How to make Lip Balm with Essential Oils

How to make Homemade Lip Balm with Essential Oils

I am still loving using essential oils. I have been doing a ton of research on essential oil and will be sharing what I have learned in an upcoming post.

I have been exploring a few more suppliers and been reviewing many aromatherapy educational websites and will be writing some posts on those too.

Today I am excited to share some of my favorite aromatherapy recipes. And some great sites to get more recipes to try.

I of course have to change things around to make recipes my own or adapt to the ingredients I have on hand.
It seems I can never follow a recipe exactly I always have to tweak it or embellish it making it my own. 

The basic recipe for making Lip Balm in a tube is....

2 part solid natural "butter" ( like coco butter or shea butter)
2 parts liquid cold pressed vegetable oil (sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, etc.)
1 part plus 1/3 bees wax
10-15  drops essential oil depending on strength (peppermint use 1/2 that amount) for every 8 tubes

Some say a 3 parts carrier oil (vegetable oils) to 1 part beeswax and as much butters as you wish because they are already solid at room temperature. Usually 1 part.  As in butters I mean Shea butter or Cocoa Butter. 
Another source said to use a 4 part butter and oils to 2 part bees wax. This works too. If your concoction is just too soft ad a little more beeswax. Maybe for lips you want it stiffer so it doesn't go on too heavy but for your elbows and heels you want it softer.
I was super happy with the weight of mine for both applications.

In other words if that all is too much math here is my recipe:
Lemon Peppermint Lip Balm
1 Tablespoon  Coconut oil
1 Tablespoon Cocoa Butter
2 Tablespoon Sweet Almond Oil
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon grated Bees Wax
10 drops of lemon essential oil
optional plus 4 drops of peppermint essential oil
Fills 8 tubes (it filled 7 tubes for me with a little extra maybe I filled them too much and should have evenly distributed it among the 8.

I am always heavy handed on the scent factor you may want to reduce the amount of essential oil used.
10 total drops is plenty.


I wanted a small recipe to try to make sure I liked the consistency. This was perfect for the .15 oz tubes you can purchase here at Majestic Mountain Sage

 Bees Wax pellets from Bulk Apothecary measured in microwave safe plastic measuring cup. (2 cup size)
In hindsight I now make this recipe in glass mixing cup as the glass heats up a little and does not make the wax cool as you pour it. (you will see this in the later pictures below)

 Coconut oil I just purchased at Wal-Mart probably not best price but I did not have to pay shipping on it.

 Raw Natural Cocoa Butter from Bulk Apothecary. 
 

  

Sweet Almond Oil (liquid) from Bulk Apothecary.

 

1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon and 1  Tablespoon of Coconut oil measured in container.

 1 Tablespoon of Sweet Almond oil added.

Now here is a difference between my recipe and most of the others you find on the internet. Most tell you to melt in a double boiler or set the glass cup or bowl in a pan of boiling water on the stove. Well I figured my new microwave has a bunch of settings including melt. So I melted my ingredients in the microwave on melt.

However not much happened the coconut oil melted but the bees wax was slow to melt. So I just melted it on regular speed in my microwave a minute at a time watching until the bees wax got smaller and smaller and finally melted.

Then I added the Essential Oils. My mixture of wax and oils were barely melted so my oils were not going to instantly evaporate like they would in a really hot mixture. You probably will loose a little to evaporation just breathe it in and gain the therapeutic essence of the oils.

 I placed the tubes in a small Rubbermaid container. Remember I was doing a small batch.
Next time I will order one of these great tube holder from Majestic Mountain Sage.
  click on picture for manufactures directions.  

In the meantime here is how I did it...

When I started pouring they immediately started to solidify. I could not grab the camera fast enough and it was inches away.

It was pretty hot outside that day so the air conditioning was running and my kitchen was pretty cool.  

You can see how during the pouring it just solidified on the side of the container because the plastic was cool.
 
I did have to remelt it in the end to get the last little bit out. I ended up with not enough to fill the 8th tube. So I put it in my glass measuring cup and made another batch to make elbow and heel suave which is basically the same recipe just poured into a little tin.

I ordered these from Specialty Bottle Company. 

See how partway through I had to remelt.

Finished pouring but not completely set up yet. 

Finished product. I tried topping some of them off notice that did not really work. the little lump sometimes came off on your lip. Not all of them though. It was just too cool in my kitchen the day I made these.
But otherwise they really turned out wonderfully. The smell so yummy and feel like silk on your lips.
I made a lemon batch and then a lemon peppermint batch.

Here are some links to some other great recipes for lip balm....

Click on picture to go to some great lip balm recipes

Eco Friendly Daily

 Fragrancex

 Martha

Interestingly here is a recipe that is almost 1 part Bees Wax plus 1.25 part liquid oil. Makes a small enough amount to try. Click on the picture above to go to the recipe. 

TIPNUT

This above link has a bunch of links to other recipes. But what really caught my attention was the chocolate recipe at the bottom of the page. 

Hope you enjoy making some lip balm. Next post is Body Butter. 

It melts upon skin contact. Gotta love it. 

Thanks for reading 

Make a comment!!!!

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Love, 

Lisa

Best Essential Oil Suppliers

First off I would say I do think Doterra Oils are pure and very strong and of the highest quality. Their prices are very reasonable for mid-priced and expensive oils. Their cheaper oils like Lavender and Lemon can be purchased elsewhere for a fraction of the cost. They spend considerable time and effort making you think they are the only place to get true therapeutic grade oils. This is not true. Bottom line, they are not the only kid on the block.

One of my favorite  places to order Essential Oils is www.bulkapothecary.com. I have ordered a lot of oils from them recently and they are very pure, very strong, and each bottle has a batch ID number so you can order the report from them via email. They are the best oils I have found anywhere. You can tell by scent, color and consistency. In other words, a Sensory Evaluation.

Some ways to test quality and Purity of essential oils at home…

1. The Potency of the aroma is the first clue. Once you start smelling essential oils you will recognize that the strongest ones are the purest. 
2. You can quickly determine quality of an essential oil by visual examination. If you research the color, consistency and appearance of the oil before hand, you will notice right away if an oil has been diluted.
3. For all thin consistency oils you can refrigerate and if they become thick, a cold pressed vegetable oil has been added.
4. Another method is to put a drop of oil on construction paper. It should evaporate fairly quickly and not leave a visible ring on the paper. This works again for most thin consistency oil but does not work for the dark colored thick consistency oils like Patchouli and Vetiver. 

I was very impressed with the quality of oils from Bulk Apothecary. The oils were very well documented on the site and told the country of origin and many had several varieties to choose from. They guarantee they are 100% pure. Anyone can say that, but each bottle has a lot number and batch number. Doterra doesn't even do that. The only drawback was they do not come in bottles with Ortiface droppers. 

 

These allow you to dispense the oils one drop at a time. This is crucial when using essential oils. If you click on the picture above you can see where I ordered the bottles. You can also buy glass droppers at any drugstore. 
I also like the bottles, supplies and lids with droppers that fit the bottles from Bulk Aromatherapy  that can be purchased at Aroma Tools.com.

I want to order some essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs.
They are a very reputable and ethical company and have come highly recommended. Their prices are very reasonable.
I will have to write more about them later. 

I have been making my own blends and will share my favorite recipes and my favorite recipe websites next post.