How does Mira calculate cosmetic product scores?

A cosmetic's rating in Mira is built from the potential impact of its ingredients on your health and the environment. Each ingredient in the formula is assigned a risk level, and these assessments combine into a final score with a colour band: 'Excellent', 'Good', 'Poor' or 'Bad'.

The riskiest ingredient sets the band

The core principle is straightforward: the ingredient with the highest risk level determines the band.

• If the formula contains a high-risk ingredient, the product drops to the lowest band, 'Bad', regardless of the rest of its composition.

• If the riskiest ingredient is only of medium risk, the product cannot rise above the lower-middle bands.

• If the formula holds only safe and low-risk ingredients, the product stays in the upper bands, 'Good' or 'Excellent'.

The other ingredients matter too

Within that band, every risky ingredient lowers the score further, the more so the higher its risk and the more serious its potential harm. Mira looks at several dimensions: cancer risk, endocrine disruption, allergenicity, irritation and pollution. When a single ingredient carries more than one type of risk, the highest one is applied.

The fragrance and its allergens count as one penalty

Parfum and the declared fragrance allergens (limonene, linalool, citronellol and others) come from one source. Mira penalises them once, by the riskiest of them, not once per name. An honestly disclosed fragrance is not punished harder than the single word 'Parfum'.

Where position in the list counts

Ingredients are listed in descending order of concentration down to 1 %. Everything after the first preservative with a legal maximum of 1 % or less is present at 1 % or less. Such an ingredient without an allergenic, carcinogenic or endocrine effect does not set the band and is penalised as a low-risk ingredient. See 'Does Mira account for the quantity of each ingredient?' for details.

Short ingredient lists are judged more strictly

When a formula has fewer than three ingredients, a single problematic one makes up a large share of the product, so such lists are rated more strictly.

Legal status is shown separately

Next to the risk level Mira shows a fact: whether the ingredient is banned or restricted in the EU and the EAEU, under which act and since when, with a link to the primary source. That is the status under the regulation; the risk level is Mira's methodology.

If the score changed

The 'Why this score' screen has a 'How the score changed' section: the date, the old and the new score, and the reason (Mira updated its methodology, the composition on the card changed, or an ingredient's risk level was updated in Mira's reference).

Inside the app, each ingredient shows its potential risks along with the scientific sources behind the assessment.

The rating is Mira's opinion. The words "Excellent", "Good", "Poor" and "Bad" refer to the rating, not to the product itself.