The Ordinary
Retinol 0.2% in Squalane
Serumtypically under $12GTIN 0769915193985
Cleaner pick · Safest serums & essences we have rated
Africology Skincare & Spa
Aloe Ferox Serum+34 on ingredient safety
30ml · 569 ZAR · 1896.67 ZAR/100 ml
Ingredient safetyRaters agree
Ranked by safety only. Greenlens earns from qualifying purchases. Payout never affects a rating, a ranking, or the cleaner pick.
Raters split
Ingredient safety
A 39-point gap between the two loudest voices.
55Greenlens Precautionary ScreenIndependent
vs94Greenlens Tolerance ScreenIndependent
050100
See why, ingredient by ingredientAll 2038 cleaner options, safest first We show the best 12, including the strongest on each axis.
Every rater, every axis
Ingredient safety
39 pts apartA government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
A government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
A government authority. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Also screened, nothing found: ECHA SVHC Candidate List · EU Harmonised Classification (CLP Annex VI) · US NTP Report on Carcinogens · IARC Monographs
Environmental
Also screened, nothing found: EU Microplastics Restriction
Labor
Run by a nonprofit. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. This rates The Ordinary as a company and applies to everything they make, not this product alone. Checked this week. about this rater →
Packaging
Independent — not funded by the brands it rates. Auto-linked to this product, not yet human-reviewed. Checked this week. about this rater →
Coverage & match quality
8 ratings · 3 of 4 axes
- Some ratings rest on an automatic match that has not been human-reviewed.
- Fewer raters reach smaller-brand products, so a missing rating is not a clean bill of health, only a gap.
Weighted by what you care about
Tune your weights
composite recomputes live
+
1.0×
Environmentalno rating
No rater covers this axis for this product, so its weight can't move the score.
1.0×
1.0×
0 means ignored. Higher = more weight in your composite.
How we know the packaging
Read from the product photo, not declared by the maker — treat this score as weaker.
The container looks like this, rather than the maker saying so. A photo also cannot show the resin code moulded into the base, so every plastic container reads as “plastic, unspecified” — the cautious end of the plastics range, not a finding about this particular pack.
Ingredients, decoded
Data availability
Robust11 of 12 characterized
Our sources have reference data on 11 of 12 listed ingredients; 1 is uncharacterized in our data — a gap, not a clean bill.
Worth a look (2)
Prop 65-listedflagged by 4 of 9 lists →
Endocrine-activeflagged by 3 of 9 lists →
No flags in our sources (9)
No data in our sources (1)
Not a verdict — our authorities simply have no reference for these.
What these ingredient tags mean (1)
These describe what an ingredient is, not whether it is a problem. The stance marks above are the ratings; these are not.
retinoidRetinol
- Retinol: A vitamin A derivative that speeds skin turnover; dryness and flaking while skin adjusts are its usual accompaniment. SCCS Opinion on Vitamin A (Retinol, Retinyl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate), SCCS/1576/16, final version of 6 October 2016; Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/996 added the group to EU Regulation (EC) 1223/2009 Annex III entry 376, capping it at 0,05% retinol equivalent in body lotion and 0,3% in other leave-on and rinse-off products, with the label statement "Contains Vitamin A. Consider your daily intake before use."
Where this came from
Product identity (name, brand, category) verified against barcodespider.com ↗
Researched facts on Greenlens always carry the page that stated them — nothing is inferred from a model's memory.