Homemade Lip Balm: Cheap and Yummy

I finally made the leap. It has been awhile, but this post is Going Green: Quick Tip #4. (See #1, #2, #3) And it was quick... and so much easier than I expected.

I actually bought the ingredients to make my own lip balm a while back, but I was reticent to actually try it. I had it in my mind that it would be complicated... well, it was not at all. I used 3 ingredients bought from Mountain Rose Herbs, but they can easily be grabbed from your local co-op or natural market.

I used sweet almond oil, beeswax and flavored with a few drops of spearmint essential oil. (The jojoba oil was there because I thought I might use it, but I did not.) I figured the cost to produce each tube was around 75¢, wayyyyy cheaper than the $4 a tube I pay for Burts Bees. (And that even accounts for the 28¢ I had to pay for each plastic tube, which I can now reuse.

I am not really going to put a recipe here as you can Google about a million of them on your own... and I really did not use a recipe as it done kind of like I cook... no real measurements.

I simple added 1 ounce of the beeswax (that little bar in the photo) to my double boiler. As it was melting I added 6 tablespoons of the almond oil. I heated it on a very low heat and stirred it constantly.

When it was all melted I added about 10 drops of my spearmint and stirred. I used a funnel to pour some into one of my tubes. It hardened pretty quickly so Ariana and myself tried the finished product. It was too hard for our liking so we added 2 more tablespoons of the oil to the double boiler.

After that addition, the balm had a nice soft, smooth texture which Ariana and I both liked. We then continued on and poured the mixture into the 10 tubes that I had. I had made some pretty generic labels on my printer to put on the tubes. I only wanted labels in case these made it outside my house, anyone using it would be aware of the ingredients.

I would absolutely call this project a success. Now that I know my own recipes, I can make 10 tubes in under 10 minutes. I can add some different flavors if I want and maybe even make  a few as Christmas gifts. The only thing I will do different is add vitamin E  oil to the next batch. Vitamin E will help to keep the balm so it will not go rancid. Although I am not too concerned about my balm going bad as I go through it so quickly.

You would also want to be careful in the heat as natural lip balm does not have the stabilizers to keep it from melting, so it may melt in your pocket or a warm car quicker than your Chapstick.

I am a convert... homemade lip balm all the way. Cheap, easy and I can name all 3 ingredients with ease. (Oh, and a BTW... it can also be used on cuticles or other rough patches of skin. I even rubbed some on my healing tattoo as I had a bit left in the double boiler... and it left my skin so smooth.)