Moving Away from Microbeads

 

Switch up your beauty routine to save your skin and the environment

Go to any beauty guru for advice on youthful, glowing skin, and he or she will tell you to exfoliate twice a week. Using an exfoliating face scrub not only removes dead, dull-looking skin cells, but it helps to reduce fine lines and skin damage, and generally improves your skin tone.
As you’ll notice, a lot of the exfoliants available in stores are made with microbeads–small, plastic rounds no bigger than 5 millimeters in diameter. Personal care products boast the beads are an agent for cleaner, smoother skin, which makes the product more appealing to a consumer.
Microbeads were initially meant to offer relief from rough-textured pumice, another common ingredient used to clean skin. But recently, microbeads have been painted in a more harmful than helpful light. Scrubbing your face too roughly with them can tear your skin, leading to infection, and the tiny scrubbers can pollute our oceans.
That doesn’t mean you should stop exfoliating altogether. It just means learning how to practice safe skin care in order to benefit both your skin and the environment.

Plastic Problems

A study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that plastic use has grown from 1.7 million tons in 1950 to 288 million tons in 2013. Plastic is widely used in product packaging, cars, toys, and appliances. It’s also what microbeads are made of. READ MORE HERE