The invention includes personal care compositions and methods of preparing these personal care compositions that include incorporation of a polyol polyester that is the reaction product of an aliphatic polyol that does not contain an ether group, and benzoic acid, wherein the resultant polyol polyester has a refractive index at 25° C. of greater than about 1.5. The aliphatic polyol may have two to three carbon atoms. Alternatively, the invention includes personal care compositions and methods of preparing personal care compositions including incorporating a polyol polyester into a personal care formulation. The polyol polyester is represented by formula (I): wherein R is an aliphatic alkyl group that does not contain an ether group and has a refractive index of greater than about 1.5 at 25° C. Also described are methods of preparing personal care compositions comprising a first phase and a second phase, wherein the second phase contains any of the polyol polyesters described above.