Our story
The Selenssa Story
At Selenssa, we believe you shouldn't have to choose between self-care products that work and products you can trust.
Selenssa started with something very personal. When my husband, Jonathan, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, it changed how we thought about our everyday environment. As we focused on his recovery and well-being, we became more conscious of the ingredients and chemicals we were exposed to and began making more considered choices about the products we used.
I began researching the products we used and, in particular, ingredients associated with potential endocrine disruption. We overhauled everything from shampoo, shower gel and deodorant to skincare and make-up.
But cleaner wasn't enough — the products still had to work. Understanding ingredients was incredibly time-consuming, but so was finding cleaner alternatives that actually performed well.
That became the idea behind Selenssa.
We use science and smart AI technology and models to assess formulations against current scientific evidence and trusted safety frameworks. But we also look at effectiveness, drawing on user ratings and feedback about how products perform in the real world.
We bring these together in a balanced scoring method, designed to help you understand both what's in a product and whether it works — without scaremongering or suggesting that 'natural' automatically means better.
Because we believe the best beauty products should deliver on both.
Beauty, decoded.
Ame
Founder, Selenssa
How we score
Reading past the label, not just the claims.
We check each ingredient against current research and recognised safety bodies, then weigh that against how well the formula performs — because "clean" that doesn't work isn't a compromise worth making.
No pass/fail shaming, no fear tactics. Just the evidence, laid out plainly enough to act on.
We use INCI — the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients — because it is the standard language manufacturers use to list what is actually in a product. Wherever possible we source this list from the brand or retailer, then check each entry against current research and regulatory guidance.
The Selenssa Score runs from 0 to 100. It is 90% formulation — the ingredient list assessed against safety evidence — and 10% real-world effectiveness drawn from consolidated customer reviews. The band is a consistent, mechanical output of that score, not an opinion of the brand.
A Verified score means we hold the manufacturer's published INCI for that exact product. Pending verification means the ingredient list has not yet been confirmed against the official label; the score is an estimate and may change once verified.
Alongside the headline score, every product is rated on three separate hazard categories, derived mechanically from its ingredient list: Allergens (sensitising fragrances and contact-allergy triggers, referenced to the EU declarable allergen list), Endocrine (ingredients under regulatory review for hormone-disruption potential, referenced to SCCS opinions and the EU endocrine candidate list), and Cancer-linked (ingredients or their likely contaminants with an IARC classification or Prop 65 listing). Each category is shown on the product page with the exact ingredients behind it.
These categories also shape the band. A formula whose only concerns are allergenic is capped at Caution — a sensitising fragrance matters if your skin is reactive, but it is not the same class of risk as a systemic hazard. A high endocrine or cancer-linked rating forces Avoid, as does any red-flag ingredient, regardless of the blended number.
Unlike hazard-only systems, Selenssa scores are exposure-weighted: where an ingredient sits in the formula, whether the product is left on or rinsed off, and how much is typically used all factor in. That means our ratings are not directly comparable to EWG-style hazard bands — a difference we think is a feature, not a bug.
- Safe / Clean80–100
Strong ingredient profile with low overall concern.
- Caution60–79
Generally acceptable, but contains one or more ingredients worth considering.
- Avoid / High Concern0–59
Concerns significant enough that we'd suggest an alternative.
Two overrides sit above the number. If a formula contains an ingredient flagged as high concern in our database — or carries a high endocrine or cancer-linked hazard rating — it's classified as Avoid regardless of its score, so a single serious concern can't be diluted by a long list of harmless ones. Conversely, a formula whose only flags are allergenic never drops below Caution on that basis alone. The number always stays visible next to the band.
- 01Ingredient-level analysis against safety literature
- 02Performance weighting from formulation data
- 03Three-tier alternatives, matched to your budget