Serum Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and ChesKat Enterprises, LLC, a Colorado limited liability company ("we", "us"). By using Serum, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use Serum.

Please note: section 18 requires that disputes be resolved by individual arbitration rather than in court, and waives class actions and jury trials. You can opt out of it within 30 days; section 18 says how.

Serum is offered in the United States only.

1. Who may use Serum

You must be 18 or older. By using Serum you confirm that you are.

2. What Serum is

Serum is an organisational tool. You tell it which skincare products you own, and it arranges them into an order and a weekly schedule, reminds you, and lets you keep photos and notes about your skin.

3. What Serum is not

SERUM DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. It is not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. Nothing in the app is a substitute for advice from a doctor, dermatologist, pharmacist, or other qualified professional.

Using Serum does not create any professional relationship between you and us.

Serum's scheduling reflects general, widely-published guidance about how common skincare ingredients are typically used. It is not personalised to you. It cannot know your medical history, your allergies, your sensitivities, what medications you take, whether you are pregnant, or how your skin will respond to anything.

If you have a skin condition, are under a doctor's care, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or are using prescription treatments, speak to a qualified professional before changing your routine.

Serum shows general notes and widely-published recommendations, for example that retinoids are usually avoided in pregnancy, or that it could not tell what is active in a product. These are general information for everyone, not advice about you. Serum does not ask about your health and records nothing about your body. What it knows is what is on your shelf, what you did with it, and a professional treatment you chose to log so that it could pause your actives.

4. Professional treatments and recovery pauses

Serum lets you record a professional treatment, such as a peel or a laser session, and will pause strong ingredients for a period afterwards.

That pause is a convenience, not clinical aftercare. It is based on general and widely-published timeframes, not on what was actually done to you. Recovery varies by device, depth, technique, and person, and only the person who performed your treatment knows those. Nothing in the app is a substitute for advice from a doctor, dermatologist, pharmacist, or other qualified professional.

Where your provider's aftercare instructions differ from Serum, follow your provider. Nothing in the app is or should be considered a substitute for advice from a doctor, dermatologist, pharmacist, or other qualified professional.

5. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for what you put on your skin. In particular:

• Read the label. Follow the instructions of the company that made each product. Where their instructions differ from Serum's schedule, follow the manufacturer's instructions, always.
• Patch test any new product on a small area before using it on your face.
• Stop immediately if a product stings, burns, blisters, causes a rash, or makes your skin worse, and seek medical advice if it does not settle.
• Enter accurate information. Serum can only reason about the ingredients you tell it about. If you enter a product incorrectly, or leave out an ingredient, the schedule it produces may be wrong for you. Serum is not responsible for inaccurate input of ingredients.
• Use sun protection, particularly when using retinoids or exfoliating acids.

6. ASSUMPTION OF RISK

Skincare products can cause irritation, allergic reactions, sun sensitivity, and other adverse effects, even when used as directed, and even when they have caused no problem before.

USE SKINCARE PRODUCTS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

By using the app, YOU ACCEPT AND ASSUME ALL RISK, and you agree that we are not responsible for any reaction, injury, worsening of a condition, or other harm arising from products you choose to buy and use, including where you used them in the order or on the days Serum suggested.

This includes any claim that a schedule, order, note, reminder or recovery pause Serum produced was wrong, incomplete, late or unsuitable for you, AND ANY CLAIM BASED ON OUR NEGLIGENCE, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS. Where the law does not allow a claim to be released, section 14 applies to it.

7. Limits of the ingredient information

Serum recognises a limited set of common ingredient families from what you type, and from a built in catalogue of products. That catalogue records ingredient families, not full ingredient lists, and formulations change without notice and may not be up to date in the app at the time you input the information or use the app.

Serum may not recognise an ingredient, may categorise one incorrectly, and may not reflect the latest research or a specific formulation's behaviour. Where Serum cannot tell what is active in a product, it says so on the ritual screen and asks you to follow the label or your doctor. BY USING THE APP, YOU AGREE THAT YOU WILL NOT RELY ON SERUM TO TELL YOU WHETHER A PRODUCT IS SAFE FOR YOU.

8. Reorder and affiliate links

When a product is close to running out, Serum may offer a link to buy it again from a retailer.

• These are affiliate links. If you buy something after following one, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. This is also disclosed on the screen where the link appears.
• We are not the seller. Retailers set their own prices, availability, delivery, returns and refunds, and their own terms and privacy policies apply once you leave Serum.
• A link is not a recommendation of that retailer, and being linked does not mean a product is right for you. Serum suggests reordering what you already own and chose for yourself.
• We are not responsible for anything you buy, for a retailer's conduct, or for a listing being wrong, out of date, or unavailable.
• You are free to buy the product anywhere else, and Serum works exactly the same if you do.

9. Usage data

Serum collects usage data about the kinds of products you own and how your routine goes. It is not tied to your name, email, or any account you hold with us. The switch for it is pre-set to on on the first screen, nothing is sent until you accept that screen, and you can switch it off there or at any time under the lock icon on the Today screen.

One optional question about you is off by default and is only sent if you switch it on.

What is collected, what is never collected, and how to turn it off are set out in full in our Privacy Policy. It describes our practices and applies to your use of Serum; it is not a term of this agreement.

10. Your content

Your photos, notes, and product list are yours. They are stored on your device; we do not receive, host, or claim any rights in them. You are responsible for keeping your own copies of anything you would be upset to lose.

If you choose to submit a product to our catalogue by typing it in while usage data is switched on, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free permission to use that brand and product name in the catalogue and in anything derived from it. Nothing else you typed is sent, and nothing is added to the catalogue without review.

11. Our content

Serum, its name, design, and software are owned by ChesKat Enterprises, LLC. You may use the app for your own personal use. You may not copy, resell, reverse-engineer, or build a competing product from it, except to the extent the law allows despite this restriction.

12. Subscriptions

Serum is free to use. Serum Pro is an optional auto-renewing subscription sold through Apple.

• Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase.
• Any free trial period is stated at the point of purchase. A free trial is available once per Apple Account; if you have had one before, you are charged from the start, and the app will say so before you subscribe. If you subscribe during a free trial, the unused portion of that trial is forfeited.
• Your subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.
• Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription.
• Prices may change. We will tell you before a change affects you, as Apple requires.
• Refunds are handled by Apple, under Apple's policies. We cannot issue them.

Building your schedule, detecting conflicts between products, and logging a professional treatment and the recovery pause that follows it are not part of Serum Pro.

13. No warranty

SERUM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that Serum will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that its scheduling suits you.

14. Limitation of liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for fraud, for wilful misconduct, or for damages required by law involving personal injury, to the extent the law does not permit that liability to be limited. If any limit below is not permitted, that limit does not apply and the rest of this section remains enforceable.

SUBJECT TO THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE, AND TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CHESKAT ENTERPRISES, LLC WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST DATA OR LOSS OF PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF SERUM.

SUBJECT TO THE SAME, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO SERUM WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) FIFTY US DOLLARS ($50).

15. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless ChesKat Enterprises, LLC and its members, officers, and agents from any third-party claim, loss, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of Serum, your violation of any law or of anyone else's rights, or anything you submit to the catalogue.

16. Ending your use

You may stop using Serum at any time by deleting the app. We may suspend or discontinue Serum, in whole or part, at any time, and may end your right to use it if you break these terms. If we discontinue it while you hold a paid subscription, contact Apple regarding a refund of the unused portion. Sections 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 21 and 22 continue to apply after your use ends.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, except that section 18 is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. Any dispute that does not go to arbitration, or that is brought after opting out of section 18, will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Denver, Colorado, and you consent to their jurisdiction.

Nothing in this section removes any protection given to you by the consumer-protection law of the state where you live, where that law does not allow it to be displaced.

Before filing anything in court, you agree to send us the notice described in section 18.1 and to allow the 60 days it provides, whether or not you have opted out of section 18.

To the extent the law allows, any claim relating to Serum or these terms must be started within one year after it arises, or it is permanently barred. This applies in arbitration and in court alike.

18. Arbitration and class-action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR RIGHTS. IT REQUIRES THAT DISPUTES BE RESOLVED BY INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION, AND IT WAIVES YOUR RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO TAKE PART IN A CLASS ACTION.

18.1 Informal communication. Before starting arbitration or any court case, you agree to send us a written notice of the dispute at the email address in section 20, giving your name, a description of the problem, and what you would like us to do about it. We will do the same if we have a claim against you. We then engage in informal dispute resolution and each agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute for 60 days from the notice. Neither of us may start arbitration or a case before those 60 days have passed, and the time limit for bringing the claim is paused while they run.

18.2 Individual arbitration. If we cannot resolve the dispute, any dispute between you and us relating to Serum or these terms, including whether this section applies, will be resolved by binding individual arbitration and not in court, except as sections 18.4 and 18.5 provide. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

18.3 How the arbitration works. The arbitration will be run by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules in force when the arbitration starts, which are available at adr.org. A single arbitrator decides the dispute and may award anything a court could award to an individual, and nothing more. The arbitration will be held by video or telephone, or on documents alone if the claim is for less than $10,000. The arbitrator's decision is final and may be entered as a judgment in any court with jurisdiction. The arbitrator, not a court, decides whether a dispute falls within this section, except that only a court may decide whether section 18.6 or 18.7 can be enforced. If the AAA is unavailable or declines to administer the arbitration, you and we will agree on another established arbitration provider to run it under comparable consumer rules, and if we cannot agree within 30 days either of us may ask a court to appoint one under section 5 of the Federal Arbitration Act. This section stays in force regardless of which provider runs the arbitration.

18.4 Small claims. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in a small-claims court that has jurisdiction, so long as it remains in small-claims court as an individual claim.

18.5 Court for injunctions and intellectual property. Either of us may ask a court for an injunction or other urgent relief to stop actual or threatened misuse of Serum or infringement of intellectual-property rights, without first going through section 18.1.

18.6 No class actions. You agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not combine one person's claims with another's or preside over any form of class or representative proceeding, and may award relief only to the individual seeking it and only as needed for that individual's claim.

18.7 Jury trial waiver. Where a dispute is heard in court rather than arbitration, you waive any right to a jury trial to the extent the law allows.

18.8 Fees. Filing, administrative and arbitrator fees are allocated as the AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules provide, which cap the fee you pay and place the rest on us. Each of us pays our own lawyers, except that where a statute or the rules provide for the recovery of lawyers' fees, the arbitrator may award them. We will not seek our lawyers' fees from you unless the arbitrator finds your claim frivolous or brought for an improper purpose.

18.9 Many similar claims. If 25 or more demands for arbitration raising similar issues are filed by, or with the coordination of, the same lawyers or organisation, they will be administered under the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules in force at the time, or the equivalent rules of a substitute provider under 18.3. The time limit for bringing a claim is paused from the day a demand is filed until it is assigned to an arbitrator.

18.10 Opting out. You may opt out of arbitration under this section by emailing us at contact@cheskatenterprises.com within 30 days of first accepting these terms, with the subject line "Arbitration opt-out", your name, and a statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other part of these terms. If you opt out, disputes will be heard in the courts named in section 17. Sections 18.6 and 18.7, the class-action and jury-trial waivers, continue to apply even if you opt out of arbitration, to the extent the law allows.

18.11 If part of this section fails. If any part of this section is found unenforceable, the rest remains intact and fully enforceable, except that if section 18.6 is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim will be heard in the courts named in section 17 rather than in arbitration, and any arbitration of other claims will be paused until that court case is over.

18.12 Changes to this section. If we change this section after you accept these terms, the change does not apply to any dispute you gave notice of before the change, and you may reject the change by opting out under section 18.10 within 30 days of the change taking effect.

19. Changes

We may update these terms. If a change is significant, we will ask you to accept the new version in the app. Continuing to use Serum after a change means you accept it.

20. Contact and support

ChesKat Enterprises, LLC Colorado, USA contact@cheskatenterprises.com https://cheskatenterprises.com/serum

Support for Serum, and any question, complaint or notice about it, including a notice of dispute under section 18, comes to us at that email address, not to Apple. Legal notices may also be sent by post to our registered agent, as shown on the Colorado Secretary of State's record for ChesKat Enterprises, LLC.

21. Apple

Serum is distributed through Apple's App Store, and your licence to the Serum software is granted under Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement (Apple's standard licence), which you accepted when you first used the App Store. That licence governs the software licence itself. These terms govern the relationship between you and us: what Serum is and is not, your responsibilities, usage data, assumption of risk, subscriptions, warranties, liability, and how disputes are resolved. If the two ever appear to overlap, Apple's standard licence applies to the licence to the software and these terms apply to everything else about Serum.

Apple is not a party to these terms, is not responsible for Serum or its content, and has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it. We are responsible for Serum, for any claim relating to it, and for support, which you can reach at the address in section 20. Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

22. General

These terms are the whole agreement between you and us about Serum. Section 18 is a separate agreement to arbitrate that survives if the rest of these terms end or are found unenforceable. If any part of them is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a term on one occasion, we may still enforce it later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms to anyone else; we may transfer ours to a successor of our business, and will tell you in the app if we do. Nothing in these terms takes away rights that the law gives you and does not allow to be waived.