Cosmetics and Care Products
The Beat the Microbead campaign was initiated by the Plastic Soup Foundation in 2012 to bring on the map the issue of microbead pollution through personal care products.
- Since the start of this campaign, we try to educate people about the problem and brainstorm steps that can be taken to Beat the Microbead!
- Today, with the progress in the knowledge about plastic ingredients in cosmetics, we focus on raising awareness about all kinds of microplastics used in cosmetics and personal care products.
We try to attack the issue from all sides: by engaging people, cosmetic brands, and governing institutions. cosmetics products With this campaign, our aim is to spread awareness and provide tools to consumers such as our Beat the Microbead app so that they make an informed choice and support solutions.
- If you have any questions regarding our work, please feel free to contact us!
- If you want to know more about microbeads, get a Zero Plastic Inside certificate, want to support us, or have a general or press query, please use the contact form to send us a message.
- If you subscribe to the newsletter, you will receive the Plastic Soup Foundation newsletter in English.
Plastic: The Hidden Beauty Ingredient is a report of the first-ever large-scale study of the presence of microplastics in over seven thousand different cosmetic and personal care products. The data has been collected by Beat the Microbead app users that have scanned products with the app over the past years. We also looked into the transparency and commitments of several brands.
In the report, we present the results and discuss the upcoming restriction on intentionally added microplastics. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the proposed definition of microplastics and their shortcomings. In particular, we demonstrate that if this definition is adopted as proposed by the Chemicals Agency, it will have regrettable consequences.
With this report, we aim to invite the Commission and the member states to close the loopholes and take the opportunity to deal with all intentionally added microplastics once and for all. We want to urge the cosmetics industry to look beyond the proposed definition, to ensure the environmental and human health safety of the products they bring on the market. We want to encourage consumers to demand transparency from brands and accountability for the ingredients these brands put into our personal care and cosmetic products.
GET TO KNOW MICROPLASTICS IN YOUR COSMETICS
The world of microplastics contains many confusing terms, so for this article, we decided to discuss two of the most commonly used microplastics: Polyethylene and Acrylates Copolymer.
Microplastics have been intentionally added to cosmetic products since the 219 and are now found everywhere, even in the most remote places on Earth. In the last few years, awareness of the environmental and human health risks increased but we still receive questions about what microplastics are and why they are used in personal care products.
Microplastics are very small pieces of plastic that often pollute the environment and are now entering our food chain!
What is Polyethylene?
Polyethylene is a synthetic thermoplastic polymer made of repeating ethylene units. It is one of the most commonly produced plastics worldwide, with tens of millions of tons produced every year. Polyethylene is one of the most commonly used microplastics in cosmetic products such as eyeliners, mascara, eye shadows, eyebrow pencils, lipsticks, face powders, and foundations, as well as skin cleansers and skin care products.
Polyethylene has also been largely used for the formation of microbeads. Microbeads are small, solid plastic beads that are intentionally added to cosmetic products for exfoliating, smoothing, or polishing the skin.
However, Polyethylene is not added to cosmetic products solely in the form of microbeads. Polyethylene doesn’t always have to be in a visible or solid form. In fact, a great number of cosmetics include Polyethylene in their formula in other forms to provide the product with different types of benefits.
Acrylates Copolymer is a general term for synthetic copolymers of two or more monomers consisting of acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, or one of their simple esters.
Acrylates Copolymer is a substance that is being widely added to cosmetics during recent years. Since the start of the Beat the Microbead campaign, 448 brands promised to remove plastic microbeads from their products – but that does not include all types of microplastics. In fact, since more awareness has been raised around ‘commonly known’ microplastics such as Polyethylene, the use of acrylates copolymer has increased greatly. By taking a quick look at the database, it can be seen that a minimum of 3 out of 10 personal care products include a variety of acrylates copolymers.
What makes the problem even more complicated is that Acrylates Copolymer can form several variations as it can combine with various monomers. For instance, Acrylates Copolymer can be currently found in more than 142 differed unregulated variations!
Why are these ingredients added intentionally to cosmetics and personal care products?
Polyethylene is used for a variety of purposes in cosmetics and personal care products. It is most commonly used:
to unite or bond surfaces together and to hold together the ingredients of a product.
to dilute other solids, or to increase the thickness of the lipid (oil) portion of cosmetics and personal care products. It helps to keep an emulsion from separating into its oil and liquid components.
to form a thin coating on the skin, hair, or nails.
in oral care products to polish the teeth, reduce oral odor, or otherwise clean and deodorize the teeth and mouth.
Acrylates copolymers are a group of polymers noted for their transparency, resistance to breakage, and elasticity. They are also commonly known as acrylics or polyacrylates.
They are mostly used in products such as hair dyes, mascaras, nail polishes, lipsticks, hairsprays, body washes, sunscreens, and anti-aging treatments. They are most commonly used as stabilizers for cosmetic formulas:
- to add waterproof properties to makeup products.
- to set the hair, add the body, and protect it from humidity.
- as an antistatic and suspending agent to hair products.
- as an adhesive for nail binding products.
Hopefully, this information can help you a bit more in not only understanding what these ingredients are and why they are used but also urge you to avoid products that contain microplastics!
Take a look:
- Look for the Zero
- Sign this petition and tell the to ban microplastics in cosmetics!
- FAQs related to microbeads and microplastics in personal care products
Which products can you use safely, and which should you avoid?
Research shows that many more types of plastics are added to personal care products than just the ‘classic’ plastic microbeads: Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene terephthalate, Polymethyl methacrylate, or Nylon. For most of these plastics, their safety for environmental and human health is not guaranteed.
- To make sure that cosmetic products are completely free of harmful microplastic ingredients, you need a guarantee. Our Zero Plastic Inside logo is such a guarantee.
- The brands and companies that do not use harmful microplastic ingredients in their products can carry the ‘Zero Plastic Inside’ logo. At a glance, this logo makes it clear to consumers that a product is guaranteed 100% free of harmful microplastic ingredients.
- the Zero Plastic Inside logo is no longer provided free of charge. To cover our administration costs, we have come to a decision to charge an assessment fee of 10 euros per product.
If your application is approved you do not need to pay an annual fee for the first year. After the first year, you will be required to pay an annual fee depending on the size of your brand. Additionally, we ask the brands to sign our statement: “We as a producer declare that we produce products that are 100 % free of harmful microplastics under the brand name.
Third-party Cosmetic manufacturers in India
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