Microplastics in Beauty Products, What They Are and Which Ones to Avoid

Your face scrub promises to buff away dead skin. If it's an older formula, or bought outside the US, UK or EU, the tiny beads doing the scrubbing might be plastic, and they wash straight down your drain.

Microplastics in beauty products are first an environmental problem. Whether they're also a health problem for the person wearing them is a fair question, and the honest answer is that the evidence in people is thin. Here's what's known, what's still guesswork, and how to spot plastic on a label.

What Microplastics Are and Where They Hide in Beauty Products

Microplastics are solid plastic particles smaller than 5 millimetres. Companies add them for texture, slip, shine or scrubbing power: they help foundation glide, give a powder its silky feel, and create the grit in some exfoliating washes.

Common types in cosmetics include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and nylon. On ingredient lists, look for those names and for words like microbeads or microspheres.

Scrubs and body washes were the obvious source, which is why rinse-off microbeads were the first to be banned. Leave-on products are less obvious. Mascaras can use nylon fibres for length, and plastic glitter turns up in eyeshadow, lip gloss and body shimmer.

Powders, primers and some foundations use plastic microspheres for a soft-focus finish.

How Microplastics Might Affect Your Skin and Hormones

Plastic particles have been found inside the body. A 2022 study of blood from 22 healthy volunteers measured PET, polyethylene and styrene plastics, but it couldn't say where they came from.

Skin is a good barrier against them, and skin contact is a minor route compared with eating and breathing particles in. A 2025 review of skin penetration research found that particles bigger than about 100 nanometres usually don't get through the outer layer of skin. The concern is mainly with much smaller nanoplastics, and with damaged skin. Your skin barrier matters here too.

Plastics can carry additives such as phthalates and bisphenols, some of which affect hormones. Most of what we know about microplastics harming cells, causing inflammation or disrupting hormones comes from cell cultures, animals and lab skin models, not from people using cosmetics. That same review notes how little long-term human data exists.

So there's no good evidence that the plastic in your foundation causes breakouts, redness or early ageing. If you want the fuller picture on the hormone question, we've covered what's known about microplastics and hormonal skin changes separately.

Which Beauty Products Contain the Most Microplastics

Older or imported rinse-off scrubs are the clearest case. In the US, the Microbead-Free Waters Act stopped the manufacture of rinse-off cosmetics with plastic microbeads from July 2017, and of toothpaste and other rinse-off products that count as drugs from July 2018, so most scrubs on shelves now use other exfoliants.

Glitter products are next. Unless a glitter is labelled as mica or a plant-based alternative, assume it's plastic, often PET.

Mascaras, powders, primers and long-wear foundations are where plastics are hardest to avoid, because the polymers do real work on texture and wear.

Liquid silicones like dimethicone and cyclopentasiloxane are often lumped in with microplastics. They're synthetic polymers, but they aren't solid particles.

Plastic-Free Alternatives That Actually Work

For exfoliation, swap a bead scrub for a gentle chemical exfoliant, a cleanser with jojoba beads, or natural alternatives such as finely ground oats.

For mascara, look for formulas that use plant waxes and don't list nylon or other plastic fibres. Expect some trial and error on length and hold.

Loose mineral powders are often simpler than liquid foundations, but some still include nylon or PMMA, so read the label rather than trusting the word mineral.

Cream blushes and lipsticks tend to rely on waxes and oils rather than plastic powders. Brands that are genuinely plastic-free usually say so.

How to Start Reducing Your Microplastic Exposure

Start with what you use most and what goes down the drain. Reducing microplastic exposure doesn't mean binning your whole collection.

Read ingredient lists for the plastic names above, and when something runs out, replace it with a plastic-free version from the same category. Pay more attention to products you use on your face than on your body skin, simply because you apply them more often and closer to your eyes and mouth.

Packaging is a separate question. Choosing glass or refills cuts plastic waste, even though there's little evidence about how much plastic, if any, sheds from a bottle into the product.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are microplastics in beauty products banned anywhere?

Yes. The US banned plastic microbeads in rinse-off cosmetics under a 2015 law, with manufacturing stopping in 2017, and the UK also bans them in rinse-off products. The EU has gone further: its 2023 restriction banned loose plastic glitter for non-cosmetic uses immediately, while cosmetics follow a slower timeline, with microplastics phased out of rinse-off cosmetics by 2027, leave-on cosmetics by 2029, and make-up, lip and nail products by 2035.

How can I tell if my makeup has microplastics?

Check ingredient lists for polyethylene, polypropylene, PET, PMMA and nylon. Glittery products often contain plastic unless they say mica or plant-based glitter. In the EU, make-up, lip and nail products that still contain microplastics will need to say so on the label from 2031.

Do Microplastics in Skincare Cause Acne?

There's no good evidence that they do. Plastic particles mostly stay on the surface of intact skin, and the studies linking microplastics to inflammation or hormone changes were done in cells and animals. If you're dealing with hormonal acne, hormones, skincare habits and the right treatment matter far more than the polymers in your foundation.