Cosmetic glitter
Shimmer.
Opens the calculator’s starter recipe with this additive in it. No source gives a dose to fill in, so enter your own.
What it is
Cosmetic glitter is fine coated flakes, and what they are made of varies: Bramble Berry’s eco-glitter is microcrystalline cellulose with polyurethanes, an acrylates copolymer, dyes and aluminium.
Bramble Berry supplier or guide
How much
- 0.25 tsp per pound of soap in melt and pour or rebatch Bramble Berry supplier or guide
- 1 tsp per pound of soap in melt and pour or rebatch (from a published recipe) Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making primary source
No dose to fill in: enter your own.
When and how
- Usually: at thick trace.
- Stir it in as it is.
Bramble Berry supplier or guide
What it does to the recipe
- It changes neither the lye nor the water: it is only weight in the bar.
Worth knowing
- Caution: Plastic glitter is a microplastic under EU law: from 17 October 2027 a rinse-off product may not contain 0.01 % or more of it. Glitter without synthetic polymer, and polymers proven to break down or to dissolve, are outside the rule. Regulation (EU) 2023/2055 primary source
- Eco (cellulose) glitter dissolves if stirred into cold-process soap at trace: use it on top. Bramble Berry supplier or guide
Spoons and drops
- 1 tsp ≈ 2.71 g (2.46–2.96 g)
- 1 tbsp ≈ 8.13 g (7.39–8.87 g)
- 1 cup ≈ 130 g (118–142 g)
TKB Trading supplier or guide
INCI name
CosIng has no single INCI name for it: label it by what it contains.
Guides that discuss it
Sources
Bramble Berry, fine gold eco-glitter (microcrystalline cellulose, glycerine, water, polyurethanes, acrylates copolymer, dyes, aluminum): "Start with 0.25 teaspoon per pound of soap, scrub, bath bombs, etc."; "It looks beautiful on top of cold process soap, but it will dissolve if it's added at trace"; "Recommended for Cold Process: no".
David Fisher, The Complete Photo Guide to Soap Making (Creative Publishing International, 2018): rebatched soaps, "1 tablespoon (6 g) red sandalwood powder" for 1 lb (454 g) of grated soap, and "1 tablespoon (1.5 g) lightly crushed rose petals buds" for a pound (p. 34); "1 to 2 tablespoons (5 to 10 g) ground walnut shells" in one third of 28 oz (794 g) of grated soap (p. 32); "1 tablespoon (9 g) kaolin, bentonite, or French green clay" in another third and "1 teaspoon activated charcoal—a little goes a long way" in the last (p. 32); "2 tablespoons (10 g) lightly ground oatmeal" for 1 lb (454 g) of grated soap (p. 32); in melt and pour, "¼ teaspoon cosmetic glitter" in about 4 ounces (112 g) of clear base (p. 54); in cold process, "2 teaspoons activated charcoal per 1 lb (454 g) of soap oils" (p. 121), and for the three colours of a clay swirl "½ teaspoon rhassoul clay", "½ teaspoon green sea clay" and "½ teaspoon red Moroccan clay", each mixed with 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of distilled water (pp. 121–122).
Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2055, REACH Annex XVII entry 78: synthetic polymer microparticles are solid polymers that "are contained in particles and constitute at least 1 % by weight of those particles; or build a continuous surface coating on particles", of 5 mm or less. They "Shall not be placed on the market as substances on their own or, where the synthetic polymer microparticles are present to confer a sought-after characteristic, in mixtures in a concentration equal to or greater than 0,01 % by weight"; for "rinse-off products" that applies "from 17 October 2027". Excluded: natural polymers "which are not chemically modified", polymers proved degradable or with "a solubility greater than 2 g/L", and "polymers that do not contain carbon atoms in their chemical structure".
TKB Trading, cosmetics grade glitter safety data sheet (polyester, PET): "Bulk density: between 0.50 and 0.60kg/dm3- depending on particle size/gauge".