Cottage Industry Series (Article #2): Need a Recipe for Kissable Lips?

Making Lip Balm

Lip balm is truly one of the easiest and most inexpensive products to create. Once you have created your own homemade lip balm, it is almost impossible to muster up $3.00 for a tube of inferior stuff sold at retail stores. Plus, you can even make special blends with your favorite oils, butters, and other luxurious ingredients. Use seasonal lip balms and unique lip balms for friends and family. Lip balm may be made within 10-15 minutes, and you can easily make enough product to fill 15 or more lip balm tubes for under $3.00!

Making lip balm is almost fool-proof. The great thing about lip balm is that if it turns out too soft, then you can easily re-melt it and add more beeswax, and if it is too hard, then you can re-melt it and add more carrier oil. You really can’t mess up! You can also adjust your recipes with the seasons: harder lip balms are better for the summer, and softer lip balms are better for the fall and wintertime. As a general rule, use 3 parts of carrier oil to 1 part of beeswax (do not include butters in your calculations as they are already solid at room temperature). Add essential oil at your discretion; a good amount is 2 drops of essential oil per ¼ ounce container, but this varies depending upon the essential oil used. Less is always better when it comes to essential oils—you don’t want to create anything that may sting or irritate your lips.

Recipe:

1. Coarsely chop or grate your beeswax (vegans may use carnauba wax as an alternative) and place it in a small pot or glass Pyrex measuring cup, with your butters and carrier oils in the top of a double boiler; melt gently over heated water. Make sure that the water does not boil over into your oil mixture, 1 - 2” of water in the bottom of your pot is enough.

2. Once your beeswax mixture has melted, remove from burner, and add your essential oils. The essential oils will begin to dissipate with the scent, add more as needed.

3. Immediately pour the hot mixture into lip balm containers. If the mixture cools too rapidly while you are pouring, then heat the mixture back up over the double boiler.

4. Allow to cool completely (I usually let the tubes sit overnight) before placing the caps onto your lip balm containers.

Below are some specific recipes for you to play with. Please note that these recipes are completely arbitrary, and the amount and types of oils, butters, essential oils, and other ingredients that you use are completely up to you. Experimenting with a recipe is the most enjoyable part of creation! (It’s a good idea to keep a “recipe notebook” so that you can note adjustments you’ve made to your recipes and ensure you’ll be able to reproduce your ideal product.)

Lemon Coconut Lip Balm

This recipe will fill 8-9 lip balm tubes!

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil

2 Tablespoons Sunflower Oil

1 Tablespoon & 1 teaspoon Beeswax

10 drops Lemon Essential Oil

Peppermint Cocoa Lip Balm

1 Tablespoon Cocoa Butter

2 Tablespoons Sweet Almond Oil

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon & 1 teaspoon Beeswax

5-10 drops Peppermint Essential Oil

Healing Herbal Lip Balm (Unscented)

1 Tablespoon Shea Butter

2 Tablespoons Calendula Infused Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Jojoba Oil

1 Tablespoon & 1 teaspoon Beeswax

5 drops Vitamin E Oil

All-Purpose Lip Balm

This large recipe will make 6 ½ oz, enough to fill 24 ¼ oz lip balm containers!

1 oz Sweet Almond or Apricot Kernel Oil

1 oz Sunflower Oil

1 oz Avocado or Olive Oil

1 oz Shea Butter

1 oz Cocoa Butter

1 ½ oz Beeswax

30-40 drops Essential Oil