This lightly shimmery body oil is perfect for heading out on New Years Eve. With just a hint of glimmer, you can shimmer and shine in the New Year (without being mistaken for a Show Girl). It also helps soothe parched skin, which is always great at this time of year.
This oil comes together very quickly, and is easily customized. I chose grapeseed oil as the base oil since it absorbs quickly, but you can replace it with any fast-absorbing carrier oil you happen to have on hand. I added a wee bit of capuacu butter to thicken the oil just a little, so the mica stays suspended a bit better. If you don’t have cupuacu, a bit of unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) or cocoa butter (USA / Canada) will work as well (not coconut oil, though, it’s too soft).
You can also customize the colour to match your preference/skin tone. All the colour comes from the mica, and is fairly subtle as such, but you can still choose between bronze, copper, gold, and silver (depending on what micas you have on hand, of course). I went with copper in an attempt to fake a bit of a tan.
Once you’ve settled on those three ingredients, you’re left to choose an essential oil or two. It’s totally optional here. I went with a bit of lavender and bergamot. Now you’re ready to pull everything together, which might take 5 minutes, and then you’ll be ready to bring in the New Year.
Shimmery Body Oil
10g grapeseed oil
4g capuacu butter
Pinch mica (about 1/16 tsp)2 drops lavender essential oil
1 drop bergamot essential oilMelt the grapeseed oil and cupucu butter together.
Use a funnel to get the mica into the bottom of a 15mL bottle.
Remove the oils from the heat once melted and add the essential oils, if using. Swirl to combine.
Pour the liquid oils into the bottle. Cap and shake to blend. Apply directly to the skin and enjoy the shimmer!
Another thing you can do any time you want to thicken an oil, from a light serum to a paste wax, is just melt some glyceryl stearate into the oil, starting with 3% and increasing the increments by 1% at a time. It’s very handy for pomades and solid perfumes, too.
Great tip, thanks Sylvia!
Hi Marie,
I am so glad you have a close up picture of the Cupuacu Butter! I bought some for the first time recently and when I saw it up close I wondered if it’s one of those finicky butters that go grainy. It’s one of the reasons I don’t like working with shea or mango butters. :/ However… after trying it in a lotion bar recipe I love how soft it made my skin feel. No sign of graininess, but then again I didn’t use too much in the recipe. Is cupuacu butter usually grainy out of the jar? I wonder if I should temper my remaining butter, all one ounce of it. LOL
Thank you so much for your informative website! I am mostly a hobbyist and really appreciate the fact that your recipes yield just enough for one (or a couple of guinea pigs :D) . There have been times when I’ve scaled down recipes accordingly and still mess up. Hate when that happens. I’m so happy to have found your site again (lost it a couple of years ago when I didn’t bookmark an article), and am enjoying browsing through it. Can’t wait to try your argan bronzer once I get ahold of some sericite mica!
Hi Ev! Isn’t cupuacu butter funny looking? HA. Only the unrefined stuff looks like that, the refined stuff is just an innocuous smooth white butter. I’ve never found it to be grainy in the blobs-of-stearic-acid way out of the jar (or in general, really), so I wouldn’t bother tempering.
Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me! I, too, have learned the lesson of the making WAAAAAAY too much of something, and am determined that my readers shouldn’t accidentally do the same 🙂
Hi Marie,
Thanks for replying! I had no idea the grainy appearance means the butter is unrefined. I placed an order with NDA last night (just don’t ask me how much I spent. yikes! lol) that include some Cupuacu butter. Theirs is the refined stuff though. I also bought Tucuma and Ucuuba butters because they sound so interesting. I haven’t bought from NDA in forever and goodness, it was like a demented Supermarket Sweep where I added anything that looked/sounded vaguely interesting to my cart. Then I whittled everything down just before check out. Have you placed your yearly order yet? 😀
I am a little bummed that they are no longer selling menthol essential oil; they only carry the crystal version now. Even with a 40% discount it’s still awfully expensive. I guess I’ll have to find an alternative cooling EO or increase the peppermint when I try your Tiger Balm recipe. 🙂
It sounds like we order the same way—a bit of a binge add and subsequent purge when we see the total price! I haven’t placed any orders recently as my cupboards are CRAZY and I really should make do with what I have for a while o_O.
Check out Saffire Blue for menthol crystals—they sell them in smaller quantities, making them mucho more affordable!
Whats a Saphire Blue for menthol? This sounds interesting
Saffire Blue is a place to shop and buy ingredients, and they sell menthol 🙂
Hi ! I was just wondering since you’re using a butter… does this stay liquid? Thanks!
It does; butters are not very powerful thickeners. It simply adds a touch of viscosity.
He Humble bee and me,
I was wondering what would be better to thicken the oil so the mica does not sit on the bottom beeswax or shea butter?
Neither; if you can get TKB Trading’s GelMaker CC it is perfectly suited to the task! Shea butter is a pretty poor thickener, and in the amounts required to get some results it will make the end product significantly greasier. Beeswax is a much better thickener, but it will still add a weight to this oil that is undesirable.
I plan to buy silica, but is it powerful enough to prevent mica and glitters in body oils from separating? I am just looking for one ingredient to be a thickener/stabilizer.
No, that’s not what silica brings to a formulation. Please read up on it in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) 🙂
HI MARIE thanks for your posts they are great!
my question is: I don’t have the capuacu butter. Can I replace it with something else?
Also, can this recipe be done with oils only and no butter?