWGsHealthyLiving, but super enjoying it.

by Rmrm2323

I don’t know what I would do without EWG recommendations. It would be a torment to be so aware of all the chemicals we are exposed to without any way of knowing what’s safe. EWGsHealthyLiving has helped me remove so many toxic products in my life.

by Tenequa R.

My daughter has Eczema and we have a very hard time finding products that not only soothe her skin but have long lasting relief. EWGsHealthyLiving has helped so much finding shampoos, conditioners, body wash, and makeup. She is in middle school and experiences a lot of commentary due to her irritated patches of skin. Healthy living has helped us find a liquid concealer that is allergen free and makes her feel like the beautiful young lady she is.

DEFINITELY RECOMMEND!!

by Questionable Providers

As a registered dietitian, I take seriously the importance of providing factual information from trusted sources. EWG is on top of my list. I try products they verify prior to making a recommendation to my patients. I am continuously surprised that ALL of EWG’s verified products, that I have sampled, outperform conventional counterparts.

The work this organization does is critical for our survival and the survival of our planet. Thank you Environmental Working Group 💗

by Bwilz95

They put a lot of work into EWGsHealthyLiving! It’s saved me a huge headache researching the lengthy words of the cancerous and noncancerous substances we consume in our daily products. I’m pleasantly surprised I do not have to pay for an app that has such awesome results and a surplus of information!

by 2ndcitycopper

I was encouraged to download EWGsHealthyLiving after reading on EWGsHealthyLiving’s website, the alarming amount of roundup, the weed killer found in Quaker steel cut oats. As per the website, this amount is double and triple of whats considered safe for children. Yet when you scan the product using EWGsHealthyLiving, it gets a score of 1.5 from a score of 1 to 10 with 1 being the best score. EWGsHealthyLiving makes no mention of the ingredient in roundup. If it’s unsafe for children to eat, it should be noted in the score and the score should reflect the risk of cancer when consuming the active ingredient in roundup.

by Luna14456

I got EWGsHealthyLiving just to try it out. It’s easy to navigate, but the breakdown of the score is kind of hard to understand. I wanted to know what the scores mean. I also hate that everything I scan is not in the system. Not. One. Thing. I’ve scanned my shampoo and conditioner which are basic brands. Lotions. Makeup. Cleaning products. I couldn’t find anything. Then I thought it could be a glitch. But I tried the next day and nothing. I give it a 1 star review because I wanted it to show me the safety of these products, but since I can’t find anything on EWGsHealthyLiving it’s useless to me. I also never write reviews but it was so frustrating to me I had to share.

by Amarie2101

I used to use EWGsHealthyLiving ages ago! When it was called “skin deep”and it used to work really well. I check back periodically to see if anything has improved and it hasn’t. Once they changed EWGsHealthyLiving /name/format it’s been pretty useless. I tried again tonight and it’s just a waste of an app. The pictures are very small and hard to see, they don’t offer details on why something is rated yellow or red anymore and the actual products in EWGsHealthyLiving system are extremely limited in comparison to other apps. I tried!! but I’ll be sticking with my “think dirty” app as it works a million times better.

by Eb83098

I live what EWG does and their online resources have been such useful and healthy educational tools over the years. As for EWGsHealthyLiving, the concept is great but the execution not so much. The barcode database doesn’t pull up almost any product (food or personal care) and I can’t even search individual ingredients although it says “powered by Skin Deep” on the home screen. I’ll be deleting EWGsHealthyLiving again for awhile. Hope they figure out a way to increase the crossover from web to app to the point where EWGsHealthyLiving is useful everyday. It’s such a good idea!

by 1974MJ

I’ve been researching a lot of products lately on EWGsHealthyLiving and the Think Dirty app. I want to make sure my skin care and cosmetic routine is clean. I keep running into the same problems with EWGsHealthyLiving when researching products.

1. Product inventory needs to be updated. I’m often researching very popular brands but they don’t exist on skin deep.

2. Not user friendly. I can’t “click” on the each ingredients to know more about the rating/concern. (Think Dirty has this option) Example: is the ingredient cancer-causing or just a skin irritant? I have to go to the full site to look at each ingredient in detail.

3. Product information needs to be updated. Many products are only listed for old formulas....like 2014. Nobody is using the old formulas! If you still have a bottle of cleanser or foundation from 5 years ago you need to toss it for reasons other than possible toxic ingredients.....it’s OLD and products have shelf lives, especially if they are clean products.

EWG/skindeep..... please make changes! EWGsHealthyLiving is important and useful. It just needs to be updated and tweaked.

by Steph Is Saga

I was really interested in downloading EWGsHealthyLiving to learn if any of my products were harmful. I’m definitely working towards a healthier lifestyle for myself and children. That being said the idea sounds amazing and I really like Kourtney and all. Buuuuuuuuuttt like y’all need to update your product listing. She said she’s been using this since she had her first child. Well why y’all still in beta? Hmmmph as a person of color, I feel a way because most of the products I scanned were for natural ladies like me! However, Dove soap wasn’t on there?!?!? I mean come on! Also some of my natural cleaning products. Step the game up ladies 🙃 I’ll be back when you do!

by Winkywonkymommy

Since there are many items missing from the database of rated products, I would like an option to search the ingredients. Say I am looking to buy a soap, it is not yet in the EWG database, so I send in a picture of the item. I would also like to browse the ingredient list and if I see something I am unsure about, I would love the ability to type that ingredient in and see how it scores.

by Jeppy69

When viewing an item’s ingredients, it would be helpful if you could click on each one for more information about them. Similarly, it would be cool if you could search an ingredient in the database (similar to the ingredient lookup on the Paula’s Choice site).

Also, being able to click on a brand’s name to view more about them and their ethical/non-ethical practices as well as their other products in your database would be a very helpful feature!

Overall, I love the idea of EWGsHealthyLiving and find myself scanning barcodes all the time in the skincare aisle. It’s exciting when a product comes up! I just wish more products did!

P.S. a glowing recommendation from a Kardashian is rather a huge turn-off for people actually environmentally conscious 😂

by Blue_Dandelion

EWGsHealthyLiving is easy enough to navigate, and the EWG does have a thorough explanation of their rating process on their website—just not in EWGsHealthyLiving itself, which is fine. But EWGsHealthyLiving only lets you search for products instead of individual ingredients, which is useless if the products you use haven’t been added to their database yet. So until they push new updates through, I found I’m better off just looking up the ratings of individual ingredients on the EWG website.

by Smileychicka429

I really want to use this! I love that they are working to help consumers make better decisions about the ingredients in products. I rated this a 3 because half of the products I own can not be found on EWGsHealthyLiving and do not scan. Also there is nothing that explains their grading scale! What does fair or limited mean!? Makes no sense. If they could make this better, add more products, and explain the scale I would be all about it! Looking forward to upgraded versions of EWGsHealthyLiving.

by PacificRy

I like products using EWGsHealthyLiving when shopping. It’s like x-ray vision to see what's behind a product's slick packaging and actually inside.

The website isn’t very mobile-friendly so this is my go-to way to get info when out and about. Although, it seems like whole categories are missing compared to the website, such as cleaning products.

I love EWG so I hope they allow users to access all the product ratings that the website holds. Or make the website mobile friendly.

by KittyKattz86

I would be happier if EWGsHealthyLiving included household cleaners as most store retailers sell a lot of hazardous- not “clean” cleaning products. It shouldn’t be too much to ask to expand a little. Other than that- I find it difficult to understand a lot of the chemicals explanations.
I use another app for my beauty supplies only because it is a little more understandable and they break down every ingredient your looking at. Maybe I’m just having a difficult time navigating it but if
EWGsHealthyLiving expands to include household products then I would probably use it a lot more to learn and understand better.

by Clever Turtle

The concept and ease of use of EWGsHealthyLiving is FANTASTIC. My one and only problem and the reason I saw 3 stars rather than 5 is that 90% of the products I search are not yet in EWGsHealthyLiving . The product list needs to be expanded to more “crunchy” and “green washed” products so that I can make a decision quickly on whether I want to purchase a product or not. 😊

by Cmcm22

I love EWGsHealthyLiving. A couple things I wish it had. First, it would be great to have a better explained rating key. Especially since it has “limited” or whatever written next to it. Also, it would be great if you could click on individual ingredients to see a description along with what makes them safe vs. potentially harmful. I know you can see that on their website, but it would be a good addition to EWGsHealthyLiving as well.

by Tatiana Health Is EVERYTHING

I love the idea/concept of EWGsHealthyLiving! I know it has a lot of growing to do, but I would love to be a part of the growth process! I am very health conscious, and love that this creates a way for people around me to be. I have shared EWGsHealthyLiving with every one in my contact list. I see this being great, and I would love to be a part of EWG.
Thank you for your step towards a greater future!