SUMMARY
Beauty Library is the culmination of 15 weeks worth of research into the beauty industry and the regulations that currently exist. I found that there are incredibly limited regulations for beauty products, and there are many products that are infamous for causing adverse effects on the skin of consumers. I thought, "Surely, there needs to be something done so that this doesn't continue to happen." I found a few apps that review products and rank them against a "cleanliness" score, but lacked the option to report the product to the FDA. I decided to create Beauty Library as a one stop shop to look for consumers to report products to the FDA.
challenge
Did you know that there are about 88 chemicals in over 73,000 cosmetic products that are identified as known toxins - just sitting on store and vanity shelves? On top of that, I found that many beauty consumers didn't read the labels on their products due to ingredient name complexities, and heavily relied on recommendations from friends and social media (inevitably leading to problematic matches). With this hefty roadblock, growing concerns over toxins in our everyday products, and a surge in healthy and sustainable consumption, I found this to be my opportunity to address these issues for consumers who simply want peace of mind.
Outcome
After further development of the idea, the concept of Beauty Library gives consumers the ability to read product ingredient breakdowns, live chat with professionals, product reviews, and a feature to report controversial products directly to the FDA. With this tool, I prioritized education and accessibility for the average person, making it incredibly easy to research a product on the spot and find all the information necessary to make an educated decision on purchases.
