How the Ratings Work
SensorySafe ratings describe what a product feels like, smells like, sounds like, and looks like in use. The numbers do not tell you whether a product is good or bad. They help you decide whether it matches your body and your day.
What we rate
We rate sensory qualities, not overall quality. A shampoo can work well and still smell too strong for someone. A blanket can be well made and still feel wrong on the skin.
We use the same words for the same thing on every product, so a score means the same thing whether you are reading about shampoo or headphones. The qualities include, for example:
- scented — how strong the smell is
- fuzzy, smooth, scratchy, gritty — how the surface feels
- packaging-crinkle, pump-click — what sounds the product or package makes when you use it
- bright-colour, busy-pattern — how visually intense it is. A bright colour brings the light. A busy pattern gives the eye a lot to resolve.
- heavy, lightweight, cold-on-skin, hard-to-open — what it is like to hold, open, or use
The scale is 0 to 10
Each rating is a strength rating for one sensory quality. It is not a grade.
- 0 means the reviewer checked and did not notice that quality. For scent, 0 means no smell.
- 1–3 means it is faint.
- 4–7 means it is noticeable.
- 8–10 means it is strong.
A higher number does not mean better. A lower number does not mean worse. The number only tells you how much of that quality reviewers noticed.
How to use high and low numbers
Start with what you need.
If you seek a quality — you want to feel something, hear something, or find something in the dark — a higher number can be the one you want. If you want a very fuzzy blanket, a fuzzy score of 8 may be helpful.
If you avoid a quality — something that hurts, overloads you, or steals your attention — a lower number is the one that is safer for you. If scent bothers you, a scented score of 0 or 1 may be safer for you than a scented score of 8.
The same number can be welcome for one person and a warning sign for another.
The number is the middle score, not the average
Usually more than one reviewer rates a product. We show the median: the middle value when the scores are lined up in order.
For example, if three reviewers rate a scent 1, 2, and 9, the median is 2 — the middle one. We use the middle value instead of the average so that one person who reacts very differently does not pull the number far away from what most people experience.
"Unrated" is not the same as 0
Sometimes a product has no score for a quality. That means nobody has rated it for that quality yet. It does not mean the quality is absent.
- 0 = a reviewer checked, and it is not noticeable.
- Unrated = nobody has checked yet, or there are not enough approved ratings yet.
On a product page, an unrated quality shows the word "unrated" instead of a bar. We show these differently on purpose. Telling you "0" when we mean "we don't know" would be a guess, and we do not guess about how a product feels.
An unrated product is not the same as a zero. If your filter says scented, at most 0, an unrated shampoo does not pass. We do not know enough about it.
Seeking and avoiding
When you filter products, each quality has two directions, because people want opposite things:
- Avoid sets a limit you do not want to go over. Example: scented, at most 1.
- Seek sets a level you want at least. Example: fuzzy, at least 8.
You can combine them. "The softest blanket with almost no smell" is one search. You will get an honest list, or an honest empty result if nothing matches — we will not add products we are unsure about just to fill the page.
One rule keeps this honest: a filter only includes a product we have actually rated for that quality. If a shampoo has never been rated for scent, a "no scent" filter will leave it out rather than pretend we checked.
What a rating is not
A SensorySafe rating is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a promise that a product is right for you. It is a careful description from people who have used the product. You still get to decide.