Curology Review

If you’re experiencing dermatological concerns like acne or hair loss, it’s important to know you aren’t alone. Acne is one of the most common skin disorders, and it’s not something that just impacts teenagers; over 25% of women and 12% of men in their 40s experience it, too.1 And androgenetic alopecia, or patterned hair loss, affects an estimated 50 million men and 30 million women in the U.S. alone.2

To make treatment more accessible, telehealth dermatology services offer a wide range of prescriptions tailored to suit your needs. One such service that offers personalized solutions is Curology, which specializes in dermatological treatments for acne, aging, and hair loss. The company aims to make dermatology as customized, convenient, and discreet as possible. But is Curology worth it?

In this review, we analyze its safety, efficacy, cost, convenience, and more to help you determine if it’s right for your unique needs.

Curology conveniently provides personalized treatments for acne (facial and body), antiaging, and hair loss for patients 13 and up who live in the U.S. The company gets high marks from us for adhering to research-supported ingredients that are safe for sensitive skin, as well as relying on board-certified medical specialists who effectively collaborate with you to customize your skincare regimen. It's not perfect — making adjustments with your provider is painless, but customer service in other respects can be lacking. And Curology is fairly average in terms of pricing, so there are less expensive options. But subscriptions and a one-month trial opportunity keep costs approachable.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

For our review of Curology, we spent over 60 hours examining 50+ studies and academic papers related to the active ingredients used in the company's products. We also drew from our extensive experience — hundreds of hours spent evaluating similar brands — to assess Curology versus the close competition. On top of that, our testers interacted with the website, completed the intake questionnaire, received and tested personalized prescription formulas, and engaged extensively with customer service (both human and AI) to further develop our impressions of the service as a whole.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

When evaluating Curology, we kept four main criteria in mind that we felt were most important to customers seeking information about an online dermatology service:

• The safety of the products
• How effective the products (and their ingredients) are
• How much the service costs
• The overall convenience of using the products and service

Let’s examine how Curology fared in each criterion.

Safety

Overall, Curology’s products should be generally safe for most healthy people. This goes for its OTC and prescription products. With many of the active ingredients like tretinoin, ivermectin, and azelaic acid, the most common side effects are mild, transient (temporary) skin irritation, redness, flaking, or dryness.3 4 5

While those are some of the most common side effects, there are certain groups — particularly those who are breastfeeding or pregnant (or who may become pregnant) — that are at higher risk of serious adverse effects. Ingredients that can present these risks include finasteride,6 spironolactone,7 and even the normally mild tretinoin — all of which have the potential to cause birth defects, among other things.8 We’ll explore the safety of Curology more thoroughly in a dedicated section later.

If you aren’t pregnant but are at risk of becoming so while using products with these ingredients, it’s recommended that you use adequate methods of contraception.7 9

Of course, Curology isn’t the only service to offer products with these ingredients. Agency Skincare also prescribes tretinoin, while Musely can prescribe all three of the risky ones we’ve mentioned — and both of these alternative services offer the hyperpigmentation treatment hydroquinone (which Curology does not), an ingredient the FDA considered so risky that it banned the over-the-counter (OTC) sale of products containing it.10

Effectiveness

Curology — like alternative services Agency and Musely — uses a collection of active ingredients in its formulas that all have a good amount of positive scientific research behind them.

Tretinoin, for example, is considered by researchers to be possibly “the most potent and certainly the most widely investigated retinoid for photoaging therapy.”11 (Photoaging is when the sun ages the skin.) A 2022 systematic review of research on the ingredient supports this, finding that “all studies consistently reported that topical tretinoin was efficacious in improving [the] clinical appearance of photoaging.”12

Pivoting to acne, a 2020 study notes that azelaic acid is a “safe and effective” treatment for the condition.13 And researchers of a 2023 case series state that treating mild to moderate acne with the ingredient resulted in “excellent patient satisfaction.”14

Curology’s ingredients in the Hair Formula are similarly effective. Minoxidil, for example, is an FDA-approved treatment for androgenetic alopecia in men and women.15 Though the drug’s mechanism of action isn’t fully understood, a 2019 review notes that a minoxidil solution “showed a remarkable increase in hair growth” in clinical trials on patients with androgenetic alopecia.16

We’ll cover the efficacy of several other active ingredients found in various Curology products later on in this review, but nearly all of them have similarly promising research.

Now, if the idea of medications in your custom skincare or haircare isn’t appealing at all — no matter the amount of positive research — then a botanical-based line of products like those from competitor Prose may be worth a try. While the evidence for the efficacy of botanicals isn’t as strong as that for medications, there’s still some scientific support for them.

Cost

When it comes to the price of any custom skincare or haircare product, you’ll almost always end up spending more than you would if you were to purchase a one-size-fits-most option. The personalization is a big part of what drives the cost of services like Curology. However, not everyone can afford to regularly sacrifice $60-$90 every other month for refills. In some cases, depending on your insurance plan (if applicable), it may be more cost-effective to see a dermatology provider in your network and get a prescription that way.

But if we only look at Curology versus other comparable online services, then it becomes apparent that most of its products (both prescription and not) are actually priced pretty average, if not more affordably in many cases. For example, let’s take a look at Curology’s prescription prices rounded up to the nearest dollar:

Now, lets examine the one-time and subscription prices of similar prescription products from alternatives Agency Skincare and Musely:

Especially when compared to the one-time purchase prices of Musely and the cost of Agency, Curology tends to be a more affordable option. However, the subscription discount from Musely greatly reduces the monthly costs of its products and makes it the most cost-effective of the bunch — but you’re still paying more up front for Musely no matter what.

Interestingly, Agency — which is owned and operated by Curology — has a more expensive anti-aging product (Future Formula), even though the two can contain the exact same ingredients. In fact, Curology’s formula (Future-Proof) has more ingredient options available.

We’ll discuss Curology’s pricing in more detail later, under the topic’s dedicated section, but its affordability ultimately depends on your circumstances and preferences (e.g., maybe you prefer to spend more up front and save over time).

Convenience

Being an online dermatology service that delivers prescription treatments to your door, Curology, at its core, is a very convenient service. Our team had no issues ordering products, adjusting shipment times, communicating with providers, or using the products themselves. In general, everything with Curology went fairly smoothly — once our testers were able to actually use the platform, that is.

Now, if you’ve already signed up for Curology’s sister site, Agency Skincare, then signing up for Curology (or vice versa) may be a frustrating experience. As one of our testers found out, your account with the first service you signed up for will be closed without warning once you sign up for the second one. You are not allowed to have an account (or a medical record) with both services, but you also aren’t notified of this beforehand. In our tester’s case, their previous Curology account was closed when they signed up for Agency to test out the service for our review. This led to us having to try to figure out how to transfer the account back to Curology for this review.

We wish customers would receive a warning and the option to select which service they’d like to stick with before the account is closed.

Because of this restriction, we recommend weighing the pros, cons, and offerings of each service before selecting the one you want to stick with. Take it from us — trying to move an account between companies can be a time-consuming hassle. However, we also don’t expect all that many people to run into this issue, so while it was frustrating, we didn’t dock Curology too many points for convenience over it.

Another convenience issue comes from Curology’s (and Agency’s) customer service AI — it’s not very helpful, and it doesn’t understand some of what you say to it. When trying to ask this AI to help us “move” our tester’s account back to Curology, it thought our tester was moving and kept trying to help us update their address instead. This is definitely something that needs to be worked on. Also, it’s far more likely that people will run into this AI customer service problem than the account transfer one, so this did lead to Curology losing some points for convenience.

Overall, though, Curology is still convenient. The products are easy to use, account management is straightforward, the customer dashboard and website are simple to navigate, and you can cancel your subscription at any time without frustration. It’s just important to keep those aforementioned potential inconveniences in mind if you do try out Curology.

Founded in 2014, Curology is an online dermatology service specializing in personalized treatments for acne, aging, and hair loss. The service is available in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. All Curology providers are board-certified medical professionals with extensive experience in dermatology.

Currently, Curology offers four different prescription items and 18 nonprescription “Routine Essentials” (products like cleansers, moisturizers, lip balm, etc.). The prescription items include:

• Custom Formula for Acne
• Future-Proof for Anti-Aging
• Hair Formula for Hair Loss
• Body Cleanse for Body Acne

Curology doesn’t have any prescriptions specifically intended for other concerns at this time — rosacea or hyperpigmentation, for example — but several of the ingredients in its current products may be able to help with them anyway. However, if you want something that’s intended for a different skincare concern, an alternative service like Agency or Musely would be worth considering.

Curology company standing

On the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, Curology has an accredited profile with an A+ rating. There are around 50 reviews, culminating in a 2.11 out of 5 stars, and there have been 106 complaints within the past three years. A majority of the negative reviews and complaints are about difficulties managing subscriptions. There are also a few noting that the initial customer service contact is a not-so-helpful bot, which we also found frustrating.

The company’s claimed Trustpilot page — in contrast to the BBB one — has a 4.1-star rating (out of 5) from over 1,100 reviews, or a “Great” score by Trustpilot’s standards. At the time of this writing, over 60% of the reviews are 5-star, while 19% are 1-star. Most reviews are positive, with customers praising the results they saw from using the company’s products. The complaints are similar to those from the BBB page: difficulties with subscriptions and contacting a human customer service representative.

While we didn’t have an issue with subscription management, we did encounter the company’s unhelpful AI (as mentioned before). We hope Curology will take the negative feedback about this AI seriously and either remove the bot or at least make sure it’s better trained before deploying it again.

As Curology notes, its telehealth dermatology service is for patients 13 years old and up. Those who are 13-17 years old will need the permission of a parent or guardian, however, and treatment “occurs in collaboration” with them.

Treatment-wise, Curology offers prescriptions for the following concerns:

• Acne (face and body)
• Hair loss
• Aging

None of Curology’s products are specifically intended to treat conditions like eczema, psoriasis, vitiligo, or melasma, but some of the ingredients in the treatments may be able to help with some of those conditions. For example, azelaic acid — found in the Future Proof and Custom Formula products — has demonstrated the ability to greatly reduce hyperpigmentation in some research studies.17

If you would prefer a service that directly treats those conditions, then Musely or Agency Skincare may be better options for you.

If you’re pregnant, nursing, or may become pregnant, then a few potential Curology custom product ingredients can be unsafe: finasteride,6 spironolactone,7 and tretinoin.8 These three ingredients can all cause birth defects and should be avoided. It’s also unknown whether or not any of them can make their way into breastmilk and how they may affect a nursing baby.

Curology, in general, should be safe for healthy people who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding (more on that in a bit).

Like its sister site, Agency Skincare, all of Curology’s products are vegan, cruelty-free, non-comedogenic, and fragrance-free. And, whether prescription or nonprescription, the overwhelming majority of the company’s products contain active ingredients — such as tretinoin,3 ivermectin,4 and azelaic acid,5 for example — that are most likely to cause only mild side effects in healthy nonpregnant people, like application site irritation, itching, flaking, redness, or dryness that should fade as your skin adjusts.

Of course, if you experience a more severe or persistent reaction, you should discontinue using the product and contact your doctor — or seek emergency care if it’s a life-threatening allergic reaction, like anaphylaxis (swelling of the face, lips, tongue, or throat, trouble breathing, etc.). Severe allergic reactions are rare for most of Curology’s ingredients, but the possibility is still worth mentioning.

Now, let’s turn our attention to breastfeeding and pregnant people, who are at higher risk from some of the potential ingredients in Curology.

For breastfeeding and pregnant individuals

Some of the ingredients that are available in various Curology formulas are specifically risky for those who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or may become pregnant. The potential dangers of three possible formula inclusions — finasteride, spironolactone, and tretinoin — in pregnant people are detailed below.

Breastfeeding people should also avoid finasteride, spironolactone, and tretinoin treatments. There hasn’t been enough research on whether or not these ingredients can enter breastmilk, and if they can, we also don’t know how nursing infants may be negatively impacted.

As a quick warning for those who aren’t pregnant — but are at risk of becoming so — it’s highly recommended that you use adequate contraception methods during your (potential) treatment with these ingredients, just to be safe.7 9 For example, experts recommend that female tretinoin patients be on “two dependable forms of contraception” and take monthly pregnancy tests throughout the duration of treatment.8

At the time of this writing, Curology offers four custom prescription products, including treatments for facial acne, body acne, anti-aging, and hair loss. The vast majority of active ingredients used by Curology have a nice amount of positive scientific support. Let’s see what some of their potential active ingredients can do for you.

Custom Formula

Curology’s Custom Formula for facial acne has the widest range of potential active ingredients, with nine possibilities. The options include clindamycin,20 tretinoin,21 niacinamide,22 azelaic acid,13 zinc pyrithione,23 tranexamic acid,24 metronidazole,25 ivermectin,26 and spironolactone — all of which have some supporting evidence as treatments for various types of acne.27 For example, researchers describe clindamycin in a 2024 review as “a key player in the management of dermatologic conditions like acne and folliculitis.”20

Then, in a separate review on tretinoin from 2011, it’s noted that this retinoid can treat acne through its “ability to stimulate the growth of new cells, unclog pores, and promote the normal flow of sebum.”20

Finally, another unrelated, small review from 2017 on niacinamide (also known as “nicotinamide”) for acne found that most studies (six out of eight) on the topical form of the ingredient as a treatment “led to a significant reduction in acne.”22

Body Cleanse

This product for body acne has only three potential active ingredients: sulfacetamide, zinc pyrithione, and salicylic acid. By default, Body Cleanse will include all three, but this may change based on your provider’s discretion and your unique needs.

In a 2018 review of sulfacetamide, researchers note that twice-daily use of the treatment reduced inflammatory acne lesions by over 80%.28 Similarly, a 2013 placebo-controlled study on salicylic acid for acne found that it “provided significant reductions in acne lesion counts.”29 The only ingredient that doesn’t have direct studies as an acne treatment is zinc pyrithione. However, zinc in other forms (zinc sulfate and zinc gluconate) has demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of acne.23 And researchers note that topical zinc, in general, has the ability to reduce both inflammation and counts of acne-causing Propionibacterium acnes bacteria.30

Future-Proof

This anti-aging cream may include the active ingredients tretinoin, azelaic acid, tranexamic acid, dexpanthenol, or niacinamide. Each of these potential inclusions can reduce the appearance of skin aging in different ways. For instance, dexpanthenol and niacinamide both have improved skin elasticity in studies, while the latter also showed effectiveness in reducing the appearance of wrinkles.31 32

Tranexamic acid (TA) and azelaic acid (AA) have mainly been studied as ways to combat hyperpigmentation. A 2023 study using TA as a treatment for facial melasma called it “safe and fairly effective.”33 Then, when AA was pitted against hydroquinone (the “standard” treatment for hyperpigmentation) in a separate 2023 study, it performed just as well, if not better in some cases.17 34 Finally, regarding tretinoin, in a 2022 review of the literature, researchers note that “all studies” found topical tretinoin to be an effective treatment for aging.12

Hair Formula

While many of the ingredients across the previous three formulas are repeated in Hair Formula, this particular product comes with a different set of possibilities. The potential active ingredients include minoxidil, finasteride, ketoconazole, spironolactone, caffeine, and melatonin. Those final two ingredients — caffeine and melatonin — may not be what you’d typically expect in a hair loss treatment, but they both have shown promise in research (the former was even dubbed “not inferior” to minoxidil in one study).35 36

Both minoxidil and finasteride are FDA-approved for androgenetic alopecia (the former for men and women and the latter for men only).15 37 In a small 2019 study, ketoconazole performed similarly to minoxidil, but the positive effects were delayed by a few months.38 And while most studies on spironolactone look at its oral form, the topical-focused studies that exist are promising. A 2023 review of the literature notes that a small study on 26 patients with androgenetic alopecia experienced “significant increases” in total hair count after treatment with topical spironolactone.39

Now that we’ve gone over Curology’s prescriptions let’s examine some of Curology’s nonprescription products, including cleansers, serums, and acne patches. The breakdown below discusses the standout ingredients in these products.

Since Curology offers both prescription and nonprescription products, we’ve compiled the pricing information into two charts. The first chart covers the company’s prescription offerings:

Now let’s look at Curology’s nonprescription (or OTC) items, which it calls “Routine Essentials.”

As you can see, you generally save some money by subscribing to Curology’s items, whether prescription or not. In comparison, you can’t buy any of Agency’s products as one-time purchases; if there’s anything else you want, you have to add it to your bimonthly prescription delivery.

If you’re interested in trying Curology but aren’t sure about committing, then you may want to take advantage of the $14.95 one-month trial, which lets you try out your formula and saves you up to 80%. If you’re unhappy with your formula during the trial, you can request a refund within 28 days of your shipment’s delivery date. Otherwise, Curology doesn’t accept returns or exchanges, which is pretty standard when it comes to products that are customized to your needs.

Our experience with Curology was overall quite positive. The intake survey only took our testers a few minutes, the company’s providers were friendly and informative, and both the prescription and nonprescription products shipped and arrived quite quickly.

We did have a bit of a hangup swapping one tester’s account from Agency to Curology since neither company outright states that you can’t have an account with both of them. That was probably our biggest inconvenience.

The second biggest inconvenience — which is related to the first — was the company’s use of AI as the first point of customer service contact in both email and chat. We’re used to seeing AI used in the latter, but the emails were something a bit more “unique.” Curology’s email AI kept misunderstanding when we wanted to move our tester’s account from Agency to Curology. Using the word “move” apparently triggered the bot to think our tester had moved and needed to change their address. Even after we tried to correct it a few times, the bot insisted that moving was the reason for the email thread. And it took a few attempts of “please let me speak to a human” before it finally transferred the case.

All that aside, using Curology’s products was a positive experience in itself. The Custom Formula prescription cream goes on smooth and dries very quickly, the body washes and cleansers are easily spreadable (a little bit goes a long way), and the lip balm is both moisturizing and kind of fun to slide out of its container (one tester found it made a good fidget toy of sorts).

And after only a few days of use, our Custom Formula tester found that the mild acne on their shoulders and upper back was already starting to fade.

Maybe you have a skincare concern that Curology doesn’t focus on — rosacea, for example — or maybe you’d prefer a different type of hair loss treatment, such as oral minoxidil. In any case, if Curology doesn’t sound like a fit for you, there are multiple other similar services across the internet that may suit your needs better. In this section, we take a look at three: Agency Skincare, Musely, and Prose.

Agency Skincare

While it’s technically owned and operated by Curology, Agency Skincare does offer a couple of different products than its parent company. For general facial photoaging, you could probably stick with either service, as they offer similar items (Future-Proof from Curology or the Future Formula from Agency). But if you’re looking for treatments for hyperpigmentation or aging around the eyes, Agency sells the Dark Spot Formula and the Eye Formula to target those respective concerns.

The Eye Formula contains ingredients like tretinoin and caffeine, while the Dark Spot Formula may have inclusions like kojic acid or hydroquinone — the latter of which comes with some safety risks. For most people who use a lower dose for the short term, hydroquinone should be generally safe. However, those who use it long-term or at high doses are at greater risk of developing severe side effects.34 49 50

Nonetheless, hydroquinone is often very effective for hyperpigmentation, and many experts consider it the “standard” treatment.34 If you wish to try Agency’s Dark Spot Formula with hydroquinone but are concerned about the side effects, then communication with your Agency provider is key. They can either start you off on a very low dose or have you try a milder treatment first, like azelaic acid — which may be just as effective as hydroquinone according to some research (but more studies are needed).17

Price-wise, Agency is about the same or more than Curology. The biggest difference is that, while many Curology items (both prescription and nonprescription) are available as one-time purchases, you need to subscribe to Agency even to get OTC items, like its moisturizer. You also can’t just get an OTC item; it has to be part of your prescription box delivery — meaning that the OTC products are, in a technical way, more expensive than their listed prices.

For example, if you wanted the Cloud Care Duo, it wouldn’t just be the $28 it’s listed for — you’d have to add it to your bimonthly delivery. Agency, like Curology, requires a prescription in each subscription box. So, to get that $28 OTC product, you’d need to spend an additional $70-$80 every other month. At least with Curology, its OTC products (and some prescriptions) have the option to be purchased à la carte, in a sense.

To learn more about Agency and its products, you can read our full review.

Musely

Out of all the services mentioned in this review, Musely offers customized treatments (nearly 20) for the widest range of concerns. At the time of this writing, Musely treats the following conditions:

• Aging (wrinkles and fine lines)
• Keratosis pilaris
• Menopausal skin concerns (like loss of elasticity)
• Hyperpigmentation
• Hair loss
• Aging skin around the eyes
• Rosacea
• Hirsutism (unwanted facial hair)

Musely’s medication concentrations also tend to be on the higher side, making this service ideal for those who’ve tried the typical formulas and haven’t had any luck. For example, its topical minoxidil concentration is 8%, while the FDA-approved range is only 2-5%.15 This can potentially make some products more effective, but it also brings along a greater risk of side effects. (The risks of high-dose hydroquinone mentioned above in Agency’s section come to mind.)

Perhaps because of its higher dosing, Musely also tends to be more expensive than comparable services, especially if you don’t subscribe. If you subscribe to Musely, you stand to save quite a bit of money, even if you cancel immediately afterward. As an example, Musely’s The Spot Cream hyperpigmentation treatment is $96 as a one-time purchase but $67 as a subscription.

Check out our full review for more information about Musely.

Prose

Perhaps the most distinct of the Curology competitors mentioned in this review is Prose, a service that specializes in deeply customized botanical-based haircare and skincare products instead of medicated or prescription ones. The depth of Prose’s intake questionnaires for your custom products is fairly impressive; the surveys ask about the usual things like stress and health status, but they also go the extra mile by asking questions to determine factors like your local air quality and water hardness, among other details.

There are hundreds of potential botanical ingredients that may be included in your Prose formulas, and a good amount of them have some positive scientific support. For example, Prose may add the phytochemical ingredient bakuchiol in place of a retinoid (like tretinoin) for anti-aging in your custom moisturizer, cleanser, or serum. While more studies are needed, some research has found that bakuchiol may reduce the signs of aging just as well as retinol, and without the irritation.51

Cost-wise, Prose’s up-front pricing is less than Curology’s, but it’s worth remembering that you’re not getting medication or the support of a dermatologist. You can buy your Prose formulas (skincare, haircare, or both) as one-time purchases or on a monthly subscription basis. Subscribing to either haircare or skincare gets you 15% off, but subscribing to both gets you 20% off. Here’s how some of the costs break down:

It’s important to point out that Prose’s pricing structure is different from Curology’s. To illustrate, in the chart below, let’s do a quick comparison of the subscription costs of a few similar items between the two companies.

Note: Curology’s subscriptions are sold bimonthly (two-month supplies), while Prose’s are monthly (one-month supplies).

To be fair, Curology’s nonprescription items aren’t customized like Prose’s are, but the price difference is still a bit staggering. The only time Curology remains more expensive per month is when you compare its prescription hair loss product (Hair Formula) with Prose’s nonprescription custom shampoo.

Still, if you’re looking for custom botanical products like those from Prose, its prices aren’t all that bad compared to its close competition — especially considering the depth of the customization. We examine all of these details further in our full review of Prose.