In beauty writing, we love to toss around a very specific lexicon of words—do this enough, and with regularity, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that certain words aren’t always clearly defined or understood. I think about this a lot with the word “actives” or “active ingredients.” Sure, with some context cues, you may be able to suss out what it means in relation to skin care—but wouldn’t it be easier to delve into a full-blown explainer, no?
