How to make your own natural lip balm
- Berry
- Feb 11
- 5 min read
I love lip balm. A nice silky balm that not only protects, but also softens my dry and sometimes cracked lips.
I make a lovely lip balm making kit that I noticed sells a lot over the festive season and all on the run up to mothers day. Making my little lip balm kit a perfect creative gift. But it's also really nice to choose your own ingredients, right?
Like anyone, I have my own favourite oils, waxes and balms. The good news is, many natural raw ingredients are interchangeable!
So let's looks at what you need to make natural lip balms.
Equipment you will need:
a hob or a microwave.
If your using a hob, you'll need a double boiler or make your own double boiler using a pan with a bowl/jug placed over it. You'll heat water in the pan, and your ingredients in the bowl, this is to make sure you ingredients don't overheat. If you use a microwave, a glass or silicone jug works really well.
Scales to measure your ingredients.
Something to stir with, metal or glass is better so it dosen't absorb all of your ingredients.
Lip balm containers. Tins and tubes are great for your lip balms.
Things you should consider are:
How easy are they till fill? While pouring into a tin is pretty easy, pouring into a tube might need more equipment, like a pipette or funnel.
Is my container eco friendly? If you're buying new containers instead of recycling an old container, is it recyclable or biodegradable?
What is my container made of? If you have glass jars for your lip balms, to avoid shattering the glass, you'll need to warm the jar before you pour your hot product into your container.
If you're using Kraft Card tubes, you will need to make a firm lip balm so it doesn't soak through your container.
Now your ingredients.
A basic soft lip balm formula:
6% Wax
50% Butter
45% Carrier Oil
1% Flavour
A basic firm lip balm formula
15% Wax
50% Butter
34% Carrier Oil
1% Flavour
Wax's:
A commonly used wax is Beeswax due to its high melting point and conditioning qualities.
However, I prefer the vegan alternative, Candelilla wax. It has a similar melting point to beeswax, but is plant based and equally as conditioning.
Butters:
There are a lot of butters to choose from, I don't mean the buttery spread from your fridge though, I mean cosmetic grade butters. Here are some popular ones. I personally love avocado butter but it is worth testing different ones to see what suits your skin the best.
-Avocado butter is a super soft butter from avocados. It is rich in Vitamins and has a creamy texture. It is slow to be absorbed into the skin, making it perfect for lip balms.
-Shea butter is a firm better that comes from shea nuts and is high in fatty acids. It is great at helping the skin retain moisture and elasticity. All round fabulous butter for skin care.
-Cocoa butter is from cocoa beans, available with or without its natural scent. It is also firm but has a low melting point. Great on dry or chapped lips. It's also an ingredient in chocolate, whats not to like!
-Mango butter is from mangos! It is similar to Shea butter, but with no traces of nuts. it is an emollient known for its healing and regenerative properties on the skin.
Carrier Oils:
Again, there are so many to choose from, look for cosmetic grade and here are a few of my favourites.
Jojoba is from seeds. It is the closest oil to the skins natural oils, making it the perfect choice for any skin care. It is also packed full of vitamins.
Sunflower is also from seeds. Another rich oil, it's also an emollient, helping to smooth and restore the skin.
Coconut is from coconuts, who would have guessed it. This is a dry oil, meaning it soaks into the skin super quickly, so it hydrates without leaving oily residue on the skin.
Sweet Almond is from nuts. Not ideal if you have a nut allergy, if not, it is packed with vitamin E, which is great for improving fine lines and blemishes.
Caster or glycerine oils are vegetable oils. Both of these are thick and slow to be absorbed and are fantastic conditioners. The best thing about these oils is they give a super glossy shine to your final product.
Flavour!
You can either use concentrated food safe flavourings or certain essential oils.
When using essential oils it is important to make sure your selected oils are safe to use on the skin at the dilution you choose. To find out which are safe to use in lip balms, you'll need to check the products IFRA certificate, category 1 is for lip products.
Recipe for a natural glossy lip balm:
10% Candelilla
50% Avocado/shea butter
13% Sunflower oil
13% Jojoba oil
13% Castor oil
1% Sweet Orange Essential oil or your chosen food safe flavouring
Step One
Using a double boiler to melt your wax and oils (not the flavour) until it is completely liquid.
Step Two
Remove from the heat, add your butter and stir until it's all liquid. You may need to return to the heat a little to completely melt the butter, but be careful not to overheat.
Step Three
Now that your mixture is completely melted, remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool a little, so the liquid becomes slightly opaque. This is the perfect time to add essential oils as flavour, or a little food safe flavouring. Make sure you fully stir it in.
Step Four
Pour your lip balm liquid into your containers.
Step Five
Allow your balms to cool overnight. Its best to allow balms to cool slowly at room temperature to avoid your mixture crystallising and becoming grainy.
OPTIONAL COLOUR:
If you want a lip balm with a POP of colour, you can use an oil based food colouring or cosmetic grade mica powder, I love a sparkly one :)
Little tip for filling lip balm tubes:
Sometimes when lip balm in tubes cools at different rates, it causes a dip in the middle of the lip balm. To avoid getting that little dip, only fill about ¾ of your tubes, allow to cool, the top up with the remaining mixture.
Happy Crafting
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