I spend way too much money on fancy all-natural lip balms! I am known for having one in every pocket of every coat I own, I’m lost without it. So you can see how happy I was when I found out that I could make my own DIY lip balm. Making homemade lip balm is really rewarding, it makes great gifts and you can trust that this lip balm recipe isn’t full of harmful chemicals.
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I was inspired to make this DIY lip balm after receiving a Herbal Academy Deluxe Herbal Starter Kit as a gift from my husband. The kit was packed with tons of great stuff including beautiful, organically grown dried herbs, natural beeswax, and a stack of gorgeous recipe cards. In fact, this recipe was inspired by the Herbal Infused Lip Balm recipe that came in the kit. To learn more about The Herbal Academy see the link below:
How to Make Lip Balm:
Making your own DIY lip balm is easy! It only takes a few supplies and you can customize the recipe to suit your own tastes! The base ingredients for any lip balm are just oil and wax, but many mass-produced lip balms are made with nasty ingredients like GMO Soy, Parabens, and Mineral Oils. I’m working hard to reduce environmental toxins in my life so ingredients like this are out for me!
For this homemade lip balm, I chose to make herb-infused olive oil for my base oil. This is simple to do, but it does add another step to the recipe. You can skip this step, but I think it’s worth doing because herb infused olive oil adds another dimension of healing to this homemade lip balm. The mint is cooling and soothing on dry lips and the lemon balm is healing and acts as an antiviral to help ward off germs and prevent cold sores (if you’re prone to them). So, although it’s an extra step, again I think it’s worth it.
How to Make Herb-Infused Olive Oil for the Lip Balm Recipe (the “quick method”):
- 1/2 cups olive oil
- 1/8 cup dried peppermint
- 1/8 cup dried lemon balm
In a double boiler add the olive oil and herbs and keep on a low heat for 4-5 hours, ensuring to keep the oil temperature under 120 deg F, this helps keep the integrity of the herbs.
Once your olive oil is lovely and fragrant, strain out the herbs and set the oils aside. The oil will soon become the base of your lip balm recipe.
Homemade Lip Balm Recipe:
Finally, it’s time to gather your ingredients and get on to the DIY lip balm recipe! Below are the supplies and ingredients that you will need:
- 1/2 cup olive oil (I recommend using the herb-infused olive oil from the method above)
- 1/2 oz beeswax ( have a little extra nearby if you like a thicker lip balm.)
- 5 tbsp beet powder (OPTIONAL: you’ll end up using 3-5 tbsp depending on the level of color you like)
- 5 drops Carrot seed oil (this adds a bit of natural sun protection for your lips)
- 10 drops Peppermint essential oil (classic, cooling effect and flavor)
- 5 drops Rosemary essential oil (mimics the classic “Burt’s” flavor that everyone loves)
Supplies for Homemade Lip Balm:
- stovetop or burner
- 2 small old saucepans (to create a double boiler )
- spoon
- fine sieve
- Pipette
- 20-25 lip balm containers (0.15 oz size)
In your double boiler, warm the olive oil and beeswax on low until fully melted. Add essential oils and turn the heat down to as low as possible. Allow the melted lip balm mixture to stay warm on the stove for 5-10 mins while you set up your tubes.
OPTIONAL BUT FUN: How to Make Tinted Lip Balm
I decided to add a little flare by making a tinted lip balm. I used beet powder to tint the base lip balm recipe. I found that the beet powder added a sweet flavor as well as soft, natural color to the tinted lip balm recipe. I am really happy with the result.
Beetroot powder can be found at most health food shops or online. It is great for using as a natural colorant or adding to smoothies for a deep earthy and slightly sweet flavor.
To make tinted lip balm simply add 4-5 tablespoon of beet powder to your warm lip balm recipe from above, allow it to stay warm in the double boiler for 5-10 mins, then strain with your fine sieve, to filter out any large beet partials.
This tinted lip balm will have a transparent, glossy, merlot color to it. It’s defiantly more of a tinted lip gloss than a true lipstick, which is what I wanted. 🙂
How to Package Your Homemade Lip Balm
When it comes to packaging your homemade lip balm, you have a few options. I had some .5 oz tins on hand, which I considered using, but I knew that I was going to tint this homemade lip balm, so I didn’t want the hassle of dealing with getting tinted lip balm on my finger and having to find somewhere to wipe it off every time 🙁 They work great for an untinted lip balm recipe.
I had seen these gorgeous paper tube all over Instagram and I really wanted to use them. I am trying to drastically reduce my plastic consumption and I thought these would be a great alternative, but I just couldn’t find them locally or on amazon.ca 🙁
*But lucky for my American friends they are available on amazon.com, you can buy them here.
I opted for clear plastic lip balm tubes, they were affordable, BPA free and easy to find on amazon.ca. They do the trick, they are easy to fill and affordable enough to give them away as gifts. But I will definitely try to source some paper tubes in the future!
OH YEAH! How Do You Actually Fill the Lip Balm Tubes???
I used a simple plastic pipette to fill the tubes. Simply suck up some of the warm liquid lip balm into the pipette and quickly fill the lip balm tube to the top. You will need to work quickly for this process, but it is the easiest, no mess method that I have found.
Store your homemade lip balm as usual, in a cool place, out of direct sunlight. Remember, it’s really just oil and wax so it will melt in the hot car… trust me 🙁
So that’s it for now, if you liked that article you might love my Rustic Bath Salt Recipe here or my Fresh Flower Herbal Tea Recipe here.
Thanks for hanging out!
Jana
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