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!

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

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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.

Save 5% on C12–15 alkyl benzoate and everything else at Essential Wholesale & Labs with coupon code HUMBLEBEE

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

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.

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

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.

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

How to Make Rosé Shimmer 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!

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

How to Make Rosé Shimmer Body Oil

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 benzoate

1g | 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 oil

Weigh 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.