Editorial policy & how we research

Who is behind AllerNote

AllerNote was created by Snehal Maheshwari after a patch test left him with a list of allergens and no practical way to check them against the products on a shelf. He is a software engineer, not a dermatologist or other medical professional.

We think that's worth stating plainly. AllerNote's job is not to diagnose you or to replace your clinician — it's to do the tedious, error-prone label-reading that software is genuinely good at: taking allergens you already know and matching them, with all their synonyms, against any ingredient list. The medical judgement stays with your doctor.

How we source ingredient information

Our ingredient and allergen pages are built on established, citable sources rather than opinion or marketing claims. The main ones are:

• American Contact Dermatitis Society (ACDS) and the Contact Allergen Management Program (CAMP) — for known contact allergens and cross-reaction patterns.
• EU CosIng database and Annex III of the EU Cosmetics Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 — for INCI names, restricted substances, and the labelled fragrance-allergen list.
• The peer-reviewed contact-dermatitis literature (for example, patch-test prevalence data published in journals such as Contact Dermatitis and by patch-test surveillance networks like ESSCA and the NACDG).
• Regulatory updates — for example, Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1545, which expanded the EU's individually-labelled fragrance allergens from the long-cited "26" to roughly 80 substances, phasing in for new products from 2026 and existing stock to 2028. We update affected pages as these rules change.

Where a page makes a specific factual claim — a prevalence figure, a regulatory threshold, a cross-reactor — we aim to cite the source on the page itself under "References & further reading."

How pages are written, reviewed, and updated

We use modern drafting tools to write and maintain content efficiently, but no page is published on the strength of an automated draft alone. Every guide is checked against the primary sources above, corrected for accuracy, and edited for clarity before it goes live. Our goal is that a dermatologist reading one of our pages would find it accurate, appropriately cautious, and free of overstated claims.

Each ingredient and article page shows a "Last reviewed" date. When regulations change, when new patch-test data is published, or when a reader flags an error, we revise the page and update that date. We deliberately avoid sensational "toxic ingredient" framing — most reactions are individual sensitivities, not universal dangers, and we try to say so.

Corrections

If you spot an inaccuracy, an outdated regulation, or a missing synonym, please send us feedback or contact us. Accuracy on health-adjacent topics matters to us, and reader corrections are one of the best ways we catch mistakes.

Medical disclaimer

AllerNote is an educational tool, not medical advice. It checks products against known allergen databases but cannot diagnose allergies or guarantee that a product is safe for you. Individual sensitivities vary, formulations change, and labels can be incomplete. Always patch test new products, follow the guidance of a board-certified dermatologist, and seek medical care for severe or persistent reactions.