A growing beauty influencer was shocked and issued an online warning for anyone using a face wash containing microbeads—on the face mid-after a terrifying discovery.
“Guys, this is wild: So, I just went and got my facial – I feel greasy,” Emma Kingsley revealed in the now-viral TikTok video, which has garnered over 1.8 million views as of Wednesday.
However, Kingsley claimed she was shocked when her esthetician found tiny red and orange beads embedded in her skin during her facial treatment.
“He asked me, in the middle of the face, ‘What kind of face wash are you using?’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I ran out of my usual stuff, so I’m using Neutrogena — the grapefruit stuff.'”
Kingsley claimed that her facialist asked, “Does it have orange or red beads?” He followed, “Yeah, there is.”
That’s when the tick-off TikToker walks in: “BEADS. I have Neutrogena pearls stuck in my face. She pulled out several Neutrogena pearls. If you’re using Neutrogena Grapefruit Scrub – stop, stop.”
She said her esthetician explained that when Kingsley washed her face with warm water, it opened up the pores on her face, which she then proceeded to treat with the product.
“Every time I’d wash my face, I’d open my pores and I’d scrub the scrub, and then there would be a little bead of it,” she claimed. “And then I ended up rinsing my face with cold water because it’s good for inflammation. So the pores closed, the pearls never came out, and they stuck to my face.
In 2015, Congress amended the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, passing the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, which prohibits the manufacture, packaging, and distribution of rinse-off cosmetics containing plastic microbeads.
On the brand’s website, the Neutrogena Grapefruit Scrub listing states that it doesn’t contain plastic microbeads and “features gentle exfoliators that scrub away roughness without over-drying or irritating acne-prone skin.”
Neutrogena’s products typically contain microcrystalline/cellulose beads, which are biodegradable.
The post has reached out to Johnson & Johnson, the parent company behind the brand, for comment.
Kingsley told BuzzFeed, “I really thought the face wash was working well. My skin looked perfectly fine, and I didn’t feel any irritation. I have sensitive skin too, but I didn’t know.” That the product is harming me.”
In her viral clip, the content creator admitted she’s “so awkward,” but added that she’s “so grateful to my esthetician.”
Meanwhile, her TikTok viewers were horrified thinking that tiny pearls might get stuck in her skin.
“I used to use beads in my early 20s thinking it would be missed,” commented one TikToker. “But I had the worst acne ever and even got a bead stuck in my tear duct, no thnx!”
“I literally put two and two together last month and thought my beaded face wash was making my face worse! This confirms it,” wrote another.
