Handmade
Lip balms are a mixture of soft or liquid oils, solid oils or butters and a wax.
They soothe and moisturize the lips, keep it soft, moist and help with chapping
and dryness. Lip balms protect the skin from extreme environments or weather
changes like wind, snow, cold or the sun. If you are making your own lip balm, you have
many natural choices available. The benefits of using or making your own lip
balms are pretty obvious. Using natural oils or butters with no chemical
ingredients (like mineral oil) are better for the lips and better for the
environment. Since natural lip balms contain no water, preservative is not needed.
Well
made lip balm goes on easily in most temperatures, creates a soft protective
film and goes on evenly without tugging. It should feel soothing without being
sticky, long lasting with a pleasant taste or flavor and of course, hydrates
the lips. Depending on the formula, lip balm can be either matte or shiny. I
prefer not to use hemp seed oil as it has a short shelf life. If you are making
a lip balm just for yourself, then hemp oil is fine.
You
can use soft or liquid oils like olive, coconut, almond, grapeseed, apricot
kernel, castor oil, jojoba oil, soybean, sunflower or avocado oil. Solid oils
or butter that are used in homemade recipes include high degree coconut oil,
cocoa butter, shea butter or mango butter. Most handmade lip balms contain
beeswax as a hardener. If you prefer a vegan version, you can use candelilla or
carnauba wax.
·
Olive
oil is the heaviest oil in lip balms. It can be greasy and feel heavy on the
lips.
·
Avocado
oil is the next heaviest on the list.
·
Castor
oil used in higher amounts creates a shine on the lips. Use this oil if you want
your lip balm glossy. Be aware that castor oil could make the balm sticky.
·
Jojoba
oil is a nice addition to lip balms. Technically it’s not an oil, but a plant
based wax that’s liquid at room temperature. It helps to create an occlusive
layer on the lips to protect them. I use jojoba oil as it gives the final
formula a nice feel.
·
Coconut,
almond, grapeseed, apricot kernel, soy bean or sunflower are lighter weight
oils and make good choices in natural lip balms. They hydrate the lips and do
not feel sticky. These oils do not add shine.
·
Cocoa
butter is a natural botanical vegetable fat. It comes from cocoa beans. Cocoa
butter is harder then shea butter or mango butter. It is a solid at room
temperature, but melts easily with skin contact. It is used in a lot of cosmetic
based products and of course chocolate. It has a pleasant chocolate aroma.
Unrefined cocoa butter smells very sweet and chocolaty. Refined has a milder
scent and flavor. If you are leaving your lip balm unscented, it’s better to
use the unrefined. Refined is better in formulas that have added flavor or
essential oil.
·
Shea
Butter is harvested from the African karite or shea tree. Unrefined can be
beige, yellow, tan or have a light green tinge. Some unrefined shea butter has
a lightly smoky smell, since the crushed nuts are cooked over an open fire. My
preference is refined shea butter as it doesn’t add a smoky scent or color.
Refined shea butter comes from cooking unrefined shea butter with clay.
·
Mango
Butter comes from the natural botanical fat of the fruit of the mango tree. It is
a soft solid at room temperature, but it’s softer then cocoa butter. It melts
with contact on the skin. The scent is very mild and pleasant.
·
Beeswax
adds hardness to the formula so it doesn’t melt in your pocket or purse. For a
vegan version, use Candelilla or carnauba wax.
·
Candelilla
wax is a hard wax that is made from the leaves of the Candelilla shrub. It adds
a nice slip and lubricity to a lip balm formula. Due to its hardness, it’s used
at a lower percentage then beeswax.
·
Carnauba
wax is a hard botanical wax from the leaves of the carnauba palm. Carnauba is
harder then beeswax. It is a natural ingredient that’s used in car polishes as
it helps protect the car’s finish. It is also an ingredient in candy.
You
can leave your lip balm unscented, add a food grade essential oil or a flavor
oil made for lip balms. If you add essential oil, make sure that you purchase
it from a reputable vendor and that it is GRAS (generally recognized as safe).
Not all essential oils are safe to use on the lips as they could be irritating.
They will also be ingested in small amounts. So take that into consideration.
Some citrus oils like orange essential oil are sensitizers in the sun. This
means they can give you sunburn on your lips.
If
you are making just a small batch for yourself, using teaspoons is ok. You
might not be able to replicate what you made each time and that’s fine.
I
prefer to weigh everything. I feel it’s best to weigh all your ingredients so
you can achieve the same exact recipe or formula time after time. Keep good
notes so you can repeat the same thing each and every time.
Here
is a sample formula. Feel free to play around with it until you get the texture
and hardness that you like. The nice thing about this formula that if you don’t
like it once it hardens up, you can gently remelt it and add more liquid oil to
make it softer or add more wax to make it harder.
20%
Beeswax**
25%
solid oil
15%
Butter (Shea, Mango, Cocoa)
40%
liquid oil (Almond, Olive Oil, Avocado, Grapeseed)*
*to
add shine, sub 5% of the liquid oil for castor oil
**
For candelilla or carnauba start with 10% or half of the beeswax since these
are harder waxes
Let’s
convert the % into an actual recipe. Let’s say you want to make 8 ozs. of the
above formula. It would look like this:
1.6
oz. Beeswax
2
oz. Coconut oil
1.2
oz. Mango or Shea butter
3.2
oz. Olive, Almond, Avocado, Apricot Kernel etc.
Add
all the ingredients together. Gently melt on top of the stove, or in a
microwave safe container in the microwave. For the microwave, heat in short
bursts, until almost all of it is melted, then stir the rest of the way. When the ingredients are melted, stir with a
small spoon (NOT plastic). Pour into a clean metal tin, a lip balm container or
a small plastic jar that can withstand heat, or glass jar with a lid. Let
harden at room temperature or carefully place in the refrigerator until the
balm hardens. The final texture might take up to a couple of days, so don’t
judge the lip balm right away.
I
would use about 10 -20 drops of essential or flavor oil if you are adding
flavor. If you are adding an essential or flavor oil, let the lip balm cool slightly;
stir the flavor into it well, then pour into your chosen containers.
Labels: Free lip balm recipe, Handmade Natural Lip Balms, Lip Balm Tutorial
