Bioglitter™: The World's Only Certified Fresh Water
Biodegradable Glitter Brand

What isBioglitter™?

Eco Friendly

Bioglitter™, invented and manufactured by British company, Ronald Britton Ltd (part of Colorlord Ltd group), is an eco-friendly alternative to plastic glitter and has been developed to tackle microplastic pollution created by glitter.  A development journey now spanning over a decade.

This is not glitter… This is Bioglitter™

Bioglitter™’s appearance is the only similarity with plastic glitter, Bioglitter™ is based on completely different raw materials.

THE BIOGLITTER™ JOURNEY… so far…   

Invented by Ronald Britton Ltd, a British company and since May 2023 owned by Sigmund Lindner GmbH; Bioglitter™ uses sustainably and ethically sourced natural and plant derived materials as its basis rather than plastic.  ALL our products are PROVEN to biodegrade through independent ISO14851 and ISO14852 fresh water testing of the WHOLE Bioglitter™ product, core and coating.

Plant Material

TÜV Austria’s fresh water certification is the ULTIMATE goal for all Bioglitter™ products.  Ronald Britton Ltd uses TÜV ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certification as a simple and clear means of communicating this fact to our customers.

  • Certification cuts through confusing messages and unqualified product claims
  • A level of certification considered the highest of its kind in the world.
  • Ronald Britton’s TÜV Certification/Serial No is S0933 and is easily verified on the TÜV Austria website

We have taken this approach as terms such as ‘100% plastic free’ and ‘100% biodegradable’ can be misleading, used without qualification and don’t necessarily describe the eco credentials of a product.

We believe ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certification cuts through the confusion.  Moreover, the ISO14851 and ISO14852 tests at the heart of this certification are also specified by ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) in their proposed EU Microplastic legislation due to be published in 2022. These tests are used to determine whether or not a polymeric material is considered a microplastic.

6 of our product ranges are now TÜV ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certified.

THE BIOGLITTER™ RANGE    

Click here to see BIOGLITTER™ EFFECTS

We remain committed to Bioglitter™ ‘Journey’  and the future development and optimisation of our products in terms of the environment, effects and performance in application.

Being able to differentiate Bioglitter™ from other glitter is becoming increasingly important for manufacturers as customers become more aware of the environmental impacts of ‘traditional’ glitter. And we’re proud to offer all our customers that peace of mind when they see the Ronald Britton’s registered Bioglitter™ logos on products made with Bioglitter™

Look for the Bioglitter™ logo to ensure the glitter in the product you’re buying is GENUINE Bioglitter™ –

How Bioglitter® is created How Bioglitter® is created

Where isBioglitter™ used?

Cosmetics

COSMETICS & PERSONAL CARE
Our Cosmetic Bioglitter™ product ranges are globally COSMETIC compliant. All Cosmetic Bioglitter™ products are suitable for use in cosmetic and personal care applications, including colour cosmetics, skincare, festival, nail & body art, bath and body

decorative and coatings industries

DECORATIVE & PRINTING
Deco Bioglitter™ product ranges are our TECHNICAL grade glitters.  Formulated for use in decorative, coatings, fabrics, and other non-cosmetic applications.

Deco Bioglitter™ is NOT suitable for use in cosmetic applications

art and education

EDUCATIONAL & CHILDREN
Craft Bioglitter™ is our range of loose glitters specifically formulated for children’s crafting in schools, nuseries and at home.

Craft Bioglitter™ is NOT suitable for use in cosmetic applications

WHO USES BIOGLITTER®?

Find trusted brands, resellers and retailers

Learn More

Why isBioglitter™ needed?

the plastic problem - time for change

The world is facing a major issue

The world is facing a major issue with plastic pollution and although glitter is a small fraction of this, it is a contributing factor. Defined as a microplastic, ‘plastic’ glitter takes hundreds of years to degrade in natural environments.

Recyclable

Because of its small size and utilisation in a diverse range of single-use applications (cosmetics, cards, clothing and crafts to name a few) a composting facility is very unlikely to be where glitter ‘ends up’.

Glitter can find its way into wastewater from bathing, washing-up art materials or washing clothing for example, which after water treatment can then end up in our lakes and rivers.  Once in the natural environment, plastic glitter, like other microplastics, can cause physical harm to small organisms and end up entering the food chain.

A great idea

We Thought Glitter Needed a Total Rethink

Glitter is unlikely to end up in compost, therefore a compostable glitter does not fix the problem.        The key to success is the removal of polymeric material in plastic glitter that does not biodegrade quickly and safely in natural, fresh water environments.

Bioglitter™ is the first of its kind and SETS THE STANDARD in eco-friendly glitters.  It is designed to biodegrade quickly and safely in natural freshwater environments.  Ronald Britton Ltd uses TÜV ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certification as a simple and clear means of communicating this fact to our customers.

It’s also important to be mindful that the extent of glitter microplastics pollution is relatively small in comparison to other forms of microplastic pollution such as vehicle tyre dust, wash fibres from man-made fabrics and the weathering of exterior coatings to name a few.

Even though plastic glitter contributes very little to overall microplastic pollution, it still contributes.  Hence our passion to drive, innovate and continue to develop our award-winning Bioglitter™ product ranges.

How DoesBioglitter™ Work?

Bioglitter™ DOES NOT DISSOLVE in water, it needs environmental bacteria and other environmental microorganisms to biodegrade.

Once it enters the natural environment, such as a farmer’s field, wastewater or our rivers and lakes, microbes will consume the biodegradable content turning it into carbon dioxide, water and biomass.

In a microbe and bacteria free environment Bioglitter™ is completely durable.
No microbes = No biodegradation

The speed at which Bioglitter™ biodegrades depends on local environmental factors, such as heat, moisture and concentration of microbes.

Bio Glitter

THE BIOGLITTER™ JOURNEY… so far… 


How It All Began

Initiated by conversations in 2010 with selected forward-thinking cosmetic manufacturers, we became increasingly aware of the potential issues with small plastic particles in the environment.  As a glitter company, we felt duty-bound to do what we could to help and to offer an eco-friendly alternative.

Forging a new way forward takes time and inevitably we have discovered lots of ways of how not to do it!  It was a huge challenge, however, Bioglitter™ is the culmination of many years of research and development.  A multi-range family of eco-friendly glitters the majority of which are TÜV Austria ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certified.  A level of certification considered the highest of its kind in the world.

The Original Game Changer – Bioglitter™ SPARKLE

In 2016 we officially launched Bioglitter™ SPARKLE our metallic effect glitter, to the global market.  The world’s first glitter independently proven to have very high performance in natural, freshwater biodegradation testing.

The product received rave reviews and still does, it’s first award being, in-cosmetics global – Gold for Innovation 2017 and latest award PCHI Fountain Awards China 2019 winner in the Green and Sustainability category.

The core of Bioglitter™ SPARKLE is a special high-tech form of naturally biodegradable cellulose, unique to Bioglitter™.  This core in its own right possesses excellent eco-credentials; certified compostable in both industrial composting (EN13432, EN14995, ASTM D6400, ISO17088) and home composting environments (TÜV OK compost HOME) and Waste Water biodegradation approved to ISO15986.  However, talking about the biodegradability virtues of just the core of glitter does not confirm the biodegradability performance of the actual finished or whole glitter product.

Through independent testing to ISO14851 and ISO14852 fresh water biodegradability, a level of testing significantly harder than composting, and waste water biodegradation, we proved that the complete Bioglitter™ SPARKLE product, core, coatings and all, biodegrades very well in the very challenging natural environment of rivers and lakes.  The test showed the majority of the product degraded away in just a month.  This very high level performance, official expressed as ‘biodegradability well progressed’, was only 3 percentage points away from meeting the incredibly high performance criteria required to achieve TÜV’s fresh water biodegradable certification.

This result proved the technical principles of our base technology, manufacturing methods and Bioglitter™ would biodegrade unhindered after conversion to a finished Bioglitter™ product.  With this we had a solid foundation on which to build our R&D efforts.

Bioglitter™ PURE, the World’s first independently certified fresh water biodegradable glitter

With Bioglitter™ SPARKLE providing us with a solid foundation on which to build and develop, we innovated a new product, TÜV ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certified Bioglitter™ PURE.  .  A level of certification considered the highest of its kind in the world.

In 2018 we launched the prototype version of Bioglitter™ PURE at the largest cosmetic raw materials industry exhibition, in-cosmetics global and again received international acclaim, picking up a second in-cosmetics global – Gold for Innovation 2018.

Bioglitter™ PURE uses the same cellulose core as Bioglitter™ SPARKLE, but we’ve combined that with a novel coating technology.

Opalescent Effect Glitter Reinvented – Bioglitter™ PURE

Due to the physical and chemical properties of naturally derived raw materials it is not possible to re-create the structure of a plastic iridescent effect glitter. Therefore, we have had to take a completely different approach and reinvent the effect in an eco-friendly way.  Our ‘Natural Colour’ range was our first offering in this unique type of glitter. ‘Opal’, a mother of pearl effect and ‘Vivid’, a strong metallic effect, both joined the range in 2020 and are our most recent colour ranges in the PURE product portfolio.

All Bioglitter™ PURE products do not have a reflective aluminium layer. This makes them different to Bioglitter™ SPARKLE or Bioglitter™ HOLO products.  Being aluminium free offers enhanced formulation compatibility and chemical resistance, particularly acidic or alkali water based formulations and were surfactant levels are high.

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Bioglitter™ SPARKLE achieves TÜV ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certification

2021 saw the upgrade of Bioglitter™ SPARKLE technology with launch of Deco Bioglitter™ SPARKLE GC and Craft Bioglitter™ GC ranges.  These products joined the list of TÜV ‘OK biodegradable WATER’ certified products offered by Ronald Britton.  Another significant step on the Bioglitter™ journey.

Bioglitter™ HOLO… the one everyone’s been waiting for!

2022 ushers in what is hopefully a post COVID world and also the launch of Bioglitter HOLO!  It’s been the most challenging product development yet, almost 4 years in the making.

Bioglitter™ HOLO completes the trio of glitter effects;

  • Metallic effect – Bioglitter™ SPARKLE
  • Opalescent effect – Bioglitter™ PURE
  • and finally, Holographic effect – Bioglitter™ HOLO

Plans For The Future

The Bioglitter™ ‘Journey’ will continue with future developments, upgrades and optimisations covering multitude of areas; the raw materials we use as new discoveries and technologies come along, colour effects to respond to market needs and performance improvements in application.

So please keep watching this space!

Bioglitter™ – SETTING THE STANDARD IN AUTHENTICATED ECO-FRIENDLY GLITTER

#GuiltFreeGlitter FOR ALL IS OUR GOAL!

OurBlog

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Get InTouch

If you have a question, some feedback or just want to get in touch with us, then please use the contact form below and leave us a note - we'd really love to hear from you!

Our Address:
Sigmund Lindner GmbH, Oberwarmensteinacher Str. 38, 95485 Warmensteinach, Germany
Our Phone Number:
+49 (0) 9277 / 994 0