This Rosé Shimmer Body Oil is many fantastic things. Thing #1: it is ultra silky and lightweight, absorbing into the skin in a flash leaving a beautiful dry-touch finish. Thing #2: it smells downright amazeballs. Thing #3: summery shimmer! Thing #4: it’s crazy easy to make—no heat, just some weighing and stirring. It’s like a summer cocktail for your skin, and I think you’ll love it!
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Part of the inspiration for this body oil came from a Deciem/The Chemistry Brand product called Retin-Oil. The first ingredient is C12-15 alkyl benzoate, and the second is Hydroxypinacolone Retinoate. My research into ingredient #2 shows it is unlikely to be used above 1%, so that product is almost entirely C12-15 alkyl benzoate. I really liked the feel of it—silky and oil-like, but with a lovely powdery dry-touch finish. That got a few imagination wheels turning in the body oil area.
Up next—I’ve had some Quaternium-90 Sepiolite and Quaternium-90 Montmorillonite (Thickening Clay) from TKB Trading for over a year now, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it. I’ve made shimmery body oils before, but I thought it was high time I made one incorporating the thickening clay. Not only does it help keep micas and other pigments in suspension, but it also helps contribute to a lovely dry-touch finish. Booyah.
Complimenting this shimmery, suspenseful base is a blend of some beautiful-for-skin oils. Camellia seed oil has been used in Japan for centuries as a hair and skin care oil; it’s made from the same plant that gives us tea leaves. It’s an ultra lightweight, fast-absorbing oil with a wonderful silky skin feel. It’s been a favourite of mine for a long time and I thought it would be a brilliant addition to this luxurious body oil.
Up next, some rich jojoba oil. Jojoba oil is technically a liquid wax with a composition that closely resembles that of our natural sebum, making it a wonderful skin care ingredient. Lastly, I’ve included some Olivem 300, a water-soluble olive oil sort of ingredient. A bit of it means you can apply this body oil to damp skin and it will self-emulsify with any water that’s on your skin. It’s optional, but a lovely touch!
Our scent blend is in keeping with our theme—an intoxicating blend of beguiling rose, fresh green cognac, and bright citrus. Swoon. I love how complex this blend is; it’s fresh and sweet with hard-to-pin-down deeper notes and some dancing top notes that really brighten up the entire thing. I’m definitely a fan of both the scent blend and this Rosé Shimmer Body Oil—I hope you will be, too!
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Rosé Shimmer Body Oil
0.75g | 1.5% TKB Trading’s “thickening clay”
10g | 20% C12–15 alkyl benzoate1g | 2% rose mica
12.4g | 24.8% camellia seed oil
15g | 30% jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
10g | 20% Olivem 300 (USA / Canada)0.25g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.3g | 0.6% green cognac essential oil
0.2g | 0.4% lemon slices fragrance oil
0.1g | 0.2% rose fragrance oilWeigh the thickening clay and C12-15 alkyl benzoate into a small beaker and whisk/stir thoroughly to combine.
Once that’s smooth, stir in the mica, and then the camellia seed oil, jojoba oil, and Olivem 300, one at a time. Ensure the mixture is even and completely combined before adding the next ingredient.
Wrap up by stirring in the vitamin E, essential oils, and fragrance. That’s it!
I packaged mine in a 50mL (1.69fl oz) zelo frosted glass bottle from New Directions Aromatics with a pump-top cap. To use, smooth a desired amount over the skin. The mica will start to settle if left undisturbed for extended periods of time; shake before use if that happens.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this body oil is 100% oil based, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 50g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this recipe, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- If you don’t have the thickening clay you can leave it out (replacing the 1.5% with more liquid oil), but that will mean the mica will settle out of the oil very quickly.
- Feel free to choose a colour of mica that works for your skin tone. The theme is rosé so something in the pink-gold realm would be most theme appropriate, but I won’t tell if you decide to go another direction 😉
- If you want to simplify this recipe you can use whatever lightweight, fast-absorbing carrier oils you have in place of the C12-15 alkyl benzoate, camellia seed oil, and jojoba oil.
- Water soluble shea butter would work well instead of Olivem 300. If you don’t have either you can just use another lightweight liquid oil, but this will remove the ability of the body oil to self-emulsify with water.
- If you want to use rose essential oil instead of rose fragrance oil please keep in mind that the maximum usage rate for rose otto is 0.02%.
- You can use a different scent blend.
Gifting Disclosure
The green cognac essential oil was gifted by Plant’s Power. The rose mica was gifted by YellowBee. The C12–15 alkyl benzoate was gifted by Essential Wholesale.
Looks great! Really want to try this! What about using some IPM (isopropyl myristate) instead of the C12-15? Help it not feel greasy? I have the Lux5 natural cyclomethicone too so maybe that would work? I just done have the C12-15. Thanks!
In the encyclopaedia Marie mentions IM as a replacement for this so would think it works.
Yup, that’d work! Happy making 🙂
This is such great formula, thank you so much! The texture has such a satisfying glide. I added .5% fumed silica to increase the suspension and put it in an airless bottle cause it got all strugglefutz on me in a treatment pump type bottle after I thickened it up… I’ve had these materials collecting dust in the shop since my last glaring beacon of failure of a aqueous foundation catastrophe, so I was so happy to find a good use for them. Un-related but.. I’ve been wondering if you have worked with or are interested in pressed matte color? I made a pretty darn great formula inspired by pg. 121 and though you might like to give dry pressed matte shadows a wack if you haven’t already figured it out…It’s been a long and lonely road for me lol.. Pressed matte powders seem like a secret society of greedy mad scientist and impossible to obtain materials from far away lands.
Thanks, Davide! I’m thrilled you’re loving it! I have done some toying with matte pressed colours, but not much lately. There are just so many things to experiment with that I get distracted! I know Di Bella Journal also has a fabulous formula for pressed matte eyeshadow 🙂
Marie, do you think that xantham gum would work for thickening and suspension in this recipe? If so, how much do you think I should use? Still kind of new to creating cosmetics, so I am still learning. Thank you so much for how much you have taught me thus far. I adore your videos…your personality really shines through!!!
Sadly not—xanthan gum is water-soluble, so it won’t do anything in this anhydrous formula. Have you discovered the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia yet? It’s definitely worth clicking through! Happy making!
Tried this and love the skin feel 🙂 It settled rather rapidly on me and I think its going to be a problem in my pump…but a larger batch is on my horizon!
I’m thrilled to hear you love the skin feel! Did you use the thickening clay? I’m curious about how quickly it settled—are we talking hours/days/seconds? 😛 I really love the thickening clay but I do find things still settle eventually and too much = dry skin feel. I’d love to hear your thoughts based on your experience!
it settled in hours, although I am still using it and it shakes up easily. It didn’t clog the pump at all. Its an all round feel good body oil and I am going to try to mess with the scents a bit 🙂
I’m thrilled to hear it!
I finally got my ingredients but I was wondering if this recipe work in a bar?
Where can I find the thickening clay? TBK trading sold out and Amazon doesn’t have it. What is a good replament for thickenin clay?
Thank you!
Hey! You’ll find the answers you’re looking for in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia 🙂
That’s a bit like asking if a soup will work as a casserole; you’d have to make some massive changes to the formulation to get there, but it is possible 🙂
I love to apply this right after a shower, before drying off. I made it as written, except for the thickening clay, which I was unable to obtain, and even used the same bottle as shown. One interesting side note: The bottle, and the oil in it stays cool on my shelf, but when I pump it into my hand, it comes out VERY warm. Not worried about it, just wondering if anyone else experienced this phenomenon, and if you might know what causes it?
As always, thanks so much for all you do!!
After a week or so of use, the warming sensation ceased to happen. I think something was hindering the action in the pump mechanism, causing the oil to heat up from friction. Whatever it was cleared up on it’s own. It’d be kind of cool to create a pump that does this on purpose! 🙂
Well… that’s weird! And neat! Hmmmm.
What about increasing the mica? 5% maybe like the lotion you made?
You could do that.
What about cetyl alcohol instead of thickening Clay
That doesn’t work very well in my experience; the cetyl alcohol settles out over time.
The TKB Thickening clay has been out of stock everytime I try to order it… do you think I could get a similar effect with 1% Kaolin clay and .5% Stearic acid?
You’ll have to try it and see 🙂 I find fatty thickeners tend to settle out when used at concentrations that low, but it might work for you!
Hi marie, such a great formula! so I took this concept & created an all oil cleansing oil (no thickners just carrier oils) and 6% olivem 300 & 1% euxyl pe! & I’m experiencing separation .. Do you know please know what the problem could be? because to my understanding all those ingredients are all oil soluble right?