Are you using environmentally harmful microbeads?

At the beginning of the year, President Barack Obama signed into law a Microbead-Free ban prohibiting microbeads in US beauty products.

What is a Microbead?

A microbead is any solid plastic particle that is less than 5 millimeters and is used for the purpose of exfoliating or cleansing. These tiny plastic beads can be found in hundreds of household products ranging from body scrubs to toothpastes.

Why are Microbeads bad?

These beads while not harmful to humans, wash down our drains and because they are made of plastic, they do not dissolve and are too small to be caught by waste water treatment facilities. Instead, they are flushed directly into our lakes, rivers and streams. Besides the waste in our waterways, fish then consume the beads thinking it's food and then we eat the fish and plastic too.

Unfortunately, the ban will not come into effect until July 1, 2017. Thus, plastic unnatural microbeads continue to pollute our oceans enough to coat the surface of 300 tennis courts every day!

Microbeads in your beauty products ...

There are 113 products containing microbeads being sold in the USA. Do not support or purchase them!

I immediately consulted a list to see what beauty products contained microbeads and was shocked that I've been using two of them regularly and continue see them still being sold in stores.
  • Clean & Clear Morning Burst
  • Crest 3D White toothpaste

Keep in mind though that the list is not comprehensive. I discovered three more products in my home that contain microbeads that were not listed, so you should always check a cleanser's ingredient list for polyethylene, polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate, polylactic acid, or nylon— since these are the most common plastics that make up microbeads.

Most of the time, you can simply see the plastic beads floating in the mixture and can spot them visually.
  • Murad Essential C-cleanser 
  • Bliss fabulous foaming face wash
  • Bath & Body Works Deep Cleansing Hand Soap (will now stick to their foaming ones instead of the gel)
  • RoC MAX Resurfacing Facial Cleanser
  • Simple Smoothing Facial Scrub
  • Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash - Pink Grapefruit Foaming Scrub
  • Neutrogena Deep Clean Invigorating Foaming Scrub


Love Natural Exfoliants?


The classic St. Ives Apricot Scrub is made with 100% natural exfoliants including California walnut shell powder and apricot extract, not plastic microbeads. I also like their blackhead clearing green tea facial scrub with Salicylic acid for acne.

Have YOU been using environmentally harmful microbeads in your beauty routine?

5 comments

  1. Thanks for making me aware of this! What a toxic mess our children will be left with if we don't clean up our act.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing this, I had no idea! Sharing this on Twitter.
    XO
    www.mrsaokaworkinprogress.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I do not. I used to (but who didn't), but I switched in the last couple of years.

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  4. Tell me the truth. Are you satisfied with the beauty product that you have been using since ages? Does it have all that your dear skin rightfully deserves?

    ReplyDelete