Day 11: Choosing the right beauty products - no microbeads and palm oil

I've been trying to use up all my cosmetics and health products that I have lying around the house, and I have finally got to a point which I need to buy a lot of new things. I did this so that I can take some time to think about my choice of brands and investigate my products more thoroughly.

So the things i'm focusing on for each brand is microbeads, and palm oil inclusion. I also want to make sure they're not tested on animals and uses recycled materials in packaging if possible. The microbeads and palm oil are the two factors that have a huge impact on the environment, so let's investigate both of those.

Microbeads.

It does feel like Microbeads is a new issue as i can't say that i've heard about it until lately (the last year). But the film RacingXtinction focused a bit on this issue, and so it's become more front of mind now. Most of my research has come from www.beatthemicrobead.org which is a great resource, and explains the issue in short like this:

"Tiny particles of plastic have been added to possibly thousands of personal care products sold around the world. These microbeads, hardly visible to the naked eye, flow straight from the bathroom drain into the sewer system. Wastewater treatment plants are not designed to filter out microbeads and that is the main reason why, ultimately, they contribute to the Plastic Soup swirling around the world’s oceans. Sea creatures absorb or eat microbeads. These microbeads are passed along the marine food chain. Since humans are ultimately at the top of this food chain, it is likely that we are also absorbing microbeads from the food we eat. Microbeads are not biodegradable and once they enter the marine environment, they are impossible to remove."

They've got an app which allows you to scan the barcode of each product to see if it contains microbeads, I wish i'd known about it before I'd been shopping, I had to try and Google everything... You can download their app here - still needs some work as most products I scanned weren't on the database but you can also help by adding products to their database. To see a current list of products that are free of microbeads, take a look at this PDF. Microbeads can be called a variety of things, so check the back to see if contains any of these things: Polyethylene, Polypropylene, Polyethylene Terphthalate, Polymethylmethacrylate or Nylon. 

Palm Oil

Palm oil is in so many products that we use everyday. Shampoos, lipstick, icecream, detergent, margarine, chocolate, soap, even bread. It's not even like we can check on the back of the product to see if it contains palm oil, as it can be labelled under loads of different names: Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides, Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol (list thanks to worldwildlife.org). 

The reason why we shouldn't be using Palm Oil? This from WWF: "Palm oil grows in tropical rainforests, and the uncontrolled clearing of these forests for conventional palm oil plantations has led to widespread loss of these irreplaceable and biodiverse rich forests. Plantations have also been connected to the destruction of habitat of endangered species, including orang-utans, tigers, elephants and rhinos."

I've actually seen the impact of palm oil plantation first hand because I've been to Borneo, and to the orang-utan sanctuary there. The animals are being displaced from their natural home. They're being segregated from each other which affects reproduction, it reduces the area they can search for food, affecting their normally very diverse diet and therefore their health, basically the knock-on affect is almost insurmountable.

But the Orang-utans in Borneo is just scratching the surface. The clearing of the forests for plantations is increasingly affecting Co2 emissions by the burning of the trees and Co2 rich peatlands the forests are built on, not to mention the impact on the indigenous communities, child labour etc. People have been campaigning for the removal of palm oil for years but i have to admit i'm out of touch with where the campaign is and which companies have changed their policies as a result. So, let's take a look at the latest list. Prepared to be shocked:

Warburtons
Hovis
Cadbury Dairy Milk,
Kingsmill
Persil
Flora Spreads
Galaxy
Youngs Frozen Fish
Kit Kat
Bold*
Mr Kipling Cakes
Wrigley’s Extra
Ariel*
Pringles*
Birds Eye Poultry
Maltesers
Mars
Kellogg's Special K
Ginsters
Fairy Laundry,*
Fairy Liquid*
McVitie’s Digestives
Comfort
Goodfella’s Pizza
Lenor
Daz
McCoys
Haribo
Bisto Gravy
BM Cooked Meat
Quality Street
Richmond Sausages
CrunchyNut Cornflakes
Magnum
Bessies Potatoes
Chicago Town Pizza
Cadbury Cakes
Young’s Chilled Fish
Cadbury Roses
Pot Noodles
Aero, Nestle
Surf, Unilever
Clover Spreads

Sources: Sales statistics: AC Nielsen. Palm oil: The Independent - Full article here
* Procter & Gamble, which uses palm oil in a wide variety of products, will not disclose its use in individual brands

This is a bit overwhelming, I use a lot of products on this list. I'm going to have to digest this information and break it down into mini actions. 

To conclude today's step, these are the products that I bought that I *think* are both palm oil free and microbead free:

Arm & Hammer Enamel Pro Repair Sensitive Toothpaste

Ogx Beauty Sunkissed Blonde Lemon Highlights Conditioner

Ogx Hydrate + Defrizz Kukui Oil Conditioner (balls! Bought two conditioners and no shampoo!)

St Ives Facescrub

Original Source Coconut & Shea Butter

Superdrug Naturally Radiant Moisturiser and Serum

A lot more research to be done in the next few weeks...