Whether you're ringing in the new year, celebrating the holidays, or just want your drinks to look fancy, adding glitter to your cocktails and mocktails creates festive, shimmering, sparkly drinks that are beautiful to behold and fun to sip.
Many cocktails sparkle and shine on their own, with light catching the ice cubes or the bubbles. But when you want truly sparkly cocktails, it's time to grab the edible glitter and luster dust. Once you know how to make glittery cocktails, you can create your own magical concoctions and take your drinks game to the next level.
Easy Ways to Make Sparkly Cocktails
A shimmering cocktail is a sight to behold, with the light catching the luster as if the drink is filled with magic. There are a few ways to give your cocktail this glittery shine or smooth, mystical shimmer. Use food-grade glitter or edible petal dust. Bakers often use these to decorate cookies or cakes, but they're even more enticing in a cocktail.
Edible Glitter Adds Sparkle to Your Drinks
For a glittery touch that doesn't change the opacity of the cocktail, edible glitter is the answer. Shake as little or as much as you like into the drink when you're mixing, or sprinkle a pinch or two on top of a finished cocktail.
With edible glitter, you can choose different colors, shapes (who wouldn't want shining golden stars or sparkling red hearts in their drink?), and sizes of glitter. It's perfect for customizing your cocktails for any occasion.
Petal Dust Adds a Magical Shimmer to Cocktails & Mocktails
If you want your cocktail to have a shimmery, hazy look where the glitter and the color of the glitter are the focus of the drink, stir in petal dust. Sometimes petal dust is called luster dust, but it all does the same thing — transforms an ordinary treat into a sparkly drink.
While you can mix different colors of petal dust, they tend to turn into a murky color over time, so only combine them at the last moment, just before serving.
How to Make Drinks Shine With Luster Dust & Glitter
If you were a glitter girl like me, you can already see the possibilities! But to make sparkly cocktails fit for a princess, fairy, or unicorn, these tips can help.
- When using edible glitter or dust, add a pinch at the very end to top off the drink as a garnish (for example, try adding a pinch of gold glitter to an old-fashioned).
- If you add a pinch at the top of the drink, give the glass a swirl before you serve it, and the shine will swirl down from the surface into the cocktail.
- If you want the shine throughout the drink so the whole cocktail shimmers, mix it in as you shake the drink (try putting some green petal dust in a margarita for a festive, fancy finish).
- A little sparkle goes a long way. You'll only need about ⅛ teaspoon of either for a standard drink. You can add a bit more at the end if you don't get the desired effect.
- If you're mixing colors, stick with only two.
- When mixing colors, one trick is to do one color in luster dust and the other in edible glitter so each stands out from the other.
Only use food-grade, edible glitter or luster dust for cocktails.
Starlight Prosecco
Bring your French 75 to the sparkly side with this glittery and stunning fizzy twist. It makes any occasion especially festive and creates truly Instagra-worthy drinks.
Ingredients
- 1 ounce gin
- ½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ ounce elderflower liqueur
- Ice
- Prosecco to top off
- Edible gold glitter for garnish
Instructions
- Chill a Champagne flute.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, gin, lemon juice, and elderflower liqueur.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into the chilled glass.
- Garnish with the gold glitter.
NYC Glitter Cosmo
Capture the lights of the Big Apple in a fancy cosmo that'll shimmer its way straight to being the apple of your eye. Don't worry — it'll be just as tasty as it looks.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces citron vodka
- ¾ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
- ½ ounce orange liqueur
- ½ ounce cranberry juice
- ⅛ teaspoon red petal dust
- Ice
- Rosemary sprig for garnish
Instructions
- Chill a martini glass or coupe.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, citron vodka, lime juice, orange liqueur, cranberry juice, and petal dust.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into the chilled glass.
- Garnish with a rosemary sprig.
Glittering Summer Highball
Who says a simple highball can't be fancy? Not you! Any highball becomes a glittering ball of summer sunshine with a pinch of yellow petal dust.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces bourbon
- ½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ⅛ teaspoon gold petal dust
- Ice
- Ginger ale to top off
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, bourbon, lemon juice, and gold petal dust.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into a highball glass over fresh ice.
- Top off with ginger ale.
- Stir to mix.
- Top off with additional gold petal dust, if necessary, stirring to mix in.
Mermaid's Dream
Ready to make your mermaid dreams come true? Try a shimmering azure drink so inviting that Ariel would want to dive in.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces rum
- ½ ounce blue curaçao
- ½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon edible fine blue glitter
- Ice
- Strawberry for garnish
Instructions
- Chill a martini glass or coupe.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, rum, blue curaçao, lemon juice, and blue glitter.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into the chilled glass.
- Garnish with a strawberry.
Glitter Strawberry Margarita
The beauty of a margarita is it can always be upgraded, changed, or made even more fantastic beyond your wildest dreams. Let this shimmering strawberry margarita become the crown jewel of your next Taco Tuesday.
Ingredients
- Lime wedge and sugar for rim
- 2 ounces strawberry tequila
- 1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
- ¾ ounce orange liqueur
- ½ ounce agave
- ⅛ teaspoon white petal dust
- Ice
- Berry club soda to top off
- Strawberry for garnish
Instructions
- To prepare rim, rub the rim of the glass with the lime wedge.
- With the sugar on a saucer, dip either half or the entire rim of the glass in the sugar to coat.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, strawberry tequila, lime juice, orange liqueur, agave, and white petal dust.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into a prepared glass.
- Top off with berry club soda.
- Stir to mix, adding additional petal dust if desired.
- Garnish with a strawberry.
Magical Washington Apple Martini
Nothing catches the eye quite like the look of a shimmering Washington apple. This swirling, luminous martini is so gorgeous and red, it's worthy of a Cézanne still-life painting.
Ingredients
- 1½ ounces whiskey
- 1 ounce sour apple schnapps
- 1 ounce cranberry juice
- ⅛ teaspoon red petal dust
- Ice
- Apple slice for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Chill a martini glass or coupe.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, whiskey, sour apple schnapps, cranberry juice, and red petal dust.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into the chilled glass.
- Garnish with an apple slice, if desired.
Fizzy Kiss
A kiss of fruity bitters, a pinch of glitter, and beloved prosecco bring a cocktail together instantly in this sparkling drink.
Ingredients
- ¾ ounce vodka
- 1-2 dashes cherry bitters
- Pinch of fine gold edible glitter
- Prosecco to top off
- Cherry for garnish
Instructions
- Chill a Champagne flute.
- In the chilled glass, add vodka, cherry bitters, and glitter.
- Top off with prosecco.
- Garnish with a cherry, slowly dropping in, so it mixes the glitter.
Glittering Blue Lagoon
Breathe a little glitter and berry life into your usual blue lagoon with blueberry vodka and a healthy dose of shimmer. It's almost too pretty to drink (but don't let that stop you — just selfie with it first).
Ingredients
- 2 ounces blueberry vodka
- ¾ ounce blue curaçao
- ¼ teaspoon blue petal dust
- 4 ounces lemonade
- Ice
- Lemon wheel for garnish, optional
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, blueberry vodka, blue curaçao, petal dust, and lemonade.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into a hurricane or highball glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish with a lemon wheel, if desired.
Grandma's Glittering Cape Codder
A little sparkle goes a long way in making an old drink new again, and nowhere is that more true than a classic cape codder.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces vodka
- ½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
- ½ ounce raspberry liqueur
- ⅛ teaspoon fine red edible glitter
- Ice
- Lime wedge for garnish, optional
Instructions
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, vodka, lime juice, raspberry liqueur, and red glitter.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into a cocktail or rocks glass over fresh ice.
- Garnish with a lime wedge, if desired.
French Sparkle Martini
A little peach nectar and some vodka will have this martini singing, and with a pinch of glitter, it'll become the star it has always been destined to be.
Ingredients
- 2 ounces vodka
- ¾ ounce peach nectar
- ½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon edible gold or yellow glitter
- Ice
- Orange peel for garnish
Instructions
- Chill a martini glass or coupe.
- In a cocktail shaker, add ice, vodka, peach nectar, lemon juice, and glitter.
- Shake to chill.
- Strain into the chilled glass.
- Garnish with an orange peel.
Give Your Drinks a Little Sparkle
There's no great science experiment involved, nor is there a trip to the craft store or endless glitter clean-up with sparkly cocktails; there's only the pure magic of a swirling, glimmering tipple. So, whether you're living out your Disney princess dreams, longing for Insta-worthy cocktails, or hoping your drinks will light up a room, shiny, shimmery cocktails are where it's at. With just a few pinches of your favorite glitter or luster dust, your friends and followers will be asking how you did it. It's entirely up to you whether you share your secrets.
