DIY: Lip Balm!

It is extremely rare you won't see anything on my lips - lipstick, lipgloss, lip balm, Chapstick, it's never ending. I go through lip products like most people go through underwear. Not only does it get expensive but I refuse to buy products that aren't amazing in some way, shape or form.

I finally needed to take matters into my own hands and make my own lip balm. The process was very easy and so much fun. 

Your shopping list:

• Pure 100% beeswax
• Oil - I used coconut oil, you know how much I love it. Instead of coconut oil you can also use: almond oil, sunflower seed oil, castor oil, shea butter or cocoa butter.
• Essential oils (I made two batches of lip balm, in one of them I used peppermint/chamomile oil and for the other one I used grapefruit oil. Find a scent that works for you - lemon, lime, orange, cinnamon, rose, the list goes on and on).
• Measuring spoons
• Pot and jar for melting and mixing (these two items will be perfect for future lip balm making but will be ruined for anything else).
• Lipstick for tint (This is optional. I used a bit of red lipstick to tint my grapefruit lip balm but didn't use any in my peppermint/chamomile balm).

Now that you have everything you need ready to go, let the fun part begin! Everything I have read says to use a cheese grater to grate the beeswax. I did that for about 30 seconds and stopped. That was hard and not fun at all so I decided to cut it into chunks with a knife. That was also hard and not fun either. Finally I ran the knife under hot water and that made the slicing easier. This worked well for me but if you have the strength and patience feel free to grate away.

You now have your beeswax grated, or chunked, you will want to add it to your small pot (which I didn't have) or glass jar (which I used). You should have one tablespoon and one teaspoon of wax. I, of course, couldn't get an exact measurement being that chunks of beeswax do not measure out perfectly so I estimated. I also tripled the amount of all ingredients so that I could make a ton of lip balm.

 

While the water was on a low boil I placed the glass jar into the pot, making sure the water from the pot didn't get into my jar. This is where you could use a small pot instead of a jar. Be careful the water doesn't get too hot because the glass will break and shatter and you will die. Okay, maybe not die, but you now know that it's dangerous.

Once the wax has started to melt, you want to add the coconut oil. If you used one tablespoon and one teaspoon of wax you will now add one one tablespoon of coconut oil. Again, I tripled this and added three tablespoons of oil.

After the wax and oil have mixed (due to your awesome mixing skills), you will add your essential oil. You will want to add five to ten drops of oil. For the first batch I used about 15 drops of the peppermint/chamomile oil because the peppermint scent is very strong. For that balm I was then finished. I used a pot holder to remove the glass jar and poured my wax into the lip balm containers. You could also use an empty Chapstick tube if you don't want your new balm in a pot.

For the tinted, grapefruit balm I added 30 drops of oil (do I really need to tell you that I tripled the recipe again?). Use a knife and cut off a chunk of lipstick. I used a rich red shade. Feel free to use a crazy color because it will only tint the balm and won't be super dark. After I added the lipstick, I did a quick mix until it was fully melted and poured the glass jar contents into the rest of my containers.

 

Let the balm cool until it's completely hardened. If you are extremely boring, this is your last step. If you are creative and un-boring, the best part is yet to come.

I used gems, clay, buttons, beads and modge podge to decorate the tops of my lip balms. Feel free to use stickers, pictures, ribbon, anything your innovative heart desires and go crazy.

Give them as gifts, sell them or keep them for yourself. But whatever you do, please brag about them! Email me at Sobbingonfifth@gmail.com with pictures of your new lip balm.

Perfectly Glossed Kisses,

Sutton