How To Make River Rocks Shiny With Oil

How To Make River Rocks Shiny With Oil

River rocks and beach pebbles look beautiful when wet but dull when dry. In this tutorial I show you how to give your gathered rocks that shiny wet look with a natural oil finish.

How To Make River Rocks Shiny With Oil

You’ll need:

  • gathered river rocks, beach pebbles, sea glass or sea shells
  • oil*

* I used jojoba oil. Jojoba oil which is actually a liquid wax doesn’t become rancid like other vegetable oils.

Wash Rocks

Wash the rocks with soap and water and let them dry.

Oil Rocks

Then oil the river rocks with jojoba oil or cooking oil to give them back their wet look.

Wipe Off Excess Oil

After some minutes wipe off excess oil. Now the river rocks are more colorful and shiny.

Re-Oil Rocks

After a couple of weeks or months it’s usually necessary to re-oil the stones.

Related: How To Make An Oil Lamp With Vegetable Oil & DIY Wick

By the way, if you decide later that you don’t want shiny river rocks, just wash off the oil with soap and water!

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How To Make River Rocks Shiny With Oil - Tutorial

35 thoughts on “How To Make River Rocks Shiny With Oil

    1. Yes, the oil makes sea glass see-through and brings out the color, it’s no longer matte or whitish frosted. The little piece of green sea glass in the pictures has an oil finish.

  1. What a clever tip, thanks. Would it be possible to add a drop or two of scented oil ? I’m imagining them helping to make a room smell nice – do you think that would work?

    1. Yes, I think I’d work to scent the oil with a drop or so of essential oil. Thanks for your great idea! 🙂

      1. This would work really well, with rocks that are more porous.. sandstone, lavarock, etc. They will absorb the fragrance, making it last longer.

  2. Thanks so much for the tip! I’m going to do this! Pinned to share. You will be one of my features this week on Snickerdoodle Create-Bake-Make Link Party today!

    1. I have tried baby oil but it only lasts for a few days; quickly soaks into the stones and the dry look is back. Definitely going to give the jojoba oil a try.

          1. I have tried the car polish And it works sometimes it really depends on the type of stone and what kind of a look you’re getting

      1. I haven’t tried jojoba Oil but have found that an expensive olive oil makes a big difference in the shininess of the stones and how long it lasts if you put them in a mason jar with a teaspoon of good quality olive oil and water put the lid on and turn your stones every once in a while for a couple of days they will soak up the oil and they will last a lot longer It’s almost as if you had them in a Tumblr

  3. OMG! thank you so much i was about to get a tumbler! that is super expecive! but i saw this and this helped sooo much i love how my rocks turned out! THANK YOU! that is such a good idea! and also are there any oils that would not work for this?

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