A home-made natural lip balm is a really great place to start if you are interested in making your own skincare. It is simple, affordable, and easily adaptable once you get a sense of what scent and consistency you like to experience in your lip balm.
This recipe is a simple recipe adapted from Wellness Mama (a great blog for getting started on making your own household products).
Here is what you should know about the properties of the ingredients, so in the future you can start to play with the recipe for your own customized blend.
Ingredient Properties:
Beeswax is a "hardener" and emulsifier. It will help to ensure your product stays the same consistency through various temperatures. (think of when you have a lip chap in your pocket for too long and it melts.) Use more or less beeswax to create a harder or softer blend.
Where to buy: we purchase our beeswax from The Hive in Duncan, but you can purchase blocks from local health food stores like Lifestyle Markets. If you happen to know a beekeeper, ask them! They often have extra.
Cocoa Butter is a harder ingredient in the lip balm, which will make the product feel like it has a thicker consistency on your lips. We choose raw undeodorized Cocoa Butter because it is edible and smells like chocolate. Alternatively, you can use Shea Butter, Mango Butter, or other plant-based kinds of butter.
Where to buy: we recommend you buy Cocoa Butter from a health food store like Lifestyle Markets. Look for a Cocoa Butter that is edible, to be sure it hasn't been washed with toxins and bleached. Look for raw undeodorized products to be sure they are as natural as possible.
Coconut Oil is a med-hard plant-based oil that will allow the final product to melt into your lips. Coconut Oil is great because it is anti-bacterial, rich in anti-oxidants, and has strong healing properties. You could substitute a lighter oil such as Avocado oil or Hemp oil, OR use a combination of lighter oils. This will change the consistency of the final product. NOTE: If you use light oil you may need to increase the amount of hard butter or beeswax to make sure the final product isn't too watery.
Where to buy: we recommend you buy virgin organic cold-pressed coconut oil from Ostro Organics or Alpha Health. This is a common product so you could really buy it anywhere. However, find a coconut oil brand you trust as the fair-trade of this precious commodity is important!
How to Make Natural Lip Balm
Equipment:
- 10 lip chap tubes
- Smallmouth funnel
- Chopstick (or long poking stick that will fit through funnel)
- Saucepan
- Oven mitt
- Wax paper
Ingredients:
- 1.5 Tbsp (14-15g) Beeswax (grated)
- 3 Tbsp (21g) Cocoa Butter
- 3 Tbsp Coconut Oil - melted
- 20 Drops Essential Oil
Instructions:
- Put 2 inches of water in a small saucepan and turn on medium-high heat.
- Heat beeswax, coconut oil and cocoa butter to liquid state by placing the glass jar provided into the small saucepan with water. You can leave the lid on. Make sure not to get any water in the jar!
- Wait until all ingredients are melted to be one liquid state (resembling a golden liquid color)
- Turn off heat… but leave jar in the water to keep warm.
- Add the essential oils.
- Carefully, use an oven mitt to pour the liquid mixture into the lip balm containers using a funnel.
NOTE: do this on top of wax paper as it is challenging to pour into the stand-alone containers!
- IF the mixture hardens in the glass jar just place back in the double boiler and heat until it is liquid again.
- The mixture will settle slightly as it cools… I tend to top-up the lip chap containers after about 2 minutes as they start to harden to avoid the concave appearance of the final product.
- Let sit without touching for several hours or until completely hardened. Or place in the fridge - be careful not to spill!
- Will fill approximately 10 tubes
- Store in a cool dry place (they will last for at least a year if stored correctly).
- Enjoy!
Customization:
1. If you want the product to be smoother or softer then add another 1/4 - 1/2 Tbsp coconut oil to the mixture prior to making
2. Add 1/4 tsp turmeric or rose powder for a tint.
Want to make it?
We have put together do-it-youself kits for $25 that you can make 10 of your own lib balms. The kit includes
- Your ingredients
- Your packaging and labelling
- Your instructions!
Don't want to make it?
We partner and sell Whiffcraft Lip Balm and Deodorants at Miiko Skin Co! Whiffcraft is a local skincare company who excells in developing unique and drool-worthy scents using 100% organic essential oils.