As a beauty blogger, writer and general consumer (the latter I have down to a fine art), I have found myself not only engulfed within new product releases but hyper aware of what goes into each product. Do I always make the best choices for my skin or my budget" No but I do actively attempt to make "green" choices and that means completely avoiding microbeads of any sort (and being a little preachy about the topic to anyone who'll lend me an ear).

Microbeads are just that - tiny, toxic, pearls of plastic that can be found in anything from toothpaste (yes really), to shampoo and/or any general bath and body product - typically they are used to burst an ingredient onto the skin and are often used within body scrubs. Not only are such beads entirely useless and often harsh but they are an ever present danger to the environment.
Rather worryingly mircobeads do not tend to be biodegradable - meaning they will never dissolve nor disappear; rather when they are washed away from the body, they then go straight down the drain and directly into the sewer systems. The problem is that water treatment plants have not been designed to filter out something as minuscule and as pesky, as the beads and as a result, their final destination happens to be the sea (there is around five tonnes within British waters). Perhaps most disturbing is that research has indicated that the beads may be absorbing toxins along the way (airborne toxicology investigations are ongoing), w...