Twenty years ago, if a woman wanted to "go natural" with her beauty routine, she had just a few choices: hitting the local health food store and scavenging through a meager offering of products, making lotions herself, or doing without (as in deodorant). The times have changed, and what was a fledgling market has turned into a thriving $800 million industry.

Today so many companies are making good, clean beauty products that we felt it was time for an official shout-out—Natural Solutions' first annual Beauty With a Conscience Awards. But finding truly pure skincare proved no easy task.

Unfortunately, even products marketed as "natural" can come packed with hormone disrupters, carcinogens, toxic by-products, and heavy metals. In fact, the average woman applies more than 150 chemicals through her skincare daily. Knowing the link between this unnecessary toxin exposure and serious health concerns, we made the decision to honor companies that use only the cleanest, healthiest ingredients available. And we chose to host these awards in October—in conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

But how did we decide what to allow and what needed the boot? Some ingredients, like parabens, were no-brainers to banish, but others were hard to get our head around-and that was just the pronunciation. Fortunately we discovered Whole Foods Market's Premium Body Care standard, which deems over 250 toxins unacceptable in personal care products. We used their research as a basis for our award criteria.

Congratulations to the more than 100 companies whose products passed our standards. From conglomerates to kitchen-sink operations, these companies have gone out on a limb (often at the expense of their own bottom line) to make skincare safe for women, children, and, increasingly, men.

We enlisted our entire editorial staff to help choose the finalists. In the line of duty, we exfoliated, misted, and creamed twice daily (sometimes more!) to test 600-plus products, boldly laying down our skins for the sake of honest reporting. Boyfriends, babies, and even our grandmothers joined our efforts, and the result is a cherry-picked collection of winners and finalists that we are proud to honor.

Want to read about our top picks? Grab a copy of the October 2008 issue on newsstands now!