In the end, I just went with the old design, but edited in a way that is more 'workable' and dusty, that looks like it lives in a cold environment.
The dust mob's tail is modified into separate dust clouds that follows the actual mob around, so that it would make it easier to animate since it doesn't have to have a constant volume like the genie tail, it used to have. Also, there are now ice pricks all over the back of the dust mob. I added in a mask as advised by Phil and Ian, our client.
The above design has also been approved by the client. So design wise, proceedings has finally gone smoother...