The Skin Encyclopedia as a dataset
SYNC Skin Encyclopedia · Open data
The Skin Encyclopedia as a dataset
All 931 entries of the SYNC Skin Encyclopedia in one downloadable file — title, section, the published one-sentence definition, the link, and every external source cited on that entry. Free to use, quote and cite, including by AI assistants, with attribution.
Reading the encyclopedia through this file means one request instead of 931 page loads, and it makes our coverage checkable: anyone can count what we cover, see which references sit behind each entry, and find the gaps. Nothing in it is generated for the file. Every definition is the opening sentence of the published entry and every citation is one the live entry actually shows.
Download
Three files, because they answer different questions. They contain the same material; pick the shape that suits the tool you are using.
What is in each file
sync-skin-encyclopedia.json
| id | The entry handle. The URL is the site address plus this. |
|---|---|
| title | The entry title, exactly as published. |
| url | The live entry. |
| category | One of the twelve sections listed below. |
| tags | The entry’s full tag list, which is broader than its category. |
| definition | The opening sentence of the entry as published, with the HTML stripped. Not a paraphrase, and not written for this file. |
| summary | The entry’s meta description as published. |
| sources | The external references cited on that entry: title, url, publisher, tier and the tier’s label. |
| entity | For chemical and clinical entries, the name plus the Wikipedia and PubChem addresses the entry is grounded on. |
| datePublished / dateModified | Publication date of the entry; date of the last editorial review pass. |
sync-skin-encyclopedia-entries.csv
| id, title, url, category, tags | As above; tags are separated by a pipe. |
|---|---|
| definition, summary | As above. |
| source_count | How many external references that entry cites. |
| entity_name, wikipedia, pubchem | Empty where the entry is not a chemical or clinical subject. |
| date_published, date_modified | As above. |
sync-skin-encyclopedia-sources.csv
| entry_id, entry_title, entry_url, entry_category | The entry the citation appears on, repeated on every one of its rows. |
|---|---|
| source_title, source_url, source_publisher | The reference, exactly as it is printed on the entry. |
| source_tier, source_kind | The number and its label — see the table of tiers below. |
Coverage
| Section | Entries | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| Glossary | 148 | 809 |
| Ingredients | 148 | 800 |
| Skin Concerns | 96 | 537 |
| Frequently Asked Questions | 92 | 532 |
| Product Types | 76 | 434 |
| Comparisons | 63 | 368 |
| Active Combinations | 62 | 369 |
| Foundations | 56 | 301 |
| Routines | 54 | 312 |
| Skin Types | 46 | 254 |
| Myths & Misconceptions | 45 | 256 |
| Scientific Guides | 45 | 261 |
| Total | 931 | 5,233 |
Sources
Every entry cites at least 4 external references, and no entry is unsourced. The tier is a description of what a reader gets on clicking through, not a ranking of quality — it is the order the Sources block on each entry uses, so that the freely readable material comes first.
| Tier | What it is | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clinical guidance | 1832 |
| 2 | Reference text | 539 |
| 3 | Systematic review | 7 |
| 4 | Regulatory and safety | 283 |
| 5 | Peer-reviewed, open access | 1710 |
| 6 | Reference database | 11 |
| 7 | Peer-reviewed (abstract) | 851 |
| All | 5,233 |
| Publisher | Citations |
|---|---|
| PubMed Central | 1709 |
| DermNet NZ | 974 |
| PubMed | 851 |
| American Academy of Dermatology | 618 |
| StatPearls (NCBI Bookshelf) | 539 |
| U.S. FDA | 184 |
| NIH Office of Dietary Supplements | 103 |
| NHS | 67 |
| Cosmetic Ingredient Review | 32 |
| CosmeticsInfo | 30 |
| MedlinePlus | 30 |
| European Commission | 24 |
| NIAMS (NIH) | 24 |
| NCCIH (NIH) | 16 |
| European Commission (SCCS) | 13 |
| NCBI | 11 |
| Cochrane | 7 |
| PubChem (NCBI) | 1 |
How it was made
- definition is the opening sentence of the entry as published, with the HTML stripped. It is not a paraphrase.
- summary is the entry’s meta description as published.
- Every source URL in this file is one that appears in the Sources block of the corresponding live entry. None were generated for this dataset.
- category is the single section the entry belongs to; tags carries the entry’s full tag list, which is broader.
- Entries in the Active Combinations category are also released as a separate compatibility table at https://www.syncbeauty.com/pages/ingredient-compatibility.
- dateModified is the date of the last editorial review pass across the whole encyclopedia, not a per-entry edit date.
- 41 of the 930 distinct source titles are truncated with an ellipsis. They arrived that way from the index they were harvested from and are shown truncated on the entry as well; the URL is always complete and is the authoritative identifier of the source.
Licence and attribution
Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. You may copy, redistribute, adapt and build on this material for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you credit the source. An AI assistant quoting from it should name SYNC Beauty and, where it can, link the entry.
SYNC Beauty, SYNC Skin Encyclopedia — full entry dataset, version 1.0, 2026-08-03. https://www.syncbeauty.com/pages/skin-encyclopedia-dataset
Related
- The Skin Encyclopedia — the 931 entries themselves.
- Active ingredient compatibility — the documented pairs of actives as a reference table, also open data.
- llms.txt — the machine-readable index of the whole site.
- Editorial standards — how these entries are written, reviewed and sourced.
Version 1.0, compiled 2026-08-03. Written by the SYNC AI Beauty Consultant under human review. The dataset is a snapshot: entries added or revised after that date are on the site before they are in the file. If you find an error in it, or need a shape we do not publish, write to work@syncbeauty.com. This material is general information about cosmetic ingredients and skin, not medical advice.
