Apparently all that glitters is not good. Besides being hard to remove, glitter makeup is also making it difficult for the environment, scientists say.

The glitter warning comes on the heels of an impending microbead ban in the UK. The tiny beads which are often found in facial scrubs and other exfoliating products have been found to pollute the world’s oceans with excess plastic.

“I think all glitter should be banned, because it’s microplastic,” Dr. Trisia Farrelly, an environmental anthropologist at Massey University, tells the Independent.

“When people think about glitter they think of party and dress-up glitter,” adds Dr Farrelly. “But glitter includes cosmetic glitters as well, the more everyday kind that people don’t think about as much.”

The glitter commonly found in cosmetics gets its sparkle from aluminium and a plastic known as PET. Both of these have been found to be gravely harmful to ocean wildlife.

If a glitter ban does go into effect however, makeup lovers won’t be left without options for an extra bit of sparkle. Scientists are also looking into biodegradable glitter.