Your browser is the database. Treat it like one.
Every tool on this site — the flare diary, photo log, patch tests, prep sheets — saves to your browser first, so everything works instantly with no sign-up. But a browser is a scratchpad, not a safe: it erases local data far more casually than people expect. The fix is a free account, which backs everything up automatically and puts it on every device you sign in to. Here's exactly how both layers work. Here's exactly how it works, and how to keep a copy safe.
Where your data actually lives
When you rate a flare, save a photo, or build a visit-prep sheet, the entry is written into your browser's own storage on your device — the same place a site would keep, say, a shopping cart. By default nothing is uploaded: no account, no server-side copy, and nobody at Dermington can read a single entry. You can see the complete inventory of what's stored, source by source, in Your data.
The important consequence: without an account, the data belongs to that one browser on that one device. Your phone and your laptop each have their own separate copy; so do Chrome and Safari on the same machine. Nothing syncs on its own — that's what the optional free account (below) adds.
The four ways it gets erased
- Safari’s seven-day rule most common
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, Safari deletes everything a site stored after seven days without a visit — an anti-tracking rule that makes no exception for your photo log.
- Clearing browsing data
“Clear history”, “cookies and site data”, and cleaner apps wipe site storage too — logs, drafts and photos included.
- Private windows
Anything entered in a private or incognito window is discarded when the window closes.
- A full device
When storage runs low, browsers may quietly evict site data, least-visited sites first. Rare, and never announced.
A free account makes all four stop mattering: sign back in and everything is restored.
Exporting your library now and then means none of the four can take everything: one file brings it all back.
The safeguard: export your library
Everything you keep here lives in this browser. To hold a copy that survives a browser wipe (including Safari's seven-day deletion), Your data exports everything — profile, shelf, diaries, tool results and photos — as a single file you keep wherever you trust, and restores it on any browser. Nothing reminds you to do it, so if a log matters to you, export it from time to time.
The fix: a free account
Create a free account and everything backs up automatically as you use the site — profile, shelf, wishlist, diaries, symptom scores, tool results, and your progress photos — and appears on any device you sign in on. A browser wipe (including Safari's seven-day deletion) stops mattering: sign back in and it's all restored. There's nothing to remember and nothing to download; the green "backed up to your account" note on each tool is the only visible difference. The honest fine print: your data now also lives on our server, solely so it can sync and survive — it is never sold, shared, or used for advertising, nobody at Dermington browses it, and you can export or permanently delete all of it from account settings at any time.
Create a free accountPrefer to hold your own copy, or want to stay account-free? Your data can export everything — photos included — as a single file you keep, and restore it on any browser. It's a manual, do-it-yourself path: nothing reminds you to export, so treat it as a power-user option, not the safety net.
How syncing works, in one rule
Signed in, you're managing your account — everything you do syncs. Signed out, you're only touching this device — your account is never affected, and signing back in restores it.
Concretely, while signed out: anything you add or edit waits on this device and uploads to your account the next time you sign in — your content always reaches your account, it's only paused. Anything you delete removes only this device's copy: your account keeps its own and brings it back down when you sign in again, because deleting from the account is something you can only do while signed in. And when you sign out, you choose whether your data stays on the device (your own phone) or is removed from it (a shared computer) — your account keeps everything either way.
What each surface stores
Every tool that remembers something tells you so on its own page — the heavier logs carry a backup reminder, the small calculators a one-line note. This is the complete picture; Your data shows the live counts for your browser and can clear any source individually.
| Data | Lives on | What’s saved | What it powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skin profile | My Skin | Skin type, up to three concerns, sensitivity, age band, gender, how your skin reacts to sun, pregnancy status, fragrance preference, and your personal avoid list | Personalizes match badges, verdicts for your concerns, and prefills on nearly every page |
| My Shelf | My Shelf | The products you own or use | Feeds the visit-prep sheet, shelf-life tracker, and routine tools |
| Routine | My Shelf → Routine | Your morning and evening steps, built from your shelf | The routine page, and the gaps it suggests filling |
| Wishlist & compare tray | Wishlist / Compare | Products you’ve saved or queued side-by-side | Your saved lists, on any page of this browser |
| Photo log | Photo Tracker | Progress photos with dates, labels, and notes (browser database, not cookies) | Before/after comparison, flare diary and patch-test attachments |
| Flare diary | Flare Diary | Daily severity, triggers, and products during flares | Timeline charts and the derm-visit prep sheet |
| Patch tests | Patch Test Log | Each test with its verdict and linked photos | Failed tests join your profile’s avoid list — products get flagged site-wide |
| Symptom scores | Eczema Severity / Itch Scale / Hives UAS7 | Dated score entries | Trend lines and visit-prep summaries |
| Derm visit prep sheet | Derm Visit Prep | Your timeline, product list, questions, and attachments draft | The printable sheet you take to an appointment |
| Quiz & calculator results | Skin Type Quiz, Sun Safety, FTU Calculator… | Your last result or settings for each small tool | Restored when you return; some prefill other tools |
| Poll answers | Product pages / Town Square | Your own poll answers (whether you use it, whether it worked, how long, and whether you’d buy again), plus a random device token (not synced) so this device can change its answer | Shows your answer back to you; the anonymous combined tally lives on our server — see the privacy policy |
| Tours & podcast player | The Town / The Podcast | Which tour stops you have seen, and where you stopped an episode and at what speed | Picks up where you left off |
| Tool selections | Conflict Checker, Routine Order, Dupe Finder… | Your last checked routine, lineup, or search | Picks up where you left off on that tool |
Personalization never leaves your browser
Your skin profile is matched against the same public product data every visitor downloads, on your own device — nothing about your skin is sent to us to personalize a page. What that personalization shows you is described in Town Hall.
Common questions
Why did the data I entered in a Dermington tool disappear?
Almost always because the browser deleted it, not because anything went wrong on the site. The most common cause on iPhone, iPad, and Mac is Safari itself: it automatically erases a website’s stored data after seven days without a visit. Clearing browsing history or “cookies and site data”, using a private window, phone “cleaner” apps, and switching browsers or devices all have the same effect. The safeguard is exporting your library now and then: one file holds everything, photos included, and restores it on any browser.
Does Safari really delete website data after seven days?
Yes. Since 2020, Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention removes everything a website has stored in the browser — including logs and photos kept locally — once seven days pass without you interacting with that site. It was designed to stop trackers, but it can’t tell a tracker from your flare diary. If you use Dermington tools in Safari, export your library now and then, so a wipe can’t take everything.
Is my Dermington data synced between my phone and my computer?
No. Data you enter on your phone exists only in that phone’s browser — even two browsers on the same device (say Chrome and Safari) don’t share anything. To move it, export your library in one and restore the file in the other.
How do I back up or move my tool data?
Your data can export everything (photos included) as a single file and restore it on any browser. It’s a manual path: nothing reminds you to export, and a file you made in March won’t contain your April diary, so export again whenever you’ve added something you’d hate to lose.
Can Dermington recover my data if it’s gone?
Not from our side: entries never left your device, nothing was uploaded, and nobody at Dermington can restore what a browser erased. If you have an export file, restoring it brings everything back; without one, that data is gone for good.
Does Dermington see my skin profile when pages are personalized for me?
Personalization runs entirely inside your browser: the page downloads the same public product data everyone gets, and your device compares it against the profile stored locally. Match badges, the verdicts for your concerns, and tool prefills are computed on your machine, and your profile is never sent to our server.