homemade lip balm

If the homemade lotion seems like too big a project to tackle at the start, try this: lip balm. It's ridiculously easy and will probably only take you about 10 minutes. No mixing is required.

For lip balm, the hardest part will be finding containers. You can buy lip balm tins or tubes online or at some natural food stores, but I prefer to recycle used tubes. In fact, if you visit your dentist regularly, chances are you can get some for free. My dentist always hands out a tube of lip balm, so I just ask my hygienist for their least popular flavor. At our last visit, she gave me 6 tubes of what she called "the most disgusting smelling flavor ever": Banana Split. (It was pretty gross.) Then, just empty the tubes, remove any labels, wash and sterilize them, and save them in a baggie until you need them. This process is definitely easier if you have a bottle brush and one of those microwavable nipple/Binky sterilizing bags.

After some experimenting, this has become my favorite lip balm recipe...

Ingredients:

3 tsp sweet almond oil
1 1/2 tsp cocoa butter
1 1/2 tsp organic beeswax
3-4 drops peppermint or spearmint essential oil

Instructions:

Combine the oil, cocoa butter shavings, and beeswax pastilles in a Pyrex measuring cup.


Set the cup in a small cooking pot with 1-2 inches boiling water and heat, stirring occasionally, until the cocoa butter and wax melt. Turn off the heat, and add the essential oil.

Prepare 3 tins or tubes. If using tubes, make sure you screw the platform or little cup all the way to the bottom of the tube. (This will make sense if you examine an empty tube of lip balm.)


When the wax is fully melted, carefully pour the oil mixture into the empty tubes. (It's a bit tricky to do without spilling, so I couldn't take a photo as the oil was pouring.)


Try to fill each tube to the top. You may have a small amount of the oil mixture left over (in which case, I top up whatever tube of lip balm I'm currently using). Let the tubes sit, uncovered, to cool.


As they cool, the mixture will solidify. Cap the tubes and store them in your refrigerator until you need one.


I read once that our lips are the most absorbent part of our body. If this is true, then we should definitely avoid lip balms with unpronounceable chemicals in them. Even if it's not true, we're licking and eating off our lips all the time, and who would want to eat those products? For pennies a tube, you can make your own safe and effective lip balm. If you try it, let me know what you think.