It's no surprise in the summertime that our faces tend to get oily much faster than during other times of the year. We tend to accept it as a mild inconvenience, just a part of the annual price we must pay to enjoy the beautiful weather outside. Plus, it's a quick fix!  A simple scrub with an exfoliating face scrub and a splash of water will do the trick to get your face back to it's usual gleam-free complexion in no time.

But, are all face scrubs really a quick fix though? Or are they simply a quick fix for you, but a much more detrimental problem for the environment?

For those of you who have who has never heard of microbeads before, microbeads are a very common ingredient in household facial scrubs and soaps. These beads are made of plastic and the pieces are so tiny that they easily slip through most water treatment systems and go right on to pollute our waters, including the Great Lakes, which house 20% of the world's freshwater.

Sherri Mason, an associate professor of chemistry at the State University of New York Fredonia, and her team decided to dig a little deeper into this issue and start conducting their own research about the amount of plastic collecting in the Great Lakes. Over a span of a couple of years, on average, Mason and her team found, "17,000 bits of tiny plastic items per square kilometer in Lake Michigan. The levels were much lower in Lake Huron and Lake Superior, but Lake Erie and Lake Ontario had much higher concentrations."

From there these beads build up in the water, contaminate it, create a dangerous situation for marine life and a dangerous situation for humans.

As a result of these beads being present in the water, and so small, many fish and other marine life confuse them for food and ingest them not knowing what they really are. Can you guess then where the microbeads and the toxins end up next? Yep. Right into our food and inevitably into our bodies.

You can help put an end to microbead pollution by choosing not to use products that contain them, and by making your own facial scrub right at home with this DIY recipe!

 

 

What You'll Need:

Mason jars or any other type of small jar

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup coconut oil

Food coloring

Essential oils in a variety of scents (we decided to go with a calming lavender and a cool mint)

Instructions:

Measure out your coconut oil and pour into a bowl. Add in sugar and mix together. Now fill your jars with this concoction. Next, add in a few drops of scented oil. Lastly, add 1 drop of food coloring, or as much as your need to get the facial scrub your desired shade, and mix in thoroughly.