...And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good...
-Genesis 1:11-12

Friday, April 29, 2011

Lip Balm



Hey y'all! So I just finished making my own all natural, mostly organic lip balm, and I filmed the whole thing so I could take y'all through the whole process with me and it took me like an hour. I was editing it all together and I realized that I had not hit the record button on the *most* essential part of the whole blamed thing, namely melting everything, putting all the ingredients together, and such, so the video is really no good now. All that time gone down the drain! *sniff* but anyway, the lip balm turned out really great, and I'll put up the recipe and everything, and even though I didn't take pictures I'll try to walk you through it as best as I can!

On other news,
I just place and order at Mountain Rose Herbs last night for more beeswax and containers, so I'll be doing it again soon, and I'll also be making my own Injur-heal salve!! Very excited about that! If you'd like to make some too, MRH is having a 20% off sale of their herbal oil sampler which includes 3 - 1/2 ounce bottles of St John's Wort Oil, organic Calendula Oil and Injur-Heal Oil, which are all highly valued herbs and oils for healing injuries, bruises and such! http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/specials/specials.php but it's the April special, so it's only until tomorrow! Injur-heal oil is the one I'm most excited about, it has st. john's wort, calendula, arnica (nearly a miracle cure for bruises!) olive oil and lavender oil! All incredible oils and herbs for healing! The white lip balm tubes are also on sale, so if you want to try your own lip balm, you should totally go for it!

But anyway, I got rather side-tracked from the lip balm! I rather mixed two recipes, One from my all-time favorite herbal/natural living book "Better Basics for the Home" and one from "The riches and Treasures of home" Which is an incredible book, and is also filled with many lovely natural recipes!



I won't lie, this is a labor intensive process, and you have to have dedicated tools for melting the beeswax, but I thought it was a lot of fun, and completely worth the time!

What you'll need to make your own lip balm:
Beeswax
Oil (any cosmetic or food grade oil should work, I used Sweet Almond Oil and Coconut Oil)
Cocoa butter (optional, but recommended!)
Containers to put lip balm in. You'll need quite a few. I had 2 half ounce tins, and 1 lip balm tube, and I still had a LOT left over that I put in a glass jar. I would suggest at least 5 tubes for this recipe, or 2-3 tubes and 2-3 tins.
Oils for flavoring. I used natural flavoring oils for mine, but I think I would use essential oil next time.
A saucepan for melting, one that you *ARE NOT GOING TO USE FOR COOKING* afterward. In my video I explained this all to you, and showed you how I did it, but alas....
You cannot use any untensels you use with beeswax for any other purpose afterward, they will be your beeswax-only tools! I took two spoons that we don't use any more, and bought a 10 dollar stainless steel saucepan. I would recommend only using stainless steal. I've heard that aluminum is not a good choice, and nonstick in never healthy!
Lots of paper towels!

If you are wondering what a double boiler is - you take a sauce pan that is larger than the one you will use to actually melt the wax in, fill it half full with water and boil. Place your beeswax-dedicated pan on top (it should be about 1 quart smaller) and place your wax and oil until liquid!

Better Basics Basic Lip Balm Recipe

2 ounces oil or 1 ounce oil and 1 ounce Cocoa butter (2 tablespoons in 1 ounce)
1/4 to 1/2 an ounce beeswax
1 teaspoon honey or glycerin.
Natural Flavoring oil

Combine oil and beeswax in a double boiler over medium heat and cook until melted. Add beeswax and stir or beat until creamy. Add flavoring oil and stir. Pour or scoop into containers.

Riches and Treasures of Home Luxurious Lip Treatment

1/4 cup cocoa butter
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 almond oil
1 tablespoon honey

2 ounces pure beeswax
1 1/2 tablespoons peppermint or vanilla extract

Follow same instructions as above.


As you can see the Luxurious Lips recipe is quite a bit larger in quantity, but not all that different in recipe. If you are making lip balm for gifts, I'd use that recipe!

I've been using Burts Bees lip balm for a while now and I love it. The peppermint stuff I made isn't quite up to par, so I'll have to try better next time, but I really am pleased with the coconut lip balm! I think the bix difference is I put too much beeswax in mine, so it's a lot stiffer than I wanted, and I think burt's bees actually uses peppermint oil instead of peppermint extract. So I'm going to do it a bit differently next time, and I think it will turn out great!!!!
I used two half ounce tins and a regular sized lip balm tube, and I still had enough left over to fill this large jar.


I bought all of my beeswax, containers and cocoa butter at Mountain Rose Herbs. The oils I bought at my local health food store, and the honey found at the grocery store!

Okay, so I really need to go clean house and get ready for family movie night. Have a fantastic weekend folks!!!!

~Elissa

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