You may have heard the buzzword “clean beauty” tossed around in the last few years — perhaps it was highlighted in marketing campaigns, or used by your favorite blogger *ahem.*

While it may be a hot topic right now, it’s actually a great thing that it’s coming to light as it’s such a critical topic in skincare, beauty, and wellness! In case you’re scratching your head and thinking to yourself, “Okay, but why?”

Here’s the lowdown: What really is clean beauty and why is it important?

Clean beauty refers to skincare and cosmetics that are made with ingredients that are not harmful to the consumer. Clean beauty products contain ingredients that are nourishing and made from natural or safe synthetic ingredients. This is crucial as there are many products out there that can disrupt the endocrine system (your hormone factory!), and aren’t good to be ingesting… especially in products that we often use daily.

The key to living a cleaner, low-tox lifestyle is understanding that education and avoidance are always the first steps and that avoiding some harmful chemicals is always better than avoiding none. Do what you can!

And it’s important to note that there are a lot of personal care products beyond beauty or skincare products that deserve a closer look, and that can have high levels of harmful toxins—like period products, candles, aerosol sprays, sunscreens, protein/fitness-related powders, and more.

While the FDA regulates some things, many ingredients that could be harmful go unchecked; thus the need for a focus on “clean products” and checking out ingredients yourself.

Here’s my ultimate guide to clean beauty with a few of my favorite clean beauty products!