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- How to Make Lip Balm for $0.60...
When I first learned how to make lip balm, I was immediately surprised at how easy it actually was. I pictured someone in a lab coat concocting a magic potion of sorts for chapped lips.
First of all, I’m one of those people who carries a tube of lip balm on me everywhere I go. It’s a habit I picked up in the third grade and just never let it go. So I couldn’t imagine that something so constant and necessary in my life could be so… simple.
In fact, I could make DIY lip balm with as few as two ingredients!
So when I realize how simple it is, what do I do? I make a whole year’s worth of homemade lip balm at once, of course!
I gave up conventional lip balm years ago when I started switching over to more natural products. I’ve been opting for the chic organic stuff with pretty pictures and feel-good promises on the label.
But who am I kidding? That stuff is not cheap!
And considering how much lip balm I go through (did I mention my daughter loves it too? I’m telling myself the habit is genetic), price is a factor. The good news is homemade lip balm is quite wallet-friendly.
When I added up the amount of each ingredient I used to make this lip balm recipe, it worked out to as little as 60 cents a tube (depending on whether you use essential oils or powder for tinting). If you buy your ingredients in bulk, it can be even less!
My Tips for How to Make Lip Balm
Maybe it’s just me – but I don’t like to apply homemade lip balm with my fingers. They invented those handy little tubes for a reason! So if you’re like me, grab yourself a handful of empty lip balm tubes before you get started. I ordered a pack of 25 (which was just about right for this recipe). The more you order, the cheaper they get.
The next handy gadget I highly recommend for this lip balm recipe project is a little stainless steel funnel – this little baby will make the whole job much easier. I tried a dropper and boy did that thing clog up fast! I will go with the funnel from now on. If any of the liquid hardens and starts to clog up the funnel, you can easily use a toothpick to fix that (trust me, that doesn’t work with a dropper!).
If you want to have some fun, add a little natural color to your DIY lip balm! I used beet root powder and hibiscus powder to color my homemade lip balm. Use about 1 1/2 teaspoons of powder if you want to color this whole recipe.
Of course I had fun and added some of my favorite essential oils for scent and therapeutic benefits! My favorite was lavender, which supports healthy skin and is great if your lips tend to get cracked or dry.
Some ideas for adding essential oils to your lip balm recipe are:
- Orange and cinnamon
- Grapefruit and lime
- Ylang-ylang and geranium
- Peppermint and lavender
(Careful wearing citrus lip balms in the sun – citrus oils can cause photosensitivity.)
NOTE: I ONLY recommend high-quality essential oils to add a nice scent (and therapeutic benefits) to your DIY lip balm. Remember, some of what goes on your lips ends up in your mouth! That is NOT the place for artificial fragrances and flavors.
Here’s where I get my essential oils.
How to Make Lip Balm (Recipe)
makes about 25 tubes (adjust recipe if you want to make more or less)
Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons organic coconut oil (olive oil or shea butter are also good choices)
- 2 tablespoons beeswax granules
- 1 1/2 teaspoons organic beet root powder or hibiscus powder** for tint (optional)
- 30 drops of your favorite essential oils (optional) – here’s where I order my essential oils
Directions:
- Melt the coconut oil and beeswax in a double boiler over medium heat, stirring often until it’s all the way melted.
- Add essentials oils and tint powder (if desired).
- Carefully (i.e. slowly!) pour a small amount of the liquid into each tube. The mixture can harden quickly, so don’t be too slow about it.
- Let cool for about an hour and then use as you would regular lip balm!
** PEANUT ALLERGY WARNING: Those with severe peanut allergies should not use hibiscus. Please use caution.
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- DIY Hand Scrub Recipe
- DIY Coffee Body Scrub for Luscious Legs
I hope you enjoyed learning how to make lip balm!
What is your favorite essential oil combo for lip balm? Do you use tint or not? Tell me about your homemade lip balm in the comments!
Ready to learn more about essential oils? Start my FREE SUPER SIMPLE 9-STEP EMAIL COURSE to start learning – without all the stress! I focus on the absolute essentials (pun totally intended, haha) and keep everything simple. That way you can learn what you need without information overload! Start my free course now.
I have made lip balm but not sure about one thing.
I used watermelon flavoring and also tried essential oil.
Someone said not to use essential oils. Is it ok to use flavoring, I bought it where I get essential oils, they aid its for lip balm. Could you use flavors you use for cakes or in baking?
Thanks.
I’m sure you can, but I don’t personally recommend it because flavorings are usually full of artificial ingredients. I use high quality essential oils that are safe for using in a recipe like this.
What types of fragrance oils can you use in lip balms? I also make soy candles so can I use those fragrance oils in the balms?
I would definitely avoid fragrance oils in lip balms – simply because of the chance of eating artificial fragrances. I prefer to use small amounts of high quality essential oils.
I like to use a small amount of vanilla extract in my lip balm concoctions. It smells divine and tastes pretty good, too! Also for badly cracked lips which I am prone to I add a small amount of calendula infused oil to the mix, very healing for sore skin.
Love those ideas!
I love the smell of Almond… can Almond Extract be used? Can’t wait to try this recipe and give these out to family/friends as gifts!! This is only fueling my arts & crafts passion and chap stick addiction (seems like the perfect storm) :o) thank you!!
I’d be concerned the liquid almond extract won’t blend and emulsify with the oils.
Wouldn’t almond extract work the same as the vanilla extract someone mentioned above?
It might with a very small amount. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t guarantee it.
I live on lip balm also, lol. I’m wondering about the melting point, as coconut oil gets soft at room temp. If I carry this in my pocket will it melt all over my jeans?
The beeswax will prevent it from melting – even if you make it with olive oil, it won’t melt in your pocket. 🙂
This is a great tutorial, and has really spurred me to decide to make lip balm. I checked out the amazon link you provided for the lip balm containers, and I think this is a project I must do soon!
Awesome! Let me know how it goes. 🙂
I love making chapsticks & used hibiscus powder recently, but it turned out more grainy and the tint didn’t seem to transfer to the skin well. Is there something I could be doing wrong maybe during the process or is there a brand that you recommend for best results?
I didn’t use much powder, and the one I used was very fine, so I didn’t have any trouble with a grainy texture fortunately.
I purchased the hibiscus powder you recommended and it was too grainy to incorporate into the lip balm. 🙁
So sorry about that! I’m not sure what went wrong.
I infuse my colorants in the oils I’m going to use so i don’t in the risk of grainy lip balm ?
That’s a good alternative!
Put the powder into a food processor or a coffee grinder and grind into a finer powder. This is what I do and it works great.
THANK YOU!
My friends and I found a way around the hibiscus powder not dissolving and thoroughly mixing. We put the tint powder in a disposable tea filter. Once the oils were melted, we let the tea filter sit in the pot for a few minutes while continuously stirring over the double boiler. We left the filter in until we got the color we were looking for. Loved the final product! Will definitely make it again.
Could I use flower essence flavoring? I believe it is a special processing in which they are able to capture the flavor without any additives.
That might work – depends on whether they’re oil soluble.
Love ur page
Excited about my chapstick I made tonight with wintergreen and lavender! Smells so great!
So glad you like the recipe, Heather! 😀
Be very careful with wintergreen. It’s primarily methyl salicylate and can be poisonous in relatively small quantities in smaller children. Robert Tisserand recommends no more than 1% maximum solution for this oil as a topical product like lip balm. This recipe is about 8 tbsp, should be 120 ml or so. I prefer recipes that use weight as they’re more consistent but at 120 ml, that would be no more than 24 drops of wintergreen. At the recommended 30 drops total in this recipe you should be ok since some will be lavender, but anyone who should be avoiding aspirin for any reason should not use this particular lip balm. (Essential Oil Safety, Tisserand and Young, pp 469-470).
Are there any substitutions I could use for beeswax? My husband is allergic to almost anything related to bees!
I would google “beeswax alternative” – I haven’t done a lot of research in this area, but I think there are some other options.
I use candelilla wax. It’s vegan.
I would think you should be able to use cocoa butter as it has an even higher melting point than beeswax. Plus – it smells divine 🙂
I’d also love to know about a beeswax alternative for a vegan option. Thank you!
A beeswax alternative would be carnauba wax, which is from a palm tree.
Soy wax works in place of beewax
You can use candililla wax at 80% by weight in place of beeswax in any lip balm recipe. Seems to be a tad shinier, not a bad thing unless you’re making it for a guy; most of my guy friends prefer a more matte formula.
I’ve made a similar recipe before, and I added a little honey (good for skin overall) and a little Vit. E oil. I love how easy it is to make lip balm! Never tried the color tint though. Will next time!
Hi I am looking to get a wonderful brownish tint like Burts Bee’s Cocao which they have discontinued. what would you suggest kind regards jennifer Really looking forward to doing this.
I’ve read of using cocoa powder for these types of recipes, so a combination of that and maybe a little beet root right do the trick.
I am not sure how old this posting is but with lip balms I put a few chips of semi sweet chocolate chips in mine and it was nice and turned the balm a beautiful rich chocolate color and smelled amazing. not sure if it transfers to your lips as brown except when my grandson got carried away with it but it does work well. the 70% chocolate bars work too if you crack a few pieces off 🙂
Great tips, thank Elizabeth Walling!
ho! I’m so excited for my ingredients to come and get to making these! I’m just wondering though if adding 1 or 2 drops of oil to each tube prior to adding the mixture would have the same outcome? I’d like to get multiple flavors out of one batch. Thank you!
Candace, that’s a good idea! It might work – I’m note sure the EOs will mix completely, but they might.
Well, I have an update 🙂 I made 5 different flavors from one batch! The oils blended wonderfully, I’m so happy! I did come up 9 tubes short though. Would you happen to know how many grams of co and wax it is? I buy my wax in bricks, so it’s hard to get an exact meurement. Thank you!
Awesome, so glad it worked well! Sorry, I don’t know the grams off the top of my head. I actually ended up with a wee bit too much and ended up with a little jar of “balm” that I use to soften my feet and elbows! 😉
Hey, just wondering, did you add the oils to the tubes before or after you had dumped the wax in them? I am wanting make multiple flavors and am not sure how to do it! Thank you!
Question, I just did this cause I was REALLY bored*, but can you just use straight up coconut oil?
*And lazy…
No, the coconut oil will melt very fast, especially if it’s hot where you live. Also, when you touch it to your lips it will just melt all over you. Hope this is helpful! ?
Could I use tins instead of tubes for the lip balm?
Yes, that would definitely work!
I use about a quarter of a crayon to add color to my lip sticks and lip balm. I have been using them since the last 6 months or so and haven’t faced any issues till date. Earlier I would suffer from dryness and peeling lips when I would switch to a certain brand of lip balm.
By using crayons you can have so many different shades of lipsticks/lip balms. 🙂
Hi
I would like to buy labels for the lip balm tubes. Once thast will print and stick well. Do you know which brand and where I can buy them?
Thank you.
Avery has a great assortment of labels that work great. I use round for my 2oz tins. They also have a free website for designing your labels. The website is listed on the label package. You can buy them almost anywhere. I get mine a Walmart or amazon
Vistaprint is where I buy mine
When I make mine I pack it full of vitamins. Vitamin E oil and Shea Butter along with some cocoa butter. All of which are also organic. Once I started making my own I can no longer stand store bought!
Hi,
My name is Viviane and I’d like to know if anyone is willing to share their recipe for an organic and vegan friendly lip balm recipe? Also could you tell me what product is good colouring without feeling grainy? Oh one more inquiry ,,,, when using essential oils, does it have to be used with vitamins E oil? Th mas for helping me out.
To make it vegan you can use candelilla wax at 80% of the weight. Soy wax also works well, and can be used in equal amounts. As far as colorings go, you can use mica powder, beetroot powder, hibiscus powder, and cacao powder. Beetroot will give you red, hibiscus pink-red, cacao brown, and mica has a wide range of color options. Also, mica powder will add a slight shimmer to your lip balm. You don’t have to use vitamin E oil, but it is good for your lips, and leps add moisture to your lips.
Hi.
This is a very explanatory recipe. Thanks for sharing it.
I want to ask about the beet root powder, I cannot find it easily in my country but we have beet roots. Someone suggested to me that i grate the beet root, and add the juice to the recipe. Do you think this can work as well as the powder?
It may work, but I would worry that the liquid ingredient wouldn’t mix with the oils. You may be able to infuse the color into the recipe by finely soaking thin slices of beet root in the oil (while it’s warm so it won’t solidify), but I haven’t tried that personally.
Dehydrate your beet root and then grind it into powder. I have done this when I cannot find beet root powder. You can store the powder in an airtight container for quite a while. My last batch lasted for 5 months before I ran out. Hope this helps.
Hi, I’m looking to making this, minus the coloring and essential oils ( just the beeswax and coconut oil). I’m wondering, just how long will this last? As in, does it have a shelf life? Will it go rancid if I don’t use it up within a certain time? Thanks!
Both beeswax and coconut oil have a very long shelf life (more than one year), these lip balms will stay fresh for a long time.
Great article Elizabeth, I’ll share this with my girlfriend.
I absolutely love this idea and will definitely be using the recipe for my daughter and I.. As well as for Christmas presents this year. How special to receive a couple of these handmade gifts! Thank you for sharing! I’ll let everyone know how it goes!
I have tried this recipe multiple times and for some reason the beet root will never mix with the rest of the ingredients! I read somewhere that beet root powder really only dissolves well in polar molecules like water, and that mixing it with some vegetable glycerin prior to adding it to the oils would help because glycerin is just polar enough to dissolve the beet root but not so polar that it won’t dissolve in oil. I tried this and even that technique didn’t help. What other coloring agents can you think of that might dissolve better? How did you get your colors to be so consistent? Mine just sank to the bottom as the tubes were cooling because they wouldn’t dissolve. Thanks!
I did have some sediment at the bottom of the pan I used to heat the mixture, but some did dissolve and provided some color, and fortunately none sank to the bottom of the tube. It might depend on how fine the powder is? I’m not sure.
Yikes, please don’t put essential oils, especially that much in lip or skin products. Studies have shown that essential oils have an (often imperceptible but nonetheless) damaging and sensitizing effect on skin over time. I’ll try out your recipe, but I originally searched for lip balm DIYs to avoid essential oils and other fragrance.
The essential oils are completely optional, of course. They are actually at a very low dilution in this recipe, about 1%. This is considered even by conservative EO users to be low. Did you have a link to the study you mentioned? I’d be interested in reading it.
Thanks! Turned out awesome! I can’t use ChapStik because it, like blistex, has tiny shards of glass in it that chap my lips even more. But this, I can use no problem. Thanks for sharing! Also, try dehydrated or fresh pulverized dandelions for a natural yellowish, flowery twist.
No mainstream lip balm has glass or plexiglass in it. If you are having trouble with these products chances are you have an allergy to an ingredient such as lanolin or camphor.
do you have to use granules? because i only have pellets
Any type of beeswax will do.
Hi !
thank you for this beautiful receipe! I have a block of beeswax and I was wondering how big are your beeswax granulas? are there tiny? don’t want to miss out in the measurment…
Thanks!
Hi,
The lip balm looks great! Just wondering if replacing the coconut oil with cocoa butter works?
That should be a pretty good swap, since both of those oils are solid at room temperature.
the powder is still there.. i thought it will completely dissolved.
I’ve found some powder remains, but doesn’t necessarily make it to the lip balm because it tends to sink to the bottom while pouring. However, you could infuse the oils first and strain the powder out – I just don’t like to take the extra step.
I was wondering if I could use apricot kernal oil as an alternative to the coconut oil? I loved the old Nutrimetics lipbalm.
Yes! Any quality skincare oil will work. If you use a liquid oil, you might need a touch more wax to keep it solid in warm weather.
Hi! I made these last year and since the recipe is so large there was no way i could use all of those tubes in a year! When I got them out of the drawer where I’d stored them, half of the mixture had evaporated or something. Now I have tubes of useless mixture! ☹️ Do you have any idea how or why this happened? I hate to waste them. I wonder if I can remove the mixture and remelt it or if I have to start over. Anyone else have this problem? I love the recipe and how it felt on my lips so I hope there is a way to fix this problem! Thanks!
Oh no! I used mine for almost two years before I ran out and never had that problem. I have no idea what caused it. 🙁
Love how simplistic and wholesome this recipe is. My hubby got me a chapstick refill kit for Christmas (I’m practical that way) and I can’t wait to use it.
Do you think I could substitute the 6 TBSP for 3Tbsp home and 3 Tbsp of some oil or butter or does it all have to be one kind?
Oops, I meant 3 Tbsp honey and 3 Tbsp of an oil or butter instead of 6Tbsp of one thing.
You may be able to change out some of the oil for honey, but I haven’t done it so I can’t guarantee it will turn out right.
I raise Bee’s and would like to use honey in place of the essential oil, would that work? I’m anxious to try your recipe. Thank you SO very much for sharing! And thanks to all who have asked questions and shared their ideas.
Oh gosh, I thought I read all the comments and now I see someone else asked about using honey. Guess I’ll just give it a try!
I’ve never thought of using those powders to color it. I also like the combo suggestions for grapefruit and lime.
You rock for putting this all together! I just started with making crafty things and this is just out of this world. I can use it for stocking stuffer gifts for my adult kids. Thank you so much for sharing this with everyone instead of charging like so many places do. May you and your family be blessed.
So glad you liked the recipe! They really do make great gifts and there are so many pretty labels on Amazon and Etsy.
Do you know what the weight of the beeswax is? I have some bees, and I think it’d be really cool to use my own wax, but it’s in disks, not granules.
I’m estimating, but it’s about 28 grams.
This is so fun!! I may have to make some of these for friends as a summer “just because” gift.
I make balm well I guess it would be called salve as well. I’ve not tried tubes yet but my next batch Im goin for it. The essential oils I use are: lavender, tea tree, eucalyptus and peppermint sometimes only one or two and most often all for medicinal purpose. We have local bee keepers at our Farmers market and I plan to ask them about the choices in beeswax next week when they come into town. My heart fills big and I’m happy when I can make a good batch of medecine and share w/my best pals.
could you give a mass for the beeswax, the recipe here uses a volume of beeswax granules which would only be applicable to that particular product, but if i had, say, a lump of beeswax, it would be good to know how much i should use, to which a mass of beeswax would be more applicable (wax being a solid and all, mass is more useful than volume)
By my estimate, it’s about 28 grams.
Hi! I would like to know how much of the olive oil would I need. I am making these with our youth group from church and would like to keep cost down but keep the quality… thank you. Also, would we follow same instructions on recipe with a liquid form of olive oil?
If your lip balm tends to stay cool (if you live in a cooler climate, for instance), then you don’t need to make any other changes to the recipe. If your lip balm tends to stay warmer, then it will help to add 1/2 tablespoon of beeswax granules to help the finished lip balm stay solid.
Will shea butter and;or cacoa butter work instead of the bees wax? I have sensitive stomach and am afraid of ingesting bits of bees wax?
Most lip balms use some type of wax (usually bee or carnauba) to keep it from melting in hot weather and to help it last longer on your lips. Both bee and carnauba wax are considered edible in small amounts. You can try a recipe with mostly shea or cocoa butter without wax, but I would recommend no liquid oils and I can’t promise results since I haven’t tried it myself.