Glitter: as innocent and playful as just about anything can be. It’s fairy dust right? Or unicorn vomit? Or space sprinkles? It’s the perfect thing to make us look festival ready or as a final touch to a child’s face paint at their birthday party. It really seems there could hardly be anything more harmless. But, alas, glitter is a killer. An environmental killer that is. And not in a minor way. Actually, in a pretty shockingly major way: each minute a garbage truck full of plastic is empty into our world’s oceans and glitter makes up a surprisingly large portion of that.

Think about it: glitter is a one time use product, made to be disposed of after every time you apply it. It’s a “down the drain” product. How laughable would it be if you tried to recycle it? You’d be there like a crazy person picking off every individual piece until you truly did lose your mind. Plus, glitter gets literally everywhere so the easiest way to get rid of it is with a vacuum or in the shower. Unlike other things, glitter easily passes through our water filtration systems. That means nearly all of it really does end up in our oceans and our large lakes.

These days, the glitter craze is realer than ever before, with it being all over the catwalks and this years hottest festival look was dubbed the “glitter boob”. People are putting it in their hair, their eyebrows, on their babies, their friends, and using it to transform into fairies. But, despite how much joy glitter may bring, we’ve got to come up with a healthier alternative for our environment. Because glitter is made up of plastic and aluminum that is bonded with a PET (polyethylene terephtalate), it actually never biodegrades. This makes it extremely dangerous not only to oceanic life, but all life. Glitter is a microplastic, and microplastics make up 85% of all the plastic pollution found in our world. Microplastics are in our air, our drinking water, our sea salt, our sea food—basically everything. They are directly dangerous for us too, posing serious medical concerns when consumed regularly.

Microbeads,which were used in face washes, body washes, and even toothpastes are also equally dangerous microplastics, and they were banned back in 2015. I think it’s safe to say it’s about time glitter goes the same way.

But wait! That doesn’t mean your bedazzled days have to be over—there are environmentally-friendly glitter options too. You can breathe a sigh of relief now as I introduce you to a sustainable glitter substitution.

Amazingy Bio Glitter

Our 100% biodegradeble Glitter. It is plastic and aluminum free! Check out the whole article about it…

HIRO mineral shimmer

The second glitter substitute I will share with you comes from HIRO Cosmetics. HIRO’s mineral shimmers are made from Mica—a shiny silicate mineral found in granite and crystals. The effect of these shimmers is more subtle than a full on glitter, but there is no skimping here on the color range. Coming in 62 different shades, there are so many ways to use this fun shimmery makeup: mix it into clear nail polish for a unique nail color, into a clear lip balm for some funky lipstick, or with some lotion for some all-over body glitter—and that’s just the beginning.

In the end, I am all about the bedazzled body, as long as it’s done with respect to our environment. Guilt-free glitter isn’t hard to find, so make the switch and tell your friends to too!