Does The Body Shop Use Microplastics?
The short answer
Most The Body Shop products we could analyse listed at least one flagged synthetic polymer. Of the 17 The Body Shop products on Open Beauty Facts with a readable ingredient list, 11 listed at least one flagged synthetic polymer — 65%. The one that came up most was PEG-100 Stearate, in 3 of them.
17
analysed
11
with a flag
65%
share
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 17 of the 122 The Body Shop 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 The Body Shop ingredient lists
| Ingredient | Products | Why it's flagged |
|---|---|---|
| PEG-100 Stearate | 3 of 17 | PEG / glycol |
| PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil | 3 of 17 | PEG / glycol |
| Dimethicone | 2 of 17 | Silicone |
| Carbomer | 2 of 17 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| Parabens | 2 of 17 | Plasticiser / chemical of concern |
| Polyacrylate | 2 of 17 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| Acrylates Copolymer | 2 of 17 | Acrylate / vinyl polymer |
| Cyclomethicone / Cyclopentasiloxane | 1 of 17 | Silicone |
Example products
Real entries from Open Beauty Facts, showing what the label lists.
Vitamin E Gentle Facial Wash
4 flagged ingredients
Shea Nourishing Body Butter
3 flagged ingredients
Tea Tree skin clearing foaming cleanser
2 flagged ingredients
Product images from Open Beauty Facts contributors, licensed CC BY-SA. Ingredient data under ODbL.
Check your actual The Body Shop 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.
Scan my product