Homemade soaps, sprays, lotions and now lip balms. One by one, I am crossing store-bought products off my list!
You can create your own silky, non-waxy lip balm with just a few ingredients–beeswax, oil, and flavor oils (if you want a tasty balm!).
A basic homemade lip balm recipe is 1 ounce Beeswax and 1.7 ounces Oil. This amount will give you 3 fluid ounces or 10-12 (.25 oz) tubes of lip balm.
But, you can customize!
Beeswax has a high melting point (144-147F), so it is a great hardening oil to use in balms. The more you use in the ratio, the harder the ending balm will be.
Sweet Almond or Olive Oil are great soft oils to use.
If you reduce the beeswax, add in a hard oil (solid at room temperature).
By adding in Vitamin E, a healing (and preserved) balm is created as well. A capsule (or 1/8th teaspoon) is enough for a recipe.
If you want some fragrance or flavor, add a 1/4 teaspoon of EO or Flavor Oil.
I wanted a softer balm, one that could be put into a tin or jar and smoothed on with my finger. By reducing the Beeswax in the basic recipe to 1/2 ounce, I was able to use a hard oil (Shea Butter) and a smaller amount of soft oil (Sweet Almond).
Melt 1/2 ounce Beeswax and 1.4 ounce Shea Butter in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so until just melted.
Stir in .8 ounce Sweet Almond Oil, 1/4 teaspoon Essential or Flavor Oil (I used Peppermint EO) and 1/8th teaspoon Vitamin E.
Pour into tubes, tins or a jar. I’m recycling baby food jars again! These are 4 ounce jars.
This is a 2 ounce batch of lip balm.
Note: Don’t use flavor oils for food. It beaded up and eventually settled to the bottom.
It didn’t take long, maybe 1/2 hour to an hour, for this jar to harden up and become usable. Tubes and smaller tins will take less time.
This lip balm is silky smooth. My lips are loving me!
Here's the full recipe and printable!
Peppermint Silk Lip Balm
- Time:
- Yield:
- 3 fluid ounces/10-12 tubes
Ingredients
- 1/2 oz Beeswax
- 1.4 oz Shea Butter
- .8 oz Sweet Almond Oil
- 1/8th tsp Vit E oil (T-50) or 1 capsule
- 1/4 tsp Peppermint Oil
Preparation Instructions
- Melt Beeswax and Shea Butter in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so until just melted.
- Stir in Sweet Almond Oil, Peppermint Oil and Vitamin E.
- Pour into tubes, tins or a jar.
Where can we get pure shea butter?
Thanks to cindy for making this tutorial! I’ve long been interested in making my own beauty supplies so I’ll have to try this out soon.
Re:ceedee I’ve seen shea butter in many places like my local grocery and pharmacy, usually in the exotic foods sections.
Amazon.com has it and so does walgreens.com and I also found this site http://www.alaffia.com/store/pc/Shea-Butter-d25.htm
I’ve never ordered from them though so I cant speak as to the quality or anything, but I hope it is useful for you.
I order my oils from soaperschoice.com (in bulk). I’m not sure where to find it locally.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been making my own lip balm for a while. I actually do use flavored oils for cooking. And you’re right. They can bead up. What I do to prevent this is the same thing I do when I make a salad dressing with oil and water based ingredients. I pour into my tubes or jars. Cap them. And then shake shake shake! This helps to emulsify the ingredients. I see some separation in the jars but none in the tubes. In this way, I can share my baking and candy flavors with my lip balm. Saves some money not to have to double up.
try using the 2.5 oz. baby food jars for the 2 oz. lip balm it works great.
I find peppermint to be addictive to the lips. The more you use it, the more you need it. Without it you will have white lips because they suddenly need something to circulate the blood to the lips.