Over Christmas we had a positively frigid cold snap here in Calgary; waking up to temperatures below -40°C with windchill was not uncommon, and most days had “highs” no higher than -25°C. This lasted for about ten days, and while my preference would’ve been to sleep through it swaddled in flannel, that wasn’t really an option as I have a just-barely-one-year-old puppy. So, we walked—once a day at the “warmest” time of day. And Lottie loved it; seeing her frolic through the champagne powder like a furry lunatic was positively delightful. Anyhow, as I waddled along behind my snow-loving puppy, bundled up in a ridiculous amount of down and Gore-Tex, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful it all was. That was the inspiration for this Snowy Dawn Cream Luminizer.
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We were usually alone out there (surprise surprise), surrounded by lumbering snowdrifts that obscured the landscape like a heavy blanket. Right around the winter solstice the sun barely pokes its nose over the horizon before heading back to Australia, so the light is always fairly low. Combine low light, extreme cold, and snowdrifts and you get the most beautiful colour shifting magic happening on the snow. It’s white, but it’s also gold and blue and silver and lavender all at once and not at all. Catch it at the right time and you’ll get flashes of cool gold blended with white-silver and diamonds—that is what I wanted to capture with this luminizer.
To get that colour shifting magic I knew I’d need a hilite mica from TKB—hilite gold, in particular. To that I added a bit of pure white-silver and pure soft gold micas to round it out. Oooh, pretty. I wanted to make this luminizer a solid, creamy one with a silky, powder-like finish, so I added my mica blend to a base of rich jojoba oil, silky cetyl alcohol, and magical silica microspheres. The silica microspheres not only give this luminizer the most amazing dry-touch finish, they also make it even silkier than it would be with cetyl alcohol alone, which is to say super silky. This stuff feels brilliant on the skin.
Much like my highlighting moon drops you can definitely play around with the mica blend to create something different. I’ve kept the batch size quite small as 5g of luminizer is a colossal amount of luminizer, even if it doesn’t sound like much of anything at all. Because it’s a small batch you will need a scale accurate to 0.01g to make it as-is, but a scale like that will likely only run you about $13, and you’ll use it more than you think you will. Your other option is making larger batches, but you’ll burn through mica pretty quickly—fast enough that buying a new scale is likely cheaper in the end!
The making of these is delightfully simple—weigh, melt, stir, pour, and chill! I found these lovely little pots take on a rather funny top texture when they cool, and chilling helps reduce that. It’s no big deal, though—that odd bit is strictly aesthetic and swipes away with the first use anyways. I’m loving gliding this across my cheekbones and dotting a bit by my tear ducts for a bit of snowy magic that’s all my own 🙂
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Snowy Dawn Cream Luminizer
2.4875g | 49.75% jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
0.75g | 15% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
0.25g | 5% silica microspheres (USA / Canada)
1g | 20% hilite gold mica
0.25g | 5% gold mica
0.25g | 5% silver mica0.0125g | 0.25% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the jojoba oil, cetyl alcohol, silica microspheres, and micas into a small glass dish. Place that into your prepared water bath to melt everything through—this will happen in just a few minutes as it’s such a small amount of product. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to combine, breaking up any clumps of mica so you can be sure you’ll notice any remaining, unmelted beads of cetyl alcohol.
While the mixture melts, place a 5g jar on a plate so you can easily move it to the fridge to cool.
Once everything has melted through, remove the glass dish from the heat and stir in the vitamin E oil. Quickly transfer the melted mixture to your 5g jar, and then gently and smoothly move that jar on the plate to the fridge to cool.
When the luminizer has fully set up (give it about twenty minutes), you’re done! To use, swipe your finger across the surface of the luminizer and apply to cheekbones, brow bones, your cupid’s bow, or wherever else you’d like a little more light. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this luminizer 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 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 5g.
- You can use another midweight carrier oil like fractionated coconut, safflower, sunflower, or sweet almond instead of the jojoba oil
- DO NOT substitute the cetyl alcohol
- You can use sericite mica instead of the silica microspheres, though this will significantly reduce the powdery finish of the luminizer
- Feel free to use a different blend of micas as long as it totals 1.5g
One of my favourite things to do with your pictures? Is to guess what ingredients you have used. But I keep forgetting your cetyl alcohol looks like my cera alba so I keep getting them mixed up!!!
Fabulous recipe! I cannot wait to get my hands on more micas! And play!
I love doing the same thing, but dang white pellets are so misleading ha! E-wax? Refined beeswax? BTMS? WHO KNOWS!? 😛
such a beautiful product Marie, but definitely not missing cold North American/Canadian winters. Enjoying lovely sunshine here in the southern hemisphere at the moment 🙂
I’m so envious—40 days until I’m down there soaking up that sun, too!
Hi Marie,
Where do you purchase the silica microspheres? Thanks 🙂
Ack, I forgot the links! The recipe has been updated 🙂
haha thanks Marie! 🙂
This looks so amazing! I am trying to be as earth friendly as possible in things I want to make. Is there something I can substitute the silica micro beads for or can they be left out?
Look at the substitution list… but I am wondering what about silica microspheres isn’t “earth friendly”.
Please refer to the list of substitutions at the end of the recipe.
That said, I don’t think you know what silica micropsheres are—you said “micro beads”, so I’m assuming you are thinking they are the sort of thing that pollutes waterways and kills fish? Thankfully that’s not even close 🙂 Silica is found in abundance in sand, and the median particle size is 5 microns, which is incredibly small—a bag of silica micropsheres just looks like a bag of fine white powder. The MSDS states “The product is not classified as environmentally hazardous”. So… no need to substitute based on environmental concerns.
Hi! Love love your posts! I´ve been trying to make my own cosmetics but in my country is hard to find the right ingredients and measurements, can you please tell me how much mica is in 1/4tsp?
Keep doing what you do it helps me so much!
Greetings from El Salvador!
I’m afraid I can’t (I assume you are looking for a weight measurement?) as it varies dramatically by which mica you’re using.
Hey Marie!!
Can I use Silica Powder instead of Silica Microspheres? And is it one and a same thing?
Much Thanks,
Vibhuti
It’s possible they’re the same thing, but the format/shape & particle size matters. I recommend reviewing the documentation provided by TKB Trading for the product they sell and comparing it to whatever you have in mind 🙂 Happy making!
Received my cetyl alcohol today so I can finally create this luminizer. I’m really liking the cream to powder finish it has. Since this mica color combo was used for the Cream Luminizer recipe, I wanted a different color variation. 1.35 g of silver fine mica (almost white in color) and .15 g of Cloisonne Red mica made a gorgeous pale pearl pink color. Swoon!
OOooh, lovely! If you have a chance to get the colour-shift micas I used for this I highly recommend those as well 😀 They are STUNNING! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
I have several of the multi and duochromes, as well as all the hilite (interference) colors. The 4 color shifting micas might be too colorful for me. Thought about using the Chameleon fine mica (red brown with a blue/green shift) and adding silver fine to lighten it up or the Winter Rose mica (pale pinkish with a blue shift). Both from TKB.
OOoh I totally get it—I’ve definitely made some highlighters that were very “oooooh, pretty!” and were then never worn because I didn’t want my cheekbones to flash green or purple, ha.
Hey Marie!
Did you know that this also makes a brilliant solid-to-cream-to-powder-finish foundation?
I dialed waaay down on the micas and incorporated a significant amount of my mineral makeup foundation instead and it makes a light coverage foundation with an amazing but very subtle glow! I used white/silvery mica for the bulk of the glow and just a tiny bit of gold mica to match my very fair skin tone. It’s really beautiful, I’ve never used dewy finish foundation, but I quite like how it looks on my skin 🙂
The first time I made this I went absolutely crazy with the micas and now I have a surprisingly dark purple cream “de”-luminizer (my silver mica was darker than expected) but since then I have learnt a few things and I hope to make this luminizer in a few more shades once my new micas arrive!
Ooooh, so cool! Thank you so much for sharing, Cora 😀 I LOVE this idea!
This sounds lovely! Do you mind sharing how much mineral makeup you used and how much sliver/white mica?
Hi Marie! If I wanted to use this to brighten the area right under my eyes, can you recommend which powders I would use? Also, would this be the best formula for that? I see you have quite a few luminizers and I’m not sure which would be best suited for this purpose. Thanks!
I have fallen in love with this formulation! I was looking for something different and this has the most luxurious skin-feel and application slip. Wow! You have managed to create amazing formulation with ingredients we all already likely have. I went back to moondrops and made a few rose gold highlighters based on your suggestions (video was super helpful again!). Just to get some idea of what colour I like and/ or what fits my skin tone.
I ended up leaving vit E out and using 5 % pink mica (2 different ones to get similar to your liquid sunshine) and 25 % gold. I love the colour! It is pretty perfect highlighter for my current skin tone. I like to use it as luminizer with soft pink highlighting powder and on top of regular pink lip tint/ stick. It has silvery and golden tones and pink brings lovely fresness to the table even though my skin is warm & mid-tone. I’m using this as body highlighter too. I’m planning to make another one with silver (just silver, white oxide and silver sparkle perhaps). Best thing is that this doesn’t soften or melt in our crazy hot apartment! Finally fabulous way to use my pink mica collection. 😀