Mica is a common mineral used in cosmetic products, including eye shadow, lipstick, highlighter, blush and concealer, due to its sparkly, shimmer-like appearance. It is easily accessible due to its abundance in India. In India, however, this mica comes at a steep price: There are an estimated 22,000 children working in mica mines in Jharkhand and Bihar alone.
In the documentary “Transparency: The Truth About Mica,” Beautycounter, a cosmetics company dedicated to creating clean and transparent products, explores the child labor involved in the sourcing of mica and the misleading notions cosmetic brands often advertise.
“[Children] spend every single day [in the mines] digging, sifting, hauling mica,” Beautycounter CEO Gregg Renfrew said in the documentary. “Not a single one of them goes to school.”
Neilesh Mutyala is the CFO of the cosmetic company Live Tinted. He started the brand alongside his cousin and beauty influencer, Deepica Mutyala. Mutyala said Tinted’s products contain ethically sourced mica, and he values transparency between the brand and its consumers.
“But even from our first product, sustainability of ingredient sourcing [we were] trying to understand where stuff is coming from,” Mutyala said. “If it’s a coconut oil derivative, trying to [confirm], you know, [that] it’s not coming from the Amazon rainforest.”
An agent-in-training — who identified herself as Sandy — from the cosmetics brand ILIA wrote in an email that they only use ethically sourced mica in their products and go the extra mile to request certificates from manufacturers in order to “confirm that [their] mica suppliers uphold these values.” Beautycounter’s documentary highlights the challenges in verifying whether brands that claim to be child labor free truly uphold that standard. Because it is very difficult to track mica sourcing chains in India, it is easier for brands to get away with claiming their products are “child labor free” even if that is not the case.
“The majority of beauty brands all across the globe have papers certifying that the mica they source is free of child labor,” Renfrew said in a voiceover. “The problem is that paper doesn’t mean anything.”
Mutyala said Tinted asks their mica suppliers to only use mica sourced from the U.S. While substituting certain ingredients in cosmetics can be expensive, Mutyala said this doesn’t greatly impact the price of their product, as mica is a small part of the formula.
“In terms of the financial effect, [mica] is a small percent of the overall formula,” Mutyala said. “So [getting U.S sourced mica is] not a big impact on cost.”
Because many families in India depend on the money they get from mica, Mutyala said it can be a complex issue. He said sourcing mica in the U.S or using synthetic mica still has downsides. For example, thousands of families from impoverished parts of India including Bihar and Jharkhand get their money from mica mining.
“The downside of this, which I believe the Beautycounter documentary addresses, is we are not supporting a key industry in rural areas of India that rely on that source of income,” Mutyala said.
Sophomore Pasha Selig, the founder of Fun in the Sun, a nonprofit for skin cancer awareness, said she found out about the child labor practices involved with mica sourcing in fourth grade. She said she is conscious of what products she buys. In her nonprofit, she explored the importance of sunscreen, which also has mica in it, in order to protect from skin cancer.
“I try and limit how much sparkly products or things that have a mica in them [I use], and make sure that if I do have something that has it already, I am savoring it,” Selig said. “When I look at ingredients, I definitely look for it, because I know these children have endured so much [and] how they were enduring violence, and so I make sure that I’m being a conscious consumer.”
More and more brands, like Tinted and Lush are turning towards a labor-free mica alternative; synthetic fluorphlogopite.
“Since the production of [Tinted’s] first product, we’ve incorporated more synthetic mica into our formulas,” Mutyala wrote in a follow-up email. “[Synthetic fluorphlogopite] is generally considered safe for the environment in both production and disposal.”
In a survey sent out to the student body, 72% out of 50 respondents said they strongly disagree with this statement: “I’m aware of how much mica is used in products such as eyeshadows, lipsticks, and nail polish, along with foundations, concealers, blush, and even some skincare products.” When asked if they take child labor being used in the products they use regularly into account when purchasing cosmetics products said they didn’t know this was happening or “not usually.”
The issue of mica sourcing remains a complex issue because of the intersection of child labor and economic concerns. While few companies are moving towards adopting ethical sourcing tactics, challenges remain in verifying the origins of mica due to the intricate supply chain. Consumers have an opportunity to influence the cosmetics industry through their power as a consumer of products with mica in them, and by educating others about the labor practices involved with mica. Understanding the various aspects of this problem can aid consumers in making purchasing decisions that align with their values.
In the audio clip below, Mutyala talks about navigating Tinted’s mica sourcing journey.
