Does Mira account for the quantity of each ingredient?

Mira does not know the exact share of each ingredient: manufacturers do not print it. The order of the list does guarantee something, though, and since October 2026 Mira takes it into account where the law stands behind that order.

What the order of ingredients tells you

Labelling rules list ingredients in descending order of concentration down to 1 %; below 1 % the order is free. Preservatives have a legal maximum, for many of them 1 % or less (phenoxyethanol 1 %, methylparaben 0.4 %, potassium sorbate 0.6 %). So everything listed after the first such preservative is present at 1 % or less. It is the only concentration signal that can be defended with a reference to the regulation, and it is the only one Mira uses.

How this affects the rating

• A high- or medium-risk ingredient listed after such a preservative does not set the rating band if it has no allergenic, carcinogenic or endocrine effect. It still lowers the score, but as a low-risk ingredient.

• Allergens, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors count at any position: they are dangerous in trace amounts, and there is no "safe threshold" for them.

• The same ingredient, present in small doses in one product, often shows up across many others, and the combined daily exposure can be noticeable. That is why below the 1 % line Mira softens the ingredient's role rather than removing it from the breakdown.

On the "Why this score" screen such ingredients carry the note "listed after the preservatives: 1 % or less by the labelling rules", and a line names the preservative and its position in the list.

If the formula has no preservative with a legal limit, the preservative sits at the very top of the list, or the order does not follow the labelling rules, Mira rates by risk levels alone, without positions.

When we determine an ingredient's risk level we still rely not on its dose in a specific product but on two more stable factors: how widely the population is exposed to the substance overall and the concentrations at which it typically appears across categories of cosmetics.

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