... To raise awareness of the damage caused by some exfoliate beauty products

[daisychain01]

Hi MNers, You may already know this, because this forum is full of well-informed people, but just to raise awareness that some exfoliates contain inert polymer ie plastic beads (J&J, Unilever products for example).

The damage to the environment is caused because these micro-beads get washed down into the water-course, into our oceans, ingest by marine life which is bad for them, and equally bad for humans if we then eat cod, tuna, mussels. It's bad for everyone!

journeytotheplasticocean.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/are-you-washing-your-face-with-plastic/

All I'm suggesting is please think twice about buying these products, if we all stop the demand, it will stop the supply.

Thanks for reading, if you can spread the word to all your family and friends, we can collectively make a huge difference. I know we have US and Ozzie friends on here, so we can spread the message around the globe in the time it takes to say

"Balls to Micro-beads"

This was on the BBC website a few weeks ago. Lush Angels on Bare Skin is the only scrub for me.

I use these

Families dont worry, some exfoliates are fine. I'm with you on keeping the blemishes away, also it gives a beautiful sort of polish sheen and glow.

As long as you check the description, and it doesn't mention micro-pearls, micro-beads you can be reasonably OK. Also check on t'internet because they will list eco friendly beauty products that steer clear of unsustainable ingredients.

Hey woowoo great you're a diver too! It's a wonderful world down there, unfortunately because it isn't accessible to many people it needs constant awareness to let people know about the decisions these corporates make about their products with scant regard to marine life etc. it comes full circle when it gets back into the food chain .

coffeeinbed great cloths arent they cheap!

I had mine for over 5 years now, just wash and dry.

Thanks for this. I use a Liz Earle exfoliater which contains fine jojoba beads so I'm presuming it's ok.

I love LUSH Let the Good Times Roll. www.lush.co.uk/products/cleansers/let-good-times-roll

You should be fine harry jojoba is a soluble naturally sourced product.

wyrdyBird thank you for your compassion, Im sorry it will cause you expense but it's a good decision.

I didn't know the extent of it TBH.

I usually make my own body scrub with brown sugar but at christmas I was given one of those soap and glory gift sets. It had a body scrub in it so I gave it a try.

Afterwards my bath was full of tiny little pink beads and I was pretty sure they were plastic. I got DH to take a look too (he thought I was a weirdo for asking BTW). Anyway not wanting to wash with plastic as I have very sensitive skin, I shelved it and went back to DIY scrubs. I was going to pass in in to a friend but I will now be binning it.

It's in toothpaste? Why the hell do we need plastic in toothpaste? Bloody plastic, no need for it when there are natural alternatives. I have also ditched shampoos with sulfate and conditioner with silicones. I imagine the silicones in conditioners are equally as bad for the environment (and I don't like coating my hair in plastic to make it look 'healthy' )

IFLS

another link for your campaign

Thanks for posting this. I had no idea. I don't use exfoliater myself but 14yo DD does. I'll check the ingredients in hers and inform her about this and hopefully she'll spread the word among her friends.

I've just checked our toothpaste, which contains PEG-8, which turns out to be plastic microbeads. Apparently all the PEG compounds are plastics.

Thanks for the heads up.

Thanks so much for this OP, and also coffeeinbed for the link to the washcloths.

I will now be checking all products for mention of polymers, micro-beads or PEG - anything else I should be looking for?

Also, in the link OP posted, one of the replies recommends not just binning these products but sending them back to the manufacturer stating why you will not be using them again, which sounds like a good idea to me.

ooh, another thing - what about abrasive household cleaning products, are these ok to use?

Yes I read about this yesterday. They are now being banned in some US states - Ohio for example.
Asking industry to use sugar, sand or diamond dust (glam) instead.
The plastic is ingested by small fish and can make its way all the way up the food chain to us.
It doesn't get filtered out and can't be cleaned from our lakes, rivers etc as would also clear out all the micro organisms needed in the food chain.
Save money and the environment by making your own sugar scrub.

And yet another thing - have reported the OP to MNHQ, asking them to consider a Mumsnet campaign to Ban The Beads

This shop does amazing scrubs - am waiting for them to open again so I can order!
www.enchantedbath.co.uk

And for face I like dermalogica microexfoliant powder but mainly use chemical exfoliaters

Does anyone know if St Ives is ok? Think it is!

I also use sugar. I use soap, lather it in my hands and add sugar.

Also very cheap!

So what are the ingredients we should be looking out for?

I just had a look at the dermalogica scrub and had a hard time decoding it.
We might have to try and compile a list?

I do use the cloths but now I have a Clarins sample that looks a bit dodgy.

Whabylon thank you re suggesting the MNHQ Ban the Beads campaign - I think the response so far from all you lovely people proves it is something that we need to increase awareness of. The thing that frightens me is that ad campaigns are so powerful, glam and seductive, it makes people (like me - yes the marketeer's dream, I'll try anything!!) think "wow, that looks great, I'll give it a try", but the corporates really haven't given the environmental impacts any thought they don't care just use whatever will sell their products. I just didn't think that plastic is used.

Wouldn't you have thought their product developers and production technologists are intelligent people, who make the connection between plastic = nonbiodegradable = down the plughole straight into our environment = BAAAADD news !!!

The minute my DP described what he had read, I was going "OMG, I use those things!" (guilty) but I'm on the case now and definitely will be reading all the product packaging (even for household cleaners!)

Binky I think St Ives is the product I mentioned which has crushed up peach stones - I am reasonably sure that sounds like a natural ingredient similar to sand (at least it looks like that) so we wouldn't end up ingesting it like the plastic beads.

Eyelet the IFLS (great name for the website!) link you sent is a great article, what I could read of it ....is it just me, or have they used advert banners that obscure a lot of text (so is it a subscription-access only website do you know?)

Coffee the ingredients that are harmful are likely to be described as micro-beads on the packaging - as Whabylon and Cinnebar mention look out for ingredients that talk about polymers, micro-beads or PEG (I think Colgate puts it in their new toothpaste product).

YY to creating a product list, difficult to know where to start and how to keep updating it, but maybe working with MNHQ we can produce something that they can keep permanently on the site - even if we get the main harmful ingredients it will be a start.

I looked up the Clarins exfoliators - one has micro beads in the name, the other one has them in the ingredients list.

Bin.

YANBU, thanks for sharing, Daisy. We really need to spread the word on this sort of thing as the beauty industry can't be trusted to do the ethic thing unfortunately.

Last time I exfoliated I used a mixture of coconut oil and salt. My skin didn't complain, although not sure whether it's damaging it or not.

I don't use these but thank you for the campaign, will tell all my friends