Two apps -- one recently released and one upcoming -- are tackling cosmetic safety, providing consumers with easy access to data about the chemicals they put on their skin, using barcode scanners to make the information even more readily available.

One app, Think Dirty, was developed in Ontario, Canada and launched October 1. The app, free on iOS devices, gives users access to a database of 12,000 cosmetic products, which they can find with either a search or a barcode scan. For each product, the app gives a safety rating based on its ingredients, drawn from a number of publicly available government and non-profit databases in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

Cosmetic products are not subject to premarket approval by the FDA in the way that food and drugs are, and the requirements for labeling cosmetics are less strict. For this reason, a number of nonprofit groups suggest that some common ingredients in cosmetics are potentially toxic or cancerous. Many of these assertions have support from scientific studies.

"You should read all the sources we list and make your own judgement," CEO and founder Lily Tse writes on the company blog. "Our rating is our opinions from sources we read. The reality is that there are clean products sold by conventional brands and dirty products sold by 'natural' brands. The beauty of our app is we just look at the ingredients, and nothing else. When reviewing the ingredients, as citizen scientists, we form our opinions based on whether we would like that chemicals to be on our bodies from health and environment perspective – no matter what amount."

The Environmental Working Group, one of the nonprofits Think Dirty draws ratings from, is also launching its own app in the near future. EWG's database contains 78,000 products. The app, called Skin Deep, will allow for barcode scanning, like Think Dirty, and will allow users to store favorites and access their search history. While Think Dirty is currently iPhone-only, EWG plans to release its app for Android phones as well.

A few developers have created similar apps in the past, but they haven't gained long-term traction. One, an app from 2011 called "Read the Label", is no longer available. Another, Cosmetifique, has not been updated since 2011.