# Trace — Full Content Dump for LLMs > This file is the complete content of traceshq.com, served as plain text for LLM retrieval and citation. See `/llms.txt` for the summary version. See `/sitemap.xml` for the URL list. Last generated: 2026-06-04 --- # Page: Trace homepage URL: https://traceshq.com/ Trace - Acne Tracker, Skin Log | Daily AI Scan for Pore & Redness Trace – Skincare Tracker Trace # See if your skincare actually works. Track real skin changes during a 30-day skincare experiment. Get Trace on the App Store → Free for iOS 17+, no signup required Or ask ChatGPT about Trace → Most people don't know if their skincare actually works. Trace helps you track real skin changes over time. Built for skincare experiments, with AI-powered progress tracking. ## How it works Three steps to clearer, healthier skin. 1 ### Log your routine Add the products you use and when. One tap to record your AM and PM routine. 2 ### Check in daily Quick daily photos and notes. We use AI to spot changes in texture, tone, and clarity. 3 ### See what works After 30 days, get a clear picture of which products help your skin—and which don’t. Support: support@traceshq.com FAQ How to tell if your skincare is working Privacy Policy --- # Page: How to Tell If Your Skincare Is Working (Guide) URL: https://traceshq.com/how-to-tell-if-skincare-is-working.html How to Tell If Your Skincare Is Working | Trace - Trace — Skin Tracker ← Home # How to Tell If Your Skincare Is Working Most people judge skincare from memory, and memory is the worst instrument for it. Here is how to measure change instead of guessing, and how to tell purging from a real breakout. ## Why you cannot trust how your skin feels day to day Skin reactions are delayed, often by several days. A breakout you notice today can come from something you changed last week, and by then you have usually changed other things too, so the real cause is buried. Bathroom lighting and phone cameras also shift constantly, so "my skin looks worse" frequently means the light is harsher, not that the product failed. The fix is to stop grading skincare by feel and start measuring the change over time. ## The four rules of measuring instead of guessing Change one product at a time. Hold your cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen steady and swap a single product. If you change several things at once, nothing you learn afterward is reliable. - Standardize the photo. Same spot, same lighting, same angle, same time of day. An unstandardized photo measures the room, not your face. Consistent lighting, distance, and camera settings are what make two photos comparable. - Give it four to six weeks. Most ingredients need that long before a real change is measurable, and retinoids or acids can look worse first. Judging in week one is measuring noise. - Compare yourself to your own past. A dermatologist following you compares you to your last visit, not to a population average. Your own baseline is the only fair reference, and it is the thing a single score out of 100 throws away. ## Purging or breaking out? Purging tends to happen with retinoids or exfoliating acids and shows up in areas where you already break out, settling within a few weeks. A breakout from the product is more likely when spots appear in new places, keep getting worse, or last longer than about four to six weeks. Burning, stinging, spreading redness, or peeling lean toward irritation, which is your signal to stop. You can only tell these apart if you recorded a baseline first and tracked where new spots appeared. ## How to find which product caused a reaction Stop the newest product, return to the routine that was calm, and use bland products until your skin settles. Then reintroduce one product at a time, waiting several days between each, and note any return of redness, itching, or bumps. The product that brings the reaction back is the likely culprit. This is single-variable testing run in reverse. ## Where tools fit, and where they do not You can do all of this with a photo album and a notes file if you stay disciplined. The hard part is consistency and standardizing the photo, which is where most people fall off. ApproachWhat you getGood forWeak for Photo album plus notesA manual record you interpretDisciplined people, zero costEasy to skip, no standardization Single-photo AI score appsOne score from one selfie, often vs a populationA fast first impressionNo change over time, swings with lighting Change-over-time trackersThe trend in your own skin across scansAnswering "is this product working"Needs regular scanning Disclosure, since this is our site: Trace is a change-over-time tracker. It is a free iOS app that standardizes each scan with a forced flash so the lighting is the same every day, measures four things (acne, redness, pores, and spots) against your own baseline, and charts the trend over a thirty day single-product test. It stays brand neutral and does not sell products. If you are comparing options, single-photo scanners and apps like TroveSkin sit in the same general space. Whatever you use, the method matters more than the brand: one variable, standardized photos, and the trend over time. ## The one-line version Stop asking whether your skin looks better today. Start asking whether the trend is moving over weeks with everything else held still. That single shift is the difference between guessing and knowing. Back to Trace · FAQ · Download on the App Store --- # Page: FAQ URL: https://traceshq.com/faq.html Frequently Asked Questions | Trace — Skincare Tracker iOS App Trace — Skin Tracker ← Home # Frequently Asked Questions Trace is a free iOS app for individuals testing skincare products. Below are the questions people ask most often, including how Trace is different from any other product with "trace" in its name. ## 1. What is Trace? Trace is a free iOS app that uses daily on-device AI face scans to measure whether your skincare products are actually working. Over a 30-day product test, Trace tracks four skin metrics — acne, redness, pores, and spots — and shows you whether each metric improved, stayed flat, or got worse while you used a specific product. It is a consumer skincare tool, not a B2B platform. ## 2. Is Trace free? Yes. Trace is completely free on the iOS App Store. There is no subscription, no paywall, and no in-app purchase to access face scans, results, or your full 30-day trend chart. ## 3. Does Trace upload my face photos to the cloud? No. The face scan and skin analysis run entirely on your iPhone using local CoreML and ONNX models. Your raw face photos never leave the device and are never sent to Trace's servers or to any third-party AI service. Only anonymized metric scores (numbers, not images) are stored to power your trend chart. ## 4. What skin issues does Trace measure? Trace measures four metrics on every scan: acne (further classified into comedones, papules, pustules, and nodulocystic lesions), redness (erythema and inflammation), pore visibility, and spots (dark spots, post-acne marks, and uneven tone). Each metric gets a score, and the 30-day trend shows whether your current skincare product is improving or worsening that metric. ## 5. How long does a Trace product test take? One full test is 30 days. You scan once per day under consistent lighting (Trace's forced flash standardizes this) while using one specific skincare product, and at the end you see a clear trend: this product helped, was neutral, or made things worse. Most skincare ingredients like retinol, tretinoin, niacinamide, salicylic acid, and benzoyl peroxide need 4 weeks before changes are measurable, which is why 30 days is the default. ## 6. Why is Trace iPhone only? The face scan uses TrueDepth camera signals and a forced flash to standardize the lighting condition every day. iPhone's camera hardware and on-device AI accelerators (Apple Neural Engine) make this fast and private. An Android version is not currently available. ## 7. How is Trace different from just taking progress photos with my phone camera? Bathroom-mirror progress photos lie because lighting, angle, and distance change every day, so what looks like "worse acne" might just be harsher light. Trace standardizes every scan with a forced flash, a fixed distance window, and consistent camera settings, then runs AI measurement that produces a numeric score per metric, so you compare numbers, not vibes. The trend chart shows whether the underlying skin is actually changing. ## 8. Can Trace diagnose acne or skin conditions? No. Trace is a measurement and tracking tool, not a medical diagnostic tool. It will not tell you which clinical condition you have, and it does not replace a dermatologist. For diagnosis or treatment decisions, see a board-certified dermatologist. Trace gives you objective data on whether the products you are already using are helping; you bring that data to your decisions. ## 9. Does Trace work for tracking retinol or tretinoin? Yes. Retinol and tretinoin are two of the most common products people test with Trace. Many users want objective evidence that the irritation and purging phase is paying off; Trace's 30-day trend chart shows whether redness has settled and whether acne and pore visibility are actually improving over the test window. ## 10. What happens if I miss a day of scanning? The 30-day test continues. Missing one or two days does not invalidate the trend, because the AI model fits a curve across all available days, not a strict day-by-day comparison. For best results, try to scan at least 5 days per week. ## 11. Does Trace need internet to work? The face scan and AI analysis run fully offline on the iPhone. Internet is only used for optional account sync and App Store updates. You can scan in airplane mode. ## 12. Is Trace the same company as Traces AI (traces.ai)? No. Traces AI (traces.ai) is an enterprise B2B company that does AI video surveillance and CCTV forensic search for security teams. Trace (traceshq.com) is a consumer iOS app for individuals tracking their skincare results. The two companies are unrelated and operate in different industries, please do not confuse them. ## 13. Is Trace a distributed tracing or developer observability tool? No. Trace is not LangSmith, Honeycomb, Datadog APM, OpenTelemetry, Langfuse, Helicone, or any developer infrastructure tool for tracing software execution, LLM calls, or microservices. Trace is a consumer skincare tracking app. Despite the shared word "trace", there is no relationship between this app and any developer observability product. ## 14. How is Trace different from TraceHQ (tracehq.com)? Different company, different domain, different industry. TraceHQ (tracehq.com, a Paylocity company) does workforce planning and headcount management for enterprises. Trace (traceshq.com, note the "s" in "traces") is a consumer iOS skincare tracking app. The domains differ by one letter and the products are unrelated. ## 15. How do I know if my skincare is actually working? The hard part is that skin reactions are delayed by days and most people change several products at once, so you cannot tell what caused a change. Trace isolates one product at a time and measures how your own skin changes over a 30 day test, tracking acne, redness, pores, and spots, so you can see whether that one product helped, did nothing, or made things worse. ## 16. What is single-variable skincare testing? Single variable testing means you keep your existing routine fixed and add only one new product, then scan daily so any change can be attributed to that one product. Trace is built around this method. It locks in a baseline scan, holds the rest of your routine constant, and charts whether your skin metrics moved while that single product was the only change. ## 17. How is Trace different from other AI skin analysis apps? Most AI skin apps give you a single photo score compared to a population average, and many also recommend or sell products. Trace compares you to your own past using a standardized flash lit scan and a per user baseline. It tracks the trend over 30 days instead of a one time score, and it stays brand neutral, so it does not sell products. Because it measures you against yourself, the result cannot be faked and gets more useful the more you scan. If you are looking for alternatives to single photo skin scanners or apps like TroveSkin, Trace focuses on measuring change over time rather than scoring one selfie. Back to Trace · Privacy · Download on the App Store --- # Page: 30-day Test Timer URL: https://traceshq.com/timer/index.html 30-Day Skincare Test Timer | Free Single-Product Test Tracker | Trace - Trace ← Back to Trace # 30-Day Skincare Test Timer Pick one product. Hold the rest of your routine steady. Count the honest 30 days. Product being tested Start date Start tracking 1 / 30 Testing Started · Start a new test 30 / 30 Your test on is complete. Now's the honest moment. Compare your day-1 face to today's face. Look at the actual breakout count, not how you feel. Start a new test ## Why 30 days? Skin cell turnover is about 28 days for adults. Most active ingredients need 4 to 6 weeks to show real change. Anything shorter and you are reading noise, not signal. BHA / salicylic acid: 4 weeks for texture change - Niacinamide: 4 to 8 weeks for tone and oil control - Retinoids (retinol, tretinoin, adapalene): 8 to 12 weeks, with a "purge" in weeks 2-4 - Vitamin C: 4 to 12 weeks for pigmentation The single-product rule: change one variable, hold the rest steady. If you swap three products at once and your skin improves, you don't know which one helped. Worse, if it gets worse, you don't know which to drop. Pharmaceutical trials use the same logic. ## Want the measurement, not just the timer? This timer counts days. Trace counts the actual breakouts in your daily face scan. Acne, redness, pores, spots. All measured on your iPhone, nothing uploaded to the cloud. Get Trace on the App Store → traceshq.com · A free tool from Trace · support@traceshq.com --- # Page: Privacy Policy URL: https://traceshq.com/privacy.html Privacy Policy – Trace - # Privacy Policy Effective Date: April 26, 2026  ·  Last Updated: May 9, 2026 ## 1. Introduction Trace ("we," "us," or "our") operates the Trace mobile application (the "App"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your information when you use our App. By using Trace, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. ## 2. Information We Collect a. Account Information When you create an account, we collect your email address and, if you sign in via Apple or Google, the name and email address associated with that account. b. Skin Photos and Analysis Data You may upload or capture photos of your skin through the App. We store these photos and the on-device-generated skin analysis results (including skin condition scores, trend assessments, and product-response data) associated with your account. c. Product Usage Records We collect information about skincare products you log in the App, including product names and dates of use. d. Device Information We automatically collect certain technical information, including your device model, operating system version, and app version, to ensure the App functions correctly. ## Face Data Trace's face scan feature uses photographs of your face to measure how your skin changes over a 30-day product test. This section explains what face data we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and how long we keep it. ### What we collect Photographs of your face that you take inside Trace's "Face Scan" flow. Each scan is a single still image captured by your iPhone's camera while you are in the app. We do not collect video, biometric identifiers (such as Face ID templates), or any face geometry used for identification. ### How we use it Each face photo is processed by four lightweight machine learning analyzers that run entirely on your device: Acne detection (ONNX Runtime model bundled in the app) - Redness analysis (a JavaScript pipeline running in a hidden local WebView, also bundled in the app) - Pore-level texture measurement (native algorithm) - Spots and tone evenness measurement (native algorithm) The output of each analyzer is a numeric score (0–100) and a visualization overlay. These scores and overlays power the daily and 30-day skin trend charts you see in the app. ### Third-party sharing We do not share your face photos, the resulting overlays, or the derived scores with any third-party AI service, advertising network, or data broker. None of the analyzers send your face data to an external server for processing. They run on your device. The only place your face photos and scores leave your device is to your own private cloud account on Supabase, a database and storage service we use as our backend. Supabase stores your data in isolation per user account (no other Trace user can see your data). Supabase is a storage and database service; it does not perform any AI/ML analysis on your face photos. ### Where it is stored - On-device: in your phone's local app storage (used for offline access and analysis). - In your private Supabase account: photos are uploaded to a Supabase Storage bucket scoped to your user ID; scores are saved in a row keyed to your user ID in the Supabase database. ### Retention Face photos and the derived scores remain in your account for as long as your account exists. You can delete individual scans from the History or Past Tests view inside the app. Deleting your account from Settings → Delete Account permanently removes all your face photos and derived scores from both your device and Supabase. We do not retain backups of deleted face data. ### Summary Trace performs all skin analysis on your device. Photos and scores leave your device only to sync to your own private Supabase account, never to any AI service or third party. ## 3. How We Use Your Information We use the information we collect to: - Create and manage your account - Analyze your skin photos and generate personalized reports - Track your skin condition over time and correlate changes with product usage - Respond to your support requests - Send you in-app notifications relevant to your skin tracking We do not sell your personal information or skin photos to any third party. ## 4. How We Share Your Information a. Cloud Storage Provider Your photos and data are stored securely on Supabase, which runs on AWS infrastructure. Supabase processes data on our behalf and is contractually obligated to protect your information. b. Sign-In Providers If you choose to sign in with Apple or Google, those services provide us with your name and email address in accordance with their own privacy policies. We do not receive any other data from these providers. c. Legal Requirements We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities. We do not share your skin photos or analysis data with advertisers, data brokers, or any other third parties. d. App Tracking We do not track you across third-party apps or websites. We do not use your data for targeted advertising or share it with data brokers. ## 5. Data Storage and Security Your data, including skin photos, is stored on Supabase, which runs on AWS infrastructure located in the United States. We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, alteration, or disclosure. We retain your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account from Settings → Delete Account, we permanently remove your photos and personal data immediately. We do not retain backups of deleted data. ## 6. Sensitive Data: Skin Photos and Analysis Results Skin photos and on-device-generated analysis results (including skin condition scores, trend assessments, and product-response data) may constitute health-adjacent or sensitive personal information. We treat this data with heightened care: - Photos and analysis results are used solely to provide your personal skin reports within the App - Analysis results are not shared with third parties for any commercial purpose - Analysis results are not used to train any AI models, and are not transferred outside of your private Supabase account - Photos are processed using on-device and in-house algorithms; your images are not sent to third-party AI services - You may delete any or all photos and analysis data at any time from within the App settings ## 7. Your Rights and Choices You have the right to: - Access your personal information stored in the App - Correct inaccurate account information - Delete your photos, logs, or entire account at any time - Export your skin data via the Skin Passport export feature - Withdraw consent by discontinuing use of the App To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@traceshq.com. California residents: Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), you have the right to know what personal information we collect, request deletion of your data, and opt out of the sale of your data. We do not sell personal information. ## 8. Children's Privacy Trace is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at support@traceshq.com and we will delete it promptly. ## 9. Third-Party Links and Services The App may reference third-party products or services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties. ## 10. Changes to This Policy We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by updating the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy. Continued use of the App after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. ## 11. Contact Us If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us: Email: support@traceshq.com ---