In June 2014, Illinois became the first state in US to ban the manufacture and use of microbeads in personal care products. The tiny plastic microbeads do not degrade and are so small they are not filtered out through waste water treatment plants. Instead they make their way into seas and rivers and have been found in the Great Lakes in US. Plastics come from oil and the smaller the beads, the greater the surface area to volume ratio. Therefore, these attract and absorb to

I remember when I first became aware of facial scrubs. As a teenager with a skin like lumpy custard, anything that could sandpaper off those lumps and leave skin feeling smooth, if only for a day was good enough for me. And the very word ‘scrub’ was pretty impressive too! If it did what it claimed – well, I was easily impressed in those days! Fast forward several years and many weekly scrubs later, my skin was reddened, thinner, the lumps were still there, plus bonus lumps.