These pretty pink shampoo bars kick out oodles of fluffy bubbles, leave your hair shiny and soft, and smell fabulous. They’re an update of a formulation I first shared back in 2020; I still really like the original but I knew one big change would make this formulation far more accessible. So here we are!
Today we are making a beautiful, fragrant, versatile shimmer oil that is perfect for winter skincare! I’ve given mine a “Sugar Plum Fairy” holiday theme, but you can easily theme yours differently with a few small changes. You can also have some fun with what “type” of oil this is; I initially designed this formulation as a body oil, but you can absolutely use it as a facial oil serum or even a rich hair oil—it’s up to you!
The bulk of this shimmer oil is—no surprise here—oil! Two oils make up 97% of the formulation.
Our star is plum kernel oil; the oil expressed from the kernels of plums. What could be more perfect for a “Sugar Plum Fairy” themed formulation? The super special thing about this oil is its scent: it smells wonderfully of marzipan, and that comes through in the finished shimmer oil. You can let the scent shine on its own, but it will also mingle beautifully with a thoughtfully chosen fragrance or essential oil.
The downside of plum kernel oil is its price; it isn’t cheap. If you adore the scent of marzipan and are ok with a bit of a splurge, it will last a long time if you keep it in the fridge. I’ve had the bottle I’m using for seven years now, and it’s still fresh! Thankfully, if you don’t have plum kernel oil, you can easily swap it for the second carrier oil in our formula: apricot kernel oil. I chose apricot kernel oil because its fatty acid composition is quite similar to plum oil, but it’s a lot cheaper. Of course, you will obviously lose that beautiful marzipan-y scent if you don’t use plum kernel oil, but you might prefer that if you don’t want to roll with the same “Sugar Plum Fairy” theme—and you can still make your shimmer oil smell wonderful a fragrance or essential oil!
The remaining 3% of the formulation is where we get our shimmer, the rest of the scent blend, some antioxidant goodness, and the magic that keeps the shimmer from drifting to the bottom of the bottle to form a sad layer of sparkly sludge. There’s a lot happening!
The plummy mica I used in an earlier batch.
For that “Sugar Plum Fairy” shimmer, you’ll need a fine mica—that is, one with a small particle size. It should look “glowy” rather than glittery or sparkly, and if the data sheet mentions a particle size, ideally it’ll be below 50 micrometers. This will help prevent the mica from clogging a mister/spray top (if you opt to use one) and creates a subtle shimmery/glowy appearance on the skin. I made one version using a rich plum-coloured mica, and a second using a duo-chrome mica that looks silver-white at first, and then shifts to violet when the light catches it. That colour changing, iridescent loveliness brings to mind ballerina’s tutus and the beauty of freshly fallen snow in low light. Sugar Plum Fairy perfection!
The colour-shifting mica I used in the video.
Another note on mica: make sure you only purchase ethically sourced micas as some is mined in truly horrific conditions. This information is usually in the FAQ of a shop’s website, and if it isn’t, ask before purchasing. TKB Trading, Bramble Berry, and YellowBee all sell exclusively ethically sourced micas.
When it comes to scent, there’s plenty of room to have fun + use what you have (and love)! I’m using the gorgeously juicy and complex Spicy Plum Pudding fragrance oil from Bulk Apothecary, which melds wonderfully with the natural scent of plum oil. For other sugar-plummy ideas, I think something vanilla-y would be great with the scent of plum oil, or something with a bit of a ‘spice’ note. I think it could be really fun to infuse your apricot kernel oil with vanilla beans for an indulgent, all-natural scent blend!
You can also adjust how much scent you use. If you’re planning on using this as a facial oil serum, I’d drop the fragrance entirely and replace it with more apricot oil—but if you’re using it as a hair oil, you might want to double the fragrance to 1% for more of a scent kick. Whatever you use, make sure it is safe at whatever usage level you go with for whatever sort of product you’re making. And if you’re using plum oil, make sure it’ll work with that marzipan smell!
Our last ingredient is the one that keeps the shimmer floating in the oil rather than sinking down to the bottom of the bottle: TKB Trading’s Crystal Clear Wax (INCI: Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (and) Polyurethane-79). This really neat ingredient thickens the oil a tiny bit, but its real super power is its incredible suspending abilities.
If you look closely you can see the ghostly blobs of Crystal Clear Wax at the bottom of the beaker.
Just because an ingredient thickens doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good at suspending. If you’ve ever tried to use a small amount of solid fatty thing, like a bit of cetyl alcohol or a touch of a butter in a liquid oil to suspend a mica, you’ll know those ingredients eventually precipitate out of the oil as hard little fatty blobs and sink to the bottom along with the mica. Crystal Clear Wax’s ability to suspend mica in oil this well is rare, so I’m afraid I don’t have a good substitution for this ingredient. If you don’t have it or don’t want to use it, you can go the non-shimmer route by replacing both the mica and the crystal clear wax with more apricot kernel oil. You can also keep the mica, knowing it’ll sink to the bottom, and shake the bottle before every use. Or you could make a shimmery body butter bar instead—where the mica can’t settle out because it’s suspended in a solid bar. I think this body butter bar formulation would be a lovely choice to shimmer-ify.
This is the oil after it’s been heating for a while. See the tiny clear bits? That’s not-quite-melted Crystal Clear Wax, so the oil needs to be heated for longer.
To make the oil all you’ve got to do is melt the heat phase ingredients together, stir until cool, and then mix in the cool down phase ingredients. Easy peasy! Enjoy
Sugar Plum Fairy Shimmer Oil
Heated phase
20g | 20% plum kernel oil (USA / Canada / UK / Bulgaria / Aus / NZ)
77g | 77% apricot kernel oil (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.5% Crystal Clear WaxCool down phase
1g | 1% Sugar-Plummy coloured mica
0.5g | 0.5% Spicy Plum Pudding fragrance oil
1g | 1% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Combine the heated phase ingredients in something you’ll be able to heat directly. I find this formula needs to get up to ~100°C (212°F) to melt, and that’s a tall order for a water bath.
If you don’t have beakers and a lab hot plate that you can set to a reliably low(ish) temperature, you can put everything in a small saucepan and melt it on low on your stovetop. Alternatively, combine the ingredients in a heat resistant glass measuring cup, put that on a cookie sheet, and then bake it in a ~100°C (212°F) oven. No matter how you heat the mixture, make sure you keep an eye on it as you don’t want to scorch your oils!
Once you think the Crystal Clear Wax has melted, examine the mixture really closely to ensure it has—stirring around and pulling up your spoon to see if you can find any blobs. It’s so clear it vanishes into the oils even if it’s still a semi-solid blob.
When you are certain the Crystal Clear Wax has melted, remove the beaker from the heat and stir in the mica.
Stir the mixture occasionally until cools to room temperature to ensure a uniform final product.
Weigh in the cool down phase, stir to combine, and package the oil in a bottle some sort of orifice reducer cap like a treatment pump, a spray cap, or a disc cap.
To use, apply to your skin and massage in. Enjoy the shimmer! You can also use this as a hair oil, but apply sparingly—this formula is nearly pure oil, so it’s very rich.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this product does not contain any water, 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 formulation, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this formulation 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 formulation will make 100g, which will fill three or four 30mL (1 fl oz) bottles, depending on how much you fill each bottle.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, 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 (Crystal Clear Wax!) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You can customize the oil blend; I recommend sticking to relatively lightweight “real” oils like sweet almond, grapeseed, or safflower oil.
- If you’re looking for oils with a fatty acid composition close to plum oil, try sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, or peach kernel oil.
- If you want to include more delicate oils like rosehip oil, add them with the mica rather than heating them to 100°C.
- Please have fun with the scent! What makes sense for a “sugar plum fairy” theme to you? You can use any essential oil or fragrance oil you like that is safe for use at 0.5% in IFRA category 5A, 5B, and/or 7B (depending on how you plan to use the formula). If you aren’t sure how to check those guidelines, please read this blog post.
- You can replace the fragrance with more liquid oil for an unscented product.
- I recommend keeping the vitamin E as this product is primarily made from oils that can and will oxidize (aka go rancid and start smelling disgusting). Vitamin E will slow that process down.
The vitamin E and apricot kernel oil were gifted by YellowBee.
The mica and Crystal Clear Wax were gifted by TKB Trading. Links to TKB Trading are affiliate links.
The fragrance was gifted by Bulk Apothecary. Links to Bulk Apothecary are affiliate links.
The plum oil was gifted by Essential Wholesale. As of 2025, Essential Wholesale has been purchased by NourishUs Naturals, and they do not sell plum oil.
Links to Amazon are affiliate links.
Today I’m sharing a formulation for some intriguingly dark, rock-hard shampoo bars that star two natural ingredients that are long-time favourites in the DIY space: activated charcoal and bentonite clay. I’ve had tons of requests to use these ingredients in a shampoo bar over the years, and since both are super popular in detox-type DIYs, I thought a clarifying sulphate-free shampoo bar was a perfect fit! These bars are fast & easy to make, don’t require any fancy equipment, and make amazing gifts.
In this post I’m sharing how to make three different emulsified, rinse-out Super Simple Lightweight Hair Conditioner formulations using a conditioning emulsifier that is perfect for fine hair that is easily weighed down. All three formulations are easy to make, and each builds on the one before it: the first requires just four ingredients, the second formulation adds two more, and the third adds another three. Let’s dive in!
The partner video tutorial for this project is focussed a lot more on technique and showing you the consistencies of the finished conditioners, while this post focuses more on the ingredients and formulation. Watch and read for the best learning experience!
I’ve written a lot more about what hair conditioner is in this post: Super Simple Creamy Hair Conditioner: 3 Ways. Read that post for a longer explanation!
For a short version, though: creamy hair conditioners are emulsions the include at least one cationic (aka positively charged) ingredient—that’s the conditioning magic. They can be very simple (just a fatty alcohol, cationic emulsifier, water, preservative, and perhaps a humectant) or more complex (including ingredients like carrier oils, esters, hydrolyzed proteins, amino acids, botanical extracts, and more).
Rinse-out conditioners are applied to the hair for a few minutes after shampooing, and then rinsed out. They leave our hair smooth, slippery, and easy to comb through—which helps reduce breakage, improving hair health.
This ultra-simple, very lightweight version requires just four ingredients!
This ingredient (also known as Cola®Lac SLB or Bio Conditioner) does several jobs: it emulsifies, it conditions, and it thickens.
The unique, lovely-for-hair ingredient in Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner is Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine Lactate.
Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine is a really common ingredient in hair conditioners, hair masks, cleansing conditioners, and conditioning shampoos. It’s the primary conditioning emulsifier in Hair Story’s New Wash and can be found in tons of products from brands like Aussie, Pantene, Aveda, Wella, Schwarzkopf, Herbal Essences, and more. It is prized for conditioning without weighing the hair down, which is why you can find it in lots of products designed for fine hair. Products marketed towards textured hair or as richer/more conditioning tend to blend Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine with other conditioning ingredients like Behentrimonium Chloride and Behentrimonium Methosulfate (as found in BTMS-50 and BTMS-25).
You can think of Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner as an easy-to-use format of Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine.
On its own, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine is very basic (has a high pH) and needs to be neutralized with an acid in order to condition and emulsify, which can make it a bit intimidating to work with. Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine Lactate is the lactate salt form of Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine; aka Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine that’s already been neutralized with lactic acid—so we don’t have do that part!
The three component ingredients of Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner:
stearamidopropyl dimethylamine, lactic acid, and cetearyl alcohol.
This pre-neutralized version of Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine is blended with cetearyl alcohol; a fatty thickener and emollient that boosts viscosity, stabilizes emulsions, and moisturizes the hair. It’s a really common ingredient in all kinds of haircare and skincare formulations, and is found in all sorts of emulsifiers (examples include Emulsifying Wax NF, Ritamulse SCG, and BTMS-25).
I like to grind my Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner up in my DIY-only coffee grinder to make it even easier to work with. I recommend freezing it first (make sure it’s nice and frosty) so the heat from the friction of grinding doesn’t fuse it into a gummy mass.
Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner is not very widely available as of summer 2025; the only place I’ve found it for sale to home crafters is YellowBee in Canada.
If you don’t have Bio Conditioner you can use BTMS-25 or BTMS-50 in these formulations instead, but they won’t be quite as well suited to fine hair, and will definitely be different.
This is a super stable, lightweight, liquid emollient that adds a tiny bit of richness to the conditioner, and is emulsified with the Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner.
If you don’t have it, you can choose any oil (or blend of oils) that you like. From a haircare point of view, you might want to specifically choose oils that soak into the hair (which helps soften it and add water-repellency), oils that coat it (to add shine and gloss), or a blend. Learn more about that from the Science-y Hair Blog here.
This is our diluent and solvent—it’s the key thing that makes this a creamy, emulsified conditioner rather than a not-very-good conditioner bar. It also dilutes the Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner and the Medium Chain Triglycerides, dialling in the level of richness (which in the case of this particular formulation isn’t very rich at all!).
Liquid Germall™ Plus is our broad spectrum preservative; it keeps the hair conditioner from going mouldy and getting disgusting!
You could use a different broad spectrum preservative, but you need to be sure it is compatible with cationics and that you meet its needs (pH being a big one!). You will likely need to use more of it as well as Liquid Germall™ Plus has a uniquely low usage rate. Learn more about the pH needs & usage rates of different preservatives here.
I did experiment with Optiphen™ Plus as I was working on these formulations and found the phenoxyethanol in it thinned the emulsions a lot, so keep that in mind if you choose a preservative that includes phenoxyethanol.
Formulation #1
The Formulation
Super Simple Lightweight Hair Conditioner #1
Heated phase
91.5g | 91.5% distilled water
2g | 2% medium chain triglycerides (USA / Canada / UK / Aus / NZ)
6g | 6% Bio Conditioner (Canada)Cool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer on a stove top over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Alternatively, you can use a lab hot plate on low. If you use beakers, you can set them directly on the hot plate without a water bath—just take care not to boil your formulation! Aim for a maximum heat of 75–80°C.
Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup/beaker + ingredients) and write that weight down for later.
Heat the heated phase with the prepared hot water bath/hot plate.
After 30–40 minutes everything should be hot, and you should see a white creamy top layer. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the heated phase. Add enough distilled water to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating.
Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the conditioner, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid emulsion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for 30–60 seconds before switching to hand stirring. You’ll need to be fairly diligent with the stirring at first or the emulsion will separate, but once the mixture has thickened up a bit and is uniform you can switch to stirring occasionally.
When the outside of the glass measuring cup is just warm to the touch (40°C or cooler, if you have a thermometer) we’re ready to proceed.
Now it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights, you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller bowl or beaker. Weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Add a scoop or two of conditioner, stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the parent batch of conditioner. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the smaller bowl/beaker.
Once the cool down phase has been incorporated, all that’s left to do is package it up!
Package in some sort of squeeze or pump bottle—something you can store in the shower without contaminating it with a bunch of extra water. Use as you’d use any rinse-out cream conditioner. Enjoy!
Make sure you can’t see any blobs of Bio Conditioner (see those little translucent round bits on my spatula?) before removing your beaker from the heat and blending.
This version incorporates some extra oil for a bit more richness, a fragrance (or essential oil) for scent, and a wee bit of panthenol (Vitamin B5) for added moisture and shine. The amount of water is reduced to make room for these new ingredients. If you don’t have any of the additional ingredients from here on out, you can replace them with distilled water.
Half a percent of powdered vitamin B5 helps moisturize the hair and boost shine. It’s an easy-to-use, versatile ingredient—if you don’t already have some, I highly recommend adding 30g (1.06oz) or so to your next ingredient order.
Just a little of something that smells lovely so the conditioner—and your hair—smell lovely, too. You could use an essential oil instead if you prefer, just be sure whatever you use is safe at 0.2% in rinse-off hair formulations (IFRA category 7A).
Learn more: How to naturally scent lotions with essential oils and natural fragrance oils
Formulation #2
The Formulation
Super Simple Lightweight Hair Conditioner #2
Heated phase
86.8g | 86.8% distilled water
6g | 6% medium chain triglycerides (USA / Canada / UK / Aus / NZ)
0.5g | 0.5% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
6g | 6% Bio Conditioner (Canada)Cool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% fragrance oil or essential oil of choiceFollow the same instructions we used for Formulation #1.
This version of the formulation gets a bit richer with even more oil and a touch of shea butter, plus it includes another good-for-hair ingredient to really boost the performance of the conditioner.
A bit more Medium Chain Triglycerides and a touch of shea butter further boosts richness and viscosity. As with earlier versions, you can use different liquid oils and/or a different butter if desired.
Because this third formulation includes shea butter, which can oxidize, I’ve included some Tocopherol (Vitamin E)—an antioxidant. You could absolutely include this in the other formulations as well, but I didn’t because Medium Chain Triglycerides is such a stable ingredient and I was trying to keep the ingredient lists as short as possible.
Our last ingredient is 1% Hydrolyzed Rice Protein. My hair really loves protein; it helps structure my waves and reduce frizz.
If you don’t have hydrolyzed rice protein there are quite a few other hydrolyzed proteins that could work instead. They all have different benefits ranging from protecting the hair to volumizing to moisturizing! Learn more here:
If you don’t have a hydrolyzed protein you could use a botanical extract or a humectant like Vegetable Glycerin or Propanediol 1,3 instead!
Formulation #3
The Formulation
Super Simple Lightweight Hair Conditioner #3
Heated phase
79.7g | 79.7% distilled water
10g | 10% medium chain triglycerides (USA / Canada / UK / Aus / NZ)
2g | 2% refined shea butter (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.5% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
6g | 6% Bio Conditioner (Canada)Cool down phase
0.5g | 0.5% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 0.2% fragrance oil or essential oil of choice
0.1g | 0.1% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.5g | 0.5% hydrolyzed rice protein (USA / Canada)Follow the same instructions we used for Formulation #1.
Yes, but…
If you want to use BTMS-25, I’d recommend following the formulations in this post instead.
Behentrimonium methosulfate (that’s what “BTMS” stands for) is also conditioning, but it’s not as lightweight as Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine is. Both BTMS-25 and BTMS-50 are conditioning emulsifiers and will work in these formulations to create creamy hair conditioners, but they will not produce the same product. Think of it like using a sweet potato instead of a white potato—they can do a lot of the same jobs, but they aren’t identical and you will notice the swap.
Because these hair conditioners contain water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. With good manufacturing practice and proper preservation, these conditioners should last at least a year.
In the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
It’s not fully natural, but according to Colonial Chem, “Cola®Lac SLB is “Derived Natural” with a Natural Origin Index of 0.97 in accordance with ISO 16128 guideline.” The ingredient that brings this down from a “fully natural” score of 1 is the Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine, which gets a rating of ~0.75 on its own.
Whether this is natural enough for you is a personal decision.
Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner is quite acidic, so the pH of all these conditioners falls in the 4.8–5.5 range as written.
I made & tested dozens of simple formulations using Bio Conditioner to put this video together, and the pH of everything I made fell in the 4.2–5.5 range.
It’s always a good idea to check the pH of your formulations if you have a pH meter, but if you don’t have one yet and you make these formulations as written—or relatively close to it—the pH should land in a good place automatically.
Learn more: pH and Your Hair. A little redox to make you happy. from Science-y Hair Blog
Please read the free Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia entry on Cola®Lac SLB/Bio Conditioner for more information on this, but generally: yes, but I would not consider that to be a beginner friendly swap as you’ll need to make several other modifications + additions to the formulations as well.
Please read the section on Liquid Germall™ Plus (under Formulation #1) above.
The BioConditioner, fractionated coconut oil, panthenol (Vitamin B5), fragrance, vitamin E, hydrolyzed rice protein, and Liquid Germall™ Plus were gifted by YellowBee.
The refined shea butter was gifted by Bramble Berry.
Links to Amazon are affiliate links.
I think these might be the prettiest shampoo bars I’ve made yet They’re not only pretty, but they kick out loads of luscious lather and leave your hair feeling fabulous. Let’s dive in!
These sparkly, sudsy shampoo bars feature two trending all-natural ingredients with long histories in hair care: castor oil and rice. These inexpensive ingredients are said to help strengthen the hair, boost growth, and improve hair health, so including them in a shampoo bar felt like a no-brainer.
Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care is now available at booksellers all over the world!