Yarai is a free iOS and Android app that scores skincare ingredients by how much is in the formula, not just whether they appear. Set your profile to pregnancy or breastfeeding and it marks the ingredients on a label that are commonly avoided during pregnancy, so you know which ones to raise with your doctor or midwife.
This is not medical advice. Yarai points out ingredients commonly avoided in pregnancy. It does not tell you a product is safe for you, and it cannot: guidance depends on your history and your stage, which an ingredient list does not contain. Use the flags as a list of questions for your clinician, not as a verdict.
These are the exact terms the app checks against a label. The list below is generated from the shipped code rather than written by hand, so it is what the app actually does.
| Flagged | Why it is commonly avoided |
|---|---|
| All retinoids | Oral retinoids are established teratogens, and topical retinoids are conventionally avoided in pregnancy on precautionary grounds. Yarai checks this at the class level, so it covers 14 ingredients rather than a hardcoded handful. |
| Hydroquinone | A prescription-strength skin-lightening agent. Commonly avoided in pregnancy because topical absorption is high relative to most cosmetic ingredients. |
| Oxybenzone | A chemical UV filter. Commonly avoided in pregnancy; mineral filters such as zinc oxide are the usual alternative. |
| Benzophenone-3 | The INCI name for oxybenzone. Flagged under both names so a label using either is caught. |
| DMDM hydantoin | A formaldehyde-releasing preservative. |
| Quaternium-15 | A formaldehyde-releasing preservative. |
| Imidazolidinyl urea | A formaldehyde-releasing preservative. |
Retinoids are flagged by class rather than by name, which matters because they appear on labels under many names. Yarai currently covers: Adapalene, Hydroxypinacolone retinoate, Isotretinoin, Retinaldehyde, Retinoic acid, Retinol, Retinyl acetate, Retinyl linoleate, Retinyl palmitate, Retinyl propionate, Retinyl retinoate, Tazarotene, Tretinoin, Trifarotene. A retinoid added to the ingredient database later inherits the pregnancy flag automatically rather than waiting for someone to update a list.
Salicylic acid. Most ingredient apps flag it for everyone who is pregnant. Yarai does not, and that is a deliberate decision recorded in the code rather than an oversight.
Low-concentration topical BHA, roughly 0.5 to 2 percent in a cleanser or a serum, is generally considered acceptable during pregnancy. Flagging every product containing it would send you rebuilding a routine that was not causing a problem. High-concentration salicylic peels are a genuinely different case, and Yarai handles those at the routine level rather than by flagging the ingredient everywhere it appears.
A flag you cannot act on is not a safety feature, it is noise. If an app marks half your bathroom shelf, you learn to scroll past the warnings, and then the one that mattered gets scrolled past too. Yarai's pregnancy list is deliberately short so that the things on it keep their meaning.
An ingredient list gives you order, not percentages. Yarai estimates concentration from a label's ordering, which is strongest near the top of a list and weaker toward the bottom. For pregnancy that matters: the difference between a product built around an active and one where the same ingredient sits near the end of the label is real, and an estimate is still an estimate. We would rather tell you that than let a number look more certain than it is.
Yarai flags every retinoid, hydroquinone, oxybenzone (also listed as benzophenone-3), and three formaldehyde-releasing preservatives: DMDM hydantoin, quaternium-15 and imidazolidinyl urea. The retinoid check is class-level, covering 14 ingredients including retinol, retinyl palmitate, tretinoin and adapalene, so an unusual retinoid on a label is still caught.
No, and that is deliberate. Low-concentration topical BHA, roughly 0.5 to 2 percent in a cleanser or serum, is generally considered acceptable during pregnancy, so flagging every product containing it would send you rearranging a routine that was not a problem. High-concentration peels are a different case and are handled at the routine level rather than by flagging the ingredient everywhere it appears.
No. Yarai points out ingredients that are commonly avoided during pregnancy so you know what to ask about. It does not clear a product, and it is not medical advice. Pregnancy guidance depends on your history and your stage, which an ingredient list cannot know. Take the flag, and the product, to your doctor or midwife.
Yes. Yarai carries a separate breastfeeding context alongside the pregnancy one, and routine suggestions account for whichever you have selected.
Related: the ingredient library, the conflict library, and how we score.