Pumice ●
TL;DR. This ingredient functions as a physical exfoliant and abrasive, adding controlled scrubbing or polishing action in cleansers, scrubs, foot care, and some oral-care formats.
What does Pumice do in a cosmetic formula?
This ingredient functions as a physical exfoliant and abrasive, adding controlled scrubbing or polishing action in cleansers, scrubs, foot care, and some oral-care formats.
Is Pumice clean?
From a clean beauty perspective, it is generally accepted and has no common restricted-list issue because it is a mineral abrasive rather than a plastic microbead. The main formulation caveat is mechanical irritation, especially when particles are coarse, used at high levels, or applied to reactive skin.
Is Pumice sustainable?
This material is mined from naturally occurring mineral deposits, so its footprint is tied to quarrying, milling, particle sizing, and transport. It is inert and not biodegradable in the biological sense, but it does not behave like synthetic polymer microplastics in rinse-off products.
Is Pumice COSMOS-approved?
It is generally compatible with COSMOS-natural and COSMOS-organic formulas when obtained as a natural mineral and processed only with permitted physical methods such as grinding and sieving. Its Green Chemistry fit is mixed, with simple processing and inertness on the positive side, and nonrenewable mineral extraction on the caveat side.
How does Pumice work chemically?
This material is a porous, silica-rich mineral particle used for its hardness, low density, and irregular surface texture rather than for chemical reactivity. Use level depends strongly on particle size and product type, with fine grades used for mild polishing and coarser grades reserved for body or foot products where abrasion can be more controlled.
Last updated 2026-05-13