Sugar Plum Fairy Shimmer Oil
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!
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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.
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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!
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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
Relevant links & further reading
- Plum Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Apricot Kernel Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (and) Polyurethane-79 (TKB’s Crystal Clear Wax) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Coloured Mica in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Thixotropy – What it is and why it matters in cosmetic formulations from Colin’s Beauty Pages
- Body butter bars that can be shimmer-ified:
- Other body oil formulas:
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.
Gifting Disclosure
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.
