August 2010 issue.The question of poverty

donate button

tooltip tooltip tooltip tooltip
home arrow blogs arrow Make your own lip balm with natural ingredients

InTheFray Blogs

A short description about your blog

Lisa Tae-Ran Schroeder
Thursday, November 06, 2008  Print PDF

Make your own lip balm with natural ingredients

Store-bought lip balms are expensive and contain ingredients that probably aren't very good for you, so I decided to make my own.

Lip balm is one of those essential things that you have lying around the house in various places; in pants or jacket pockets, in the bathroom, or in various handbags. I have several tubes in case of a dry lip emergency and if I ever forget a tube and have to go a whole day without, my lips definitely suffer.

I've usually been buying the store-name brand, just because they are usually cheaper than the Chapstick or other brand names, but the ingredients are sketchy and I felt like I was always slathering up my lips more than should seem needed.

So the last time I ran out, instead of going and buying more, I decided to take the matter in my own hands and make my own. After making my own non-chemical house cleaners, I also started thinking about all the other store-bought things like cosmetics, shampoos, lotions etc. that have harsh chemicals that probably aren't that good for you either and decided to see if making these things would be possible and easy.

If you search up lip balm recipes on the internet, there are so many ones that I decided I should take the plunge and make my own. First I had to decide what type to make; I tried Burt's Bees once and liked it (but not the price of over $4) so I thought making a similar one would be easy.

There were lots of different ingredients but I chose to use a beeswax base with familiar moisturizers like cocoa butter, shea butter, and olive oil.

The one essential melting tool I needed was a glass Pyrex measuring cup; this can either be microwaved or used as a double-boiler to melt all the waxes and oils together.

Once I ordered the ingredients online and got my lip balm tubes and everything else, it was time to experiment. I chose to mish-mash a few of the recipes I found online together since none had the exact oils I wanted to use. So I just measured out equal parts of the beeswax and the oils into my Pyrex cup, which I put into a pot of water slowly heated up. I mixed my waxes as they melted and after they were done, I removed the Pyrex from the heated water, added the essential oil (this is a natural preservative), and poured the mixture into the lip balm tubes.

After they cooled I tried one out and it was a tingly peppermint surprise that really moisturized my lips. I was amazed at how easy it was to make and more than happy with the results.





keeping the earth ever green

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (12)

Subscribe to this comment's feed
waste of time
0
So? How to? This should be called, "A half assed guide to making your own lip balm"
Larry King , February 3, 2010
...
0
This article from NotMartha is a lot more informative.
http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/lipbalm/

After some Google'ing I found a place to buy tubes without needing to order 12 to 20 thousand.
http://www.thesage.com/catalog/LipBalmContainers.html
Rob Raines , January 11, 2010
...
0
This post is as useful and analogous to saying: " I just invented the most effective mouse trap in the world and it was a great deal of fun" and leave at that.
ed claure , January 11, 2010
I'd luv to know what you used =)
0
Hi, you mentioned that you mashed together a few recipes, and that what you came out with really moisturized your lips. I'd luv to hear which oils worked best for you. Thanks!
elementyl , January 10, 2010 | url
Thanks
0
This sounds like a lot of fun. smilies/smiley.gif
Kizzy , January 9, 2010
...
0
you can get the tubes from pharmacy supply websites... i made some in my pharmacy lab... it was really really good.
rxstudent , January 9, 2010
well...
0
I just don't see the point of "make YOUR own lip balm" when the creation process isn't outlined. Is there any way you could post a more detailed step-by-step?
cocotapioka , January 9, 2010
...
0
Ummm some information about materials, ingredients, recipes or costs might be useful. What is the point of this blog post?
Pat Guy , January 9, 2010
...
0
where did you order your ingredients from and what oils did you use?
chris , December 16, 2009
exact ingrediants
0
I'm very interested in doing the same. By chance do you have the recipe for the chap stick? And where did you order the tubes?
Lon , December 16, 2009
Show Cost per Instance
0
As a rebuttal to Steve, can you show that the cost of all the ingredients, plus the hardware (tubes), are cheaper per unit (a single finished good) than a store-bought brand?

Yes, I know I have not factored in your personal time (labor) as a cost. But nowadays, getting off your fat butt on a Saturday or Sunday (or your day off from work) does not count as labor but as something more akin to exercise or free time.

Putting energy into home craft is something we all should do instead of mindlessly consuming.
TheMonkeyKing , December 16, 2009
...
0
So...you're putting all of this energy into producing lip balm then charging a $1/tube plus $1.99 S&H on E-Bay? No offense but I'll just pick-up a tube of the real-deal Burt's Bees stuff at Wal-Mart for $2.99 smilies/wink.gif
Steve , November 7, 2008

Write comment

smaller | bigger
security image
Write the displayed characters

busy
in_other_words
Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both. —Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady
 
about · contact · privacy policy · donate · rss feeds rss feeds
advertise · republishing & syndication · submissions · join staff · bugs & errors
affiliate_links
© 2010 InTheFray Magazine
In The Fray, Inc., is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization (EIN/tax ID number: 04-352-0135).
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.