Show HN: Eathy – ELI5 for Your Food and Skincare Ingredients

Hey HN, I built Eathy to let you scan ingredient labels (food, skincare, supplements, etc.) and get a plain-English summary of what each ingredient actually does. Think of it like an “ELI5” approach for those chemical-sounding names. With so many products containing hard-to-pronounce chemicals or ambiguous additives, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Key points / how it works:

- Image-based scanning: You snap a photo of the ingredient list or upload it. -LLM-powered parsing: We use a GPT-based approach to identify each component and describe it in plain language (e.g., “This is a type of preservative that helps keep food fresh.”). -User-friendly and fast: The goal is to avoid heavy jargon and provide clarity, especially for folks not well-versed in chemistry or nutrition. -Privacy: The image is processed on our server, but we don’t store personal data beyond short-term logs (still figuring out ways to fully anonymize further). -Why build this? I got tired of playing detective every time I bought something new. There’s so much hidden under lengthy ingredient names, and after a few tries, I decided to automate that process.

Right now, it’s in an early stage. I’d love to get your feedback on both the concept and the technical implementation. If you’re curious, please check it out, break it, and let me know where it can improve. Thanks!

You can download on iOS app store or Google Play.