Does Colgate Use Microplastics?
The short answer
Roughly half of the Colgate products we could analyse listed at least one flagged synthetic polymer. Of the 47 Colgate products on Open Beauty Facts with a readable ingredient list, 18 listed at least one flagged synthetic polymer — 38%. The one that came up most was PEG (Polyethylene Glycol), in 18 of them.
47
analysed
18
with a flag
38%
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What this is. Ingredient-label data from Open Beauty Facts (snapshot 2026-07-31), not laboratory testing. Coverage is crowdsourced, partial and Europe-weighted, so this is 47 of the 357 Colgate entries in that database, and US formulations often differ. A flagged ingredient is not automatically harmful — a gel thickener and a solid microbead are both synthetic polymers and are not the same risk.
What comes up most in Colgate ingredient lists
| Ingredient | Products | Why it's flagged |
|---|---|---|
| PEG (Polyethylene Glycol) | 18 of 47 | PEG / glycol |
| PVP (Polyvinylpyrrolidone) | 2 of 47 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| PPG (Polypropylene Glycol) | 2 of 47 | PEG / glycol |
Example products
Real entries from Open Beauty Facts, showing what the label lists.
Colgate Max White Ultimate Radiance Tandpasta
3 flagged ingredients
Total Clean Mint
1 flagged ingredient
Triple Action
1 flagged ingredient
Product images from Open Beauty Facts contributors, licensed CC BY-SA. Ingredient data under ODbL.
Check your actual Colgate product
Brand averages hide a lot — formulations differ by product and by market. Paste your label into the free ingredient checker, or scan the bottle in the app for a 0–100 score that also weighs the packaging.
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