Is it working?
Verdict puts every new skincare product on trial. Scan with YouCam Skin AI on a schedule built around the product's ingredients, and get a keep-or-return verdict before the return window closes.
Halden Lab
Calm Fix Serum
Niacinamide 10%, day 0 of 42
Not yet
Waiting for a change bigger than the noise.
27 days to return
4–12 weeks
is how long most actives take to show a change you could measure. Retinoids can look worse before they look better.
30 days
is a typical beauty return window. Most people find out whether a serum worked after they can no longer send it back.
One selfie
can swing more from lighting and angle than the product does. Mirror checks and before-and-afters can't tell the difference.
A test, not a hunch.
Every trial starts with two baseline scans taken a minute apart. How much they disagree is your personal noise: what the readings do when nothing has changed.
From then on, a change only counts when it clears twice that noise, after the point where the ingredient is known to start working. Dim or lopsided photos are caught on your phone and set aside. Statistics run on YouCam's raw scores, not the friendlier display scores.
Your daily log marks the weeks that could muddy things, like a period, a beach day or a bad night, so a rough week isn't blamed on a good product.
Grey band: noise from the two baselines. Hollow dot: a dim-light scan, set aside. Dots under the axis: days you logged something unusual.
How a trial runs.
- 1
Paste the label
The agent reads the actives and works out what should change, when, what could go wrong, and whether it all fits the return window.
- 2
Two baseline scans
Before the first use. A ghost of your first photo lines up every scan after it, so framing stays the same.
- 3
Scan on schedule
About weekly, in a minute. YouCam Skin AI scores 12 concerns; the strip fills in as the evidence builds.
- 4
Keep or send back
A verdict with the evidence behind it. Ditch comes with a return note; keep comes with a reorder reminder.
It knows how skincare behaves.
The trial agent plans around the things that make skincare hard to judge: slow actives, purging, clashing routines, two products tested at once, and return deadlines that come before results do. It explains each decision in plain words.
- Breakouts are up: this looks like purgingThe rise is inside the retinal's purge window and in your usual T-zone. It doesn't count against the cream. Keep going.
- Clash with your tonerResurface 7% Toner has glycolic acid and is also a night product. Use it on non-retinal nights so the trial measures one thing.
- Checkpoint before the window closesA fair read takes 42 days, but returns close on day 27. I've added a checkpoint scan on day 25.
Twelve readings per scan.
Every photo is scored by the YouCam Skin Analysis API, in HD when your camera allows it. Your photo is used for scoring and stays on your phone. We keep the numbers.
- Redness
- Breakouts
- Pores
- Oil
- Hydration
- Texture
- Fine lines
- Radiance
- Dark spots
- Dark circles
- Puffiness
- Firmness
Good for the products that work.
Shoppers stop guessing, and good formulas get evidence instead of refunds. A retailer can offer a guarantee backed by measurements rather than vague dissatisfaction, and see which products actually move which concerns.
Put something on trial