When you make your own lip balm, there’s a secret to making it turn out right. In a way it’s similar to making a candy called, divinity. The divinity recipe is very simple, but there’s a secret to making it turn out right. Otherwise, you end up with a sticky mess. The same holds true with lip balm except instead of sticky, it might turn into a greasy goop that disappears off your lips with the first lick or it might separate and look really ugly. If you make your lip balm the way we direct, you will be pleased with the end result and will produce a unique and wonderful creation for yourself and or your friends.
Materials to make your own lip balm:
- Beaker or Pyrex measuring cup (Never use metal when you make lip balm).
- Pipette – this is optional, but we like to use pipettes because they offer a nice clean pour. (Use only 1 pipette per essential oil to avoid cross contamination.)
- Eye dropper
- Small containers with lids – The recipe below makes roughly 2 ounces or 11 teaspoons or 55 ml. of lip balm.The number of containers you need will depend on how much each container holds. Containers come in tubes, tins, and jars of various sizes. We recommend using containers no larger than 1/3 ounce or 10 ml.
- Pan for boiling water – This should be a good sized pan.
- Beeswax granules or block – granules are easier to measure and work with than blocks.
- Essential oil – Orange oil, Spearmint, Peppermint, or Wintergreen. There are others you can try, but for your first batch pick out one of the above.
- Almond oil – Almond oil is liquid at room temperature. In other recipes that call for coconut oil which
is solid at room temperature or cocoa butter that is brittle at room temperature, the amount of oil will change. Check out the table at the end of the ingredient list for right ratio of these oils to beeswax when you make your own lip balm.
There are a number of places where you can purchase all the materials you need.
To make your own lip balm, here’s a basic recipe to get you started:
Note: To be more precise, use ml measurement.
- 2.5 tsp beeswax (13 ml)
- 7 tsp almond oil (35 ml)
- 1 tsp honey (5 ml)
- 5 drops of essential oil
This table represents the concentration of oils by weight to make your own lip balm.
| Concentration By Weight | Cosmetic Grade Oils at Room Temperature and Beeswax |
| 40% | Liquid-such as almond, apricot, olive |
| 25% | Solid-such as coconut, lanolin |
| 15% | Brittle-such as cocoa butter, palm |
| 20% | Beeswax |
Steps to success:
- Sterilize your lip balm containers by wiping them down with rubbing alcohol. We don’t want buggies in the balm.
- Put glass measuring cup or beaker in a pan of water on the stove and heat over low heat. Do not add so much water that the beaker or measuring cup tends to float.
- Add beeswax to your cup and melt. Then add the almond oil. (Note: if you see water condensing in your cup, wipe it off the sides with a paper towel before adding the almond oil. This is important.) The mixture will re-solidify when you add the oil, but will soon melt.
- Once the oil and beeswax are combined, whisk in the honey. If you don’t whisk the honey, it will separate as the mixture cools and that’s not a good thing.
- If your mixture is a little too oily for your taste, melt a little more beeswax with it. If it’s too dry, add a 4 or 5 drops of oil. Be sure and whisk well or mixture may separate.
- Now remove your mixture from heat, stir in your essential oil, and use your pipette or pour your mixture quickly into your containers. Don’t let the mixture cool or it may start to separate or solidify. (Note: You can also add the contents of a vitamin E capsule as a preservative.)
- Once poured into containers let cool thoroughly and cap.
Congratulations!! You now know how to make your own lip balm.
Now go have fun and relax.
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