Microplastics in Personal Care Products and Cosmetics

Summary

This review documented the types and quantities of microplastics deliberately added to personal care and cosmetic products — including microbeads in exfoliants, glitter in makeup, and plastic-encapsulated fragrances — and traced their path from consumer drains through wastewater treatment to aquatic environments. Personal care products represent one of the most direct routes of purposeful microplastic introduction into water systems and onto human skin and mucous membranes, making regulatory bans on intentionally added microplastics an immediately actionable health and environmental intervention.