Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Tutorial: How to make your own Lip Balm

Aside from paper, my other obsession is lip balm. I have one in every room, in each purse and in my car.

About 6 months ago, I ordered some organic beeswax lipbalm from an Etsy store. It soon became my favourite lipbalm and I carried that little pot where ever I went. A few weeks ago, I realized I would soon run out, and contacted the Etsy seller. Her storefront was empty and as I clicked the "send" button on my convo, I remembered she was doing her PhD and was probably not selling on Etsy anymore.

I waited for a reply, but came up with a Plan B just in case.

When a few weeks had passed, I decided Plan B needed to go into action. I became obsessed determined to make my own lipbalm. I had the list of ingredients, it was just a matter of putting them all together.

So to save you from your own "I'm running out of lip balm" emergency, here is how you make beeswax lip balm.


This recipe is from the Methods of Healing website for organic lip balm. I was surprised how easy it was to find all the materials in town.


Ingredients:
Organic Beeswax
Organic Honey
Organic Scented oil (I used peppermint because it's my favourite)
Castor Oil (you could use organic, but I could only find it in a 3 Litre bottle, which was too big, so I used the castor oil from the pharmacy).


Equipment:
medicine droppers (if you're putting the lip balm into tubes),
glass mason jar or glass measuring cup (a makeshift double boiler),
whisk and
your lip balm containers.


I found these containers at an Apothocary in town; you can find them online if you can't find them where you are. I also had 3 empty tubes from lip balm that I had finished. Wash them in hot soapy water, rinse and dry thoroughly.

Recipe:
1 tbsp beeswax
2 tbsp castor oil
1 tsp honey
few drops scented oil (do not use extracts, those are made for cooking)


Step 1:

Prep the beeswax. I could only find organic beeswax in a block, so I grated mine with a cheese grater that will now only be used for beeswax. You can also find beeswax in pellet form, which will eliminate this step.

be careful! we were having spaghetti that night for dinner, and shredded beeswax looks hilariously similar to shredded cheese ;)

Step 2:

Set up your double boiler system. Fill a small saucepan or pot with water and heat. Place your mason jar or glass measuring cup in the water. Add 1 tbsp shredded beeswax and melt.



Step 3:

Add the Castor oil and honey to the melted beeswax. There's a temperature difference so I found some of the beeswax came back to solid form. Keep whisking and heat until melted again and smooth.

Step 4:

When all ingredients are smooth, remove the jar from the heat. Let cool 30 seconds and add your scented oil. Whisk again to ensure the oil is mixed in.

Step 5:

Working quickly, fill your containers. Use the medicine dropper to fill lip balm tubes; I was able to pour the liquid right into the pots with the mason jar.





Step 6:

Cool in the fridge for about 10 minutes or less; you can leave this at room temperature to set, but it might take a little bit longer.

Step 7:

Enjoy your new lip balm!

There are many variations of this recipe, and you can add other scented oils and Vitamin E. The Castor oil provides shine, which is why I chose this recipe. I have purchased other homemade lip balms with other oils and found the balm to be really gritty. This balm is very smooth and keeps your lips soft. It will not protect from sun damage, although I have read online that you can obtain SPF factor and add it.

I found this recipe to be nice and soft, perfect for the lip tubes. I might add a pinch more beeswax when I make it again for the pots to make it a little bit thicker. You can alter the amount of oil and solid (beeswax) until you find a consistency you like.

I now have a hunk of beeswax, so you might find some more tutorials until I use it up ;) Either way...I now have a lifetime supply of lip balm materials.

Ciao for now,

14 comments:

ack! what an incredible tutorial-i just saved it because i definitely must make my own too!!!! thanks so much for sharing this steph!

xoxo
sarabeth
http://www.scraphappie,blogspot.com

Great post!! Can't wait to give it a try!

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! This looks too fun and super easy! Can't wait to try it myself ;o)

Thanks Sarabeth, let me know how it turns out! :)

Thank you! good luck with your lipbalm, let me know how it turns out :)

Thanks Alyssa, it's super super easy!
Next I think I'll try cinnamon!

This is excellent! I have a hunk of beeswax sitting around, I am totally going to try it. Thank you!

Thanks for sharing this great recipe/tutorial! I LOVE it.

Hi,
I found your blog post at Totally Tutorials. This is great; thank you, so much, for sharing it! :-)

I run a charity that sends homebaked cookies to our troops at war, Freedom Cookies, and we are looking for something handmade that we can make and sell to raise money for the charity. We are definately going to try this and see how it works out because beeswax lip balm is my favorite. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the tutorial! This is something I've been wanting to try for a while, and never get around to.

BTW, If you can't find the "official" lip balm containers, the kitchen section at places like Wal-Mart often have tiny "condiment" tins that I had considered using for this.

Thanks for the tutorial! This is something I've been wanting to try for a while, and never get around to.

BTW, If you can't find the "official" lip balm containers, the kitchen section at places like Wal-Mart often have tiny "condiment" tins that I had considered using for this.

Hi,
I found your blog post at Totally Tutorials. This is great; thank you, so much, for sharing it! :-)

ack! what an incredible tutorial-i just saved it because i definitely must make my own too!!!! thanks so much for sharing this steph!

xoxo
sarabeth
http://www.scraphappie,blogspot.com

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