Ronald Brittin , already the creators of the world’s most eco-friendly glitter brand – Bioglitter – has now developed a microplastic free, iridescent effect glitter.
Stephen Cotton, director at the firm says: ‘This is another first from Ronald Brittin . The new product is the only iridescent effect glitter available on the market, which is microplastic free.’
What is a microplastic?
Last year in ECHA’s (European Chemicals Authority) Microplastic Proposal, a microplastic was defined as a small particle, less than 5mm in size, that contains either synthetic polymer, semi synthetic polymer or modified natural polymer that will not biodegrade in the natural environment.
Global acclaim
Ronald Brittin launched Bioglitter Sparkle two years ago and Bioglitter Pure, the world’s first microplastic free and TÜV certified fresh water biodegradable glitter last year. Since launch, the brand has received global acclaim, working with major cosmetic brands and retailers and seen messages of support from environmental royalty such as Sir David Attenborough and even short listed in this month’s National Geographic’s innovative products.
The iridescent glitter is a new effect within the Bioglitter Pure product family. The glitter has a reflective and shimmer quality, which, up until this point has been impossible to achieve in a microplastic free glitter.
Stephen Cotton says: ‘Traditional iridescent glitter gains its look from the refractive properties of special plastic films and this is where we’ve faced a real challenge, the chemistry and physics simply don’t work with natural raw materials, so we have had to totally re-engineer the glitter to cut all the plastic out and still create refractive effects. The result is our new iridescent product, Bioglitter Pure Opal.’
Vivid colour
The Bioglitter Pure Opal comes in a choice of three colours, rose, mint or aqua and is available in five different sizes.
In addition to adding an iridescent effect to the Bioglitter Pure product range, Ronald Brittin has also announced the launch of a Vivid colour range, another new product branch of the PURE to create a bold look. Bioglitter Pure Vivid is available in five different sizes, and comes in a strong Fuchsia colour, the first colour in this new Vivid range.
The Bioglitter products are made from a special form of cellulose, unique to the brand and have passed independent tests including TÜV, Austria’s ‘OK Biodegradable Water’ Certification, which guarantees biodegradation in natural, freshwater environments.
Picking up several industry awards, Bioglitter has been developed to tackle environmental microplastic pollution caused by traditional plastic based glitter. The product will decompose in the natural environment, unlike products based on modified natural polymers like PLA, Cellulose Acetate and other forms of cellulose, which need to go through a composting process to break down and therefore are a form of microplastic if they find their way into the environment.
The simple acid test is, if a glitter does not perform in fresh water biodegradability testing then it contains microplastic. For example PLA and some cellulose derived glitters available in the market which claim to be compostable, achieve 0 percent biodegradation or not much better in Fresh Water testing and are therefore no better than traditional plastic glitter in terms of environmental microplastic pollution.
Several high street retailers including Tesco, Primark, Monsoon and Selfridges as well as cosmetic brands have now moved to using Bioglitter based products, as part of a strategy to cut plastic waste in the environment.
The South African distributor of Bioglitter is Meganede.
