Botanical Truth Index
Methodology

We score the claim,
not the ingredient.

Decoders tell you what an ingredient is. Hazard apps tell you how scary it sounds. We ask one question per claim on a product page: is there a document that makes this true?

Check a product

Paste a product link. No account, no email.

Products in the index, plotted by Truth Index

2 products scored

The instrument's baseline, not their distribution: too few products are scored to plot a shape. Every product anyone sends is plotted here, at its score, permanently.

Three verdicts

Every claim on a product page gets exactly one of them, with the evidence beside it.

Documented

A document we have read supports the claim, and we cite it.

Undocumented

Nothing we can find supports the claim.

Contradicted

A document we have read disagrees with the claim.

There is no fourth verdict.

Why the score can say no

Certification bodies charge a brand $2,500 to $10,000 a year. The seal marks the brands that could afford it, not the brands telling the truth.

We charge brands nothing, ever. Verification is a document review: a brand sends certificates of analysis, batch tests, extract concentrations and origin declarations, and we publish which of its claims stand up.

Brands never pay us. That is why the score can say no.

What we accept as a document

Certificate of analysisNames the supplier and the source
Batch testTies a result to the batch on the shelf
Extract concentrationStates the figure, such as 0.01%
Origin declarationSays where the plant was grown

A claim with none of these behind it is Undocumented. We say so and leave the door open.

What we do not do

Ingredient decoders

Tells her

What an INCI name means

Leaves out

Whether this brand's claim about it is true

Hazard scores

Tells her

How alarming a molecule is said to be

Leaves out

Anything about the brand's honesty

Paid seals

Tells her

That a brand passed a document review

Leaves out

Every brand that could not afford the seal

We do not rate ingredients and we do not bless products.

The next product in the index is the one you check.

Every product checked stays public, so the next person does not have to check it again.

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