DIY Lip Balm
Caring for our lips is an important part of our skin care routine. Dry, cracked lips are not fun and with a bit of simple care we can protect, soothe and keep them hydrated.
Lip Balm - an anhydrous (oil based) balm or salve is super easy to make and a little goes a long way. Because a lip balm is anhydrous and contains no water a preservative is not needed. However, an antioxidant is highly recommended to protect the oils from oxidation. Vitamin E mixed tocopherols antioxidant is very popular, or Rosemary Antioxidant is a great choice too. All you need for a lip balm is a liquid vegetable oil, a vegetable butter and some wax. Let's have a look at the different ingredients we can select for our own customized lip balm.
OILS
The main part of the lip balm (70-80%) will be a liquid vegetable oil. Some of our favourites are Jojoba oil, Almond oil, Sunflower oil, Hemp seed oil, Avocado oil, and a small amount of Castor oil for gloss (3-5%) Select your oil for the different properties and vitamins it has for your needs. Shop Our Collection Of Oils.
BUTTERS
The next ingredient to consider is a vegetable butter. This will make up 5-10% of your lip balm. Some of our favourites are Shea butter, Cocoa butter and Mango butter. These butters all have incredible properties and take your lip balm to the next level. We have a large range of butters to look at, some are quite exotic with amazing skin benefits. Explore Our Butters Collection Here
WAXES
Lastly but most importantly we select our wax, this is what hardens and sets our lip balm. Beeswax is the most used and if choosing this wax, usage rates will be around 18-22%. If you live in a hotter climate – add more wax! Colder climate – use less wax! If you want to make a vegan lip balm, we have plenty of different vegetable waxes to use. We like Candelilla, Rice bran and Sunflower wax. We also have a brand-new wax called ‘Veewax’ which is a natural vegan alternative to Beeswax. The vegan waxes will have different usage rates to Beeswax so check what that is before writing your formulation. Shop Our Collection Of Waxes
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
Its lots of fun to flavour a lip balm, it does go on our lips so we will get to taste it! We have a big range of organic lip balm flavours, which are used at 1-5% in the total recipe. Some essential oils can be used but be sure to check if they are safe first. Orange or peppermint EO are lovely choices, and 1-2% usage rate is ideal. Shop Our Collection of Flavours or Essential Oils
You might like to tint your lip balm with Mica- choose from the gorgeous pinks, reds and oranges. Purples, blues and greens are not lip safe so please stay away from those colours. Oxides can be used too; these provide a stronger matte colour but that is also crossing over into lipstick land! Shop Our Colllection Of Colours
A BASIC RECIPE
Always experiment first to get the correct hardness, perhaps with a 50gm batch to make sure you are happy with it before using larger amounts of ingredients. Remember if you choose a different wax the percentage will be different. Here's a simple recipe to start with Basic Lip Balm Recipe.
Here are some of our other Lip Balm Recipes here.
Or just want to dip your toes? Check our our Make Your Own Lip Balm Kit.
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