Lip Balm

DIY Shea Butter & Vitamin E Lip Balm

This lip balm recipe is incredibly simple. I usually make my lip balm with a combination of beeswax, coconut oil, and cocoa butter, but wanted to try something a little different.

This recipe uses vitamin E softgels, shea butter, and beeswax. If you want something simpler, you could even substitute the vitamin E for more shea butter or a different type of oil, but I liked wanted it in the recipe since vitamin E is so healing to the skin.

This recipe makes a ton of lip balm- 16 tubes, though making that many tubes is unnecessary if you don’t have that many empty lip balm tubes. Excess can be put into a small container or tin. We have all the ingredients available at the store, including lip balm tubes.

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INGREDIENTS:

1 2oz. bar of beeswax

3 tbs. NOW Foods shea butter

2tsp. vitamin E oil*

40 drops essential oil (I used Simpler’s Botanicals lavender oil)

*Note: I used Solgar’s 400IU vitamin E softgels to make this lipbalm, though we do have liquid vitamin E at the store. It took me 13 softgels to make 2 tsp.


DIRECTIONS:

Assemble all ingredients before starting, and have all the lip balm containers opened and laid out, since the melted mixture needs to be poured before it begins to cool and solidify.

Melt the beeswax in a small pan over medium low heat.

Once the beeswax is almost entirely melted, add the cocoa butter.

When the beeswax and cocoa butter are melted, remove from the heat and add the vitamin E oil and essential oils, stirring until combined.

Pour the mixture into a glass Pyrex measuring container and carefully pour into each of the empty lip balm tubes.

Leave the tubes uncovered until the mixture becomes solid.

If desired, when the lip balm is completely solid, you can turn the lip balm a couple millimeters above the edge of the tube, cutting off the tops with a knife to make a flat top (the tops of the tubes solidify a bit concave in the center).

Holiday Lip Balm with Essential Oils

I am a lip balm fanatic, and love DIY recipes, so this is a great recipe for making a holiday themed lip balm! If you’ve never made lip balm, it’s very simple and economical too- one recipe makes a LOT of lip balm, so it’s perfect for gift giving. We sell all the necessary ingredients and lip balm tubes at the store. You can use your own combinations of essential oils, but one that I really like is with our Christmas Eve essential oil recipe blend.

This recipe made a little over 13 tubes of lip balm.

Ingredients:
1 1oz. bar of beeswax
3 tbs. coconut oil
3 tbs. cocoa butter (or shea butter) 

Essential oils:
25 drops spearmint essential oil
20 drops lavender essential oil
15 drops balsam fir needle essential oil
15 drops vanilla essential oil (optional)

Ingredient note: Previously I’ve used 4 tbs. each of coconut oil and cocoa butter, though I used 3 tbs. this time for a harder, waxier balm.  If you’d prefer a softer lip balm, increase the amounts of coconut and cocoa butter (you may want to add a few extra drops of essential oils as well if increasing the recipe)

Essential oil note: I don't like very strongly flavored/scented lip balms, so if you do you may want to increase the amount of essential oils by a few drops each. 

 

Directions:
For a complete instructional rundown with pictures, see our lavender vanilla lip balm recipe post.

Prepare your ingredients and open all lip balm containers so the liquid beeswax mixture can be quickly poured and easily filled before it starts to harden.

Melt beeswax in a double boiler.  If you don’t have a double boiler (like me!) you can use a small bowl in a pot of water.  Once the beeswax is melted, add the coconut oil and cocoa butter.

Pure cocoa butter is hard, so I found it easiest to scrape the cocoa butter with a spoon in its jar and then pouring the shavings it into my measuring spoon.

Stir ingredients with a metal spoon until melted.

Once all the ingredients are melted, let cool slightly before adding the essential oils.  If desired, you can separate the recipe into halves before adding the essential oils if you’d like to make more than one flavor.

Note: I would advise using a Pyrex or something with a spout to pout the melted mixture.  I tried using pipettes, but found that just pouring the beeswax mixture into the lip balm tubes was the easiest, since the mixture started solidifying in the pipette before I could fill all the containers.

Homemade Lip Balm: Lavender Vanilla and Vanilla Rose

This recipe makes a LOT, and can be easily halved.  It made a total of seven lip balm tubes, seven small lip balm containers, and one full 1 oz jar.  We have all sorts of empty containers available at the store for doing DIY health and beauty.

Ingredients:

1 1oz. bar of beeswax
4 tbs. coconut oil
4 tbs. cocoa butter  
Essential oils 

Directions:

Prepare your ingredients and open all lip balm containers so the liquid beeswax mixture can be quickly poured and easily filled.

Melt beeswax in a double boiler.  If you don’t have a double boiler (like me!) you can use a small bowl in a pot of water.  Once the beeswax is melted, add the coconut oil and cocoa butter.


Pure cocoa butter is hard, so I found it easiest to scrape the cocoa butter with a spoon in its jar and then pouring the shavings it into my measuring spoon.


Stir ingredients with a metal spoon until melted.

Once all the ingredients were melted, I separated the recipe in two halves so I could try two different flavors.  This isn’t necessary, though I’m happy I did.  I would advise using a pyrex or something with a spout.  I tried using pipettes, but found that just pouring the beeswax mixture into the lip balm tubes was the easiest, since the mixture started solidifying in the pipette before I could fill all the containers.

For each recipe half I used the following amounts of oil:

I don't like very strongly flavored/scented lip balms, so if you do you may want to increase the amount of essential oils by a few drops each.

Vanilla Lavender
15 drops NOW vanilla blend
10 drops NOW lavender

Vanilla Rose
15 drops NOW vanilla blend
25 drops NOW rose blend

I wanted to make unique flavors that weren’t commercially available.  I really love them both!

Next time I will try adding lemongrass or bergamot oils, though I would reduce the amount of total drops since the NOW vanilla and rose blends are mixed with a carrier oil, so they isn’t as strong as a pure essential oil.  

I will absolutely be making this recipe again.  I am a lip balm fiend, and go through lip balm very quickly (partially since I’m always forgetting them in my pockets before I put them through the washer/dryer.  I would very much recommend trying it!