Homemade Lip Balm Recipe: A Simple Solution for All Natural Lip Care

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Homemade Lip Balm Recipe

This homemade lip balm recipe is tried and true. Natural ingredients leave lips healthy and soft. Customize it to create balms for all uses.

Summer is one of the worst seasons for your lips. Despite the high humidity in much of the region, lips go through the high heat, blazing sun, and just plain old wear and tear. They can get chapped, reddened, dried out, and can even peel. But if you know how to take care of them properly, they can be oh so soft.

Things Harmful to Lips

Some things are worse for your lips than you’d think; another reason why homemade lip balm is a good idea. Here’s a list of things you should avoid:

  • Smoking can cause a lack of circulation and wrinkles.
  • No SPF (sun protection factor) can lead to sunburn. A few natural oils that offer sun protection are carrot seed oil, raspberry seed oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and sesame seed oil.
  • Parabens, which are present in most commercial lipsticks, can damage your skin.
  • Fragrance, also in some lipsticks, can dry out your skin.
  • Artificial sweeteners could cause health problems.
  • Camphor and menthol, while natural, are drying ingredients often found in lip care products.
  • Dry air, created when air conditioning is used, can dry out your lips.

There are some ingredients in lipstick, and lip balm, that are good for you.

Glycerin and aloe vera are humectants. So they pull moisture out of the air and attach it to whatever they are on, such as your lips.

Water, in any form, is good for your lips but also evaporates quickly without something to hold it there.

Lip balms are made to hold the moisture in. But before applying your homemade lip balm, it’s best to exfoliate. We suggest mixing a little oil with granulated sugar or salt and gently rubbing on your lips in a circular motion.

NOW you’re ready to moisturize with your favorite homemade lip balm recipe!

Homemade Lip Balm Recipe

Homemade Lip Balm Recipe

This homemade lip balm recipe is tried and true. Natural ingredients leave lips healthy and soft. Customize it to create balms for all uses.

Prep Time
15 minutes
Active Time
25 minutes
Cooling/Setting Time
4 hours
Total Time
4 hours 40 minutes
Servings
8 tubes
Estimated Cost
$5

Equipment

Ingredients

  • ¼  cup oil (Like sweet almond, coconut, or grapeseed – find them here.)
  • ¼  cup butter (Like shea, cocoa, or mango – find them here.)
  • 1/4 cup beeswax (You can also use soy wax. Use enough wax to make ¾ cup total lip balm mixture.)
  • several drops essential oil (For flavor – use your favorite oil.)
  • 1 teaspoon powdered herbs for color (Such as beetroot powder or alkanet root powder – find organic herbs here.)

Instructions

  1. Measure your oil and butter into a heatproof glass measuring cup. Microwave a minute or two until melted. (You can also melt the mixture by setting the glass measuring cup in a pan of gently boiling water – like a makeshift double boiler.)
  2. Add enough wax to make a total of ¾ cup. Melt this in the microwave or the makeshift double boiler. The glass measuring cup will get very hot, so be extra careful when handing.
  3. Take a stainless steel spoon and mix everything together. Pull the spoon out and wait a few minutes until what’s left on the spoon hardens. Test this to see if it’s hard or soft enough for your liking. Make your adjustments now (adding more oil if you want it softer, or more wax if you like it harder).
  4. Optional Step: When the consistency is where you want it, add a few drops of an essential oil like peppermint or grapefruit. (One year for Christmas, I made lip balms in chocolate and orange. I melted some dark chocolate into it and added some orange essential oil.) You can color your homemade lip balm by adding small amounts of powdered herbs such as beetroot powder. Stir it in well so that there are no lumps.
  5. Carefully pour into lip balm tubes or tins. You can clean and reuse old ones or buy new ones. You can purchase lip balm tubes here or small tins here.

Recipe Video

Notes

I’ve been using this recipe for years.

The wax you use varies in hardness, so you may need to remelt your finished product to discover your preferred texture. Add a bit more wax to make it harder or a bit more oil to make it softer.

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Homemade Lip Balm Recipe Variations

You can use different oils for their individual qualities. Many have antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that are good for your skin. You can do an infused oil with herbs such as calendula and use that for your base oil. (Read about how to infuse oils here.) You can add essential oils like tea tree or lavender to make a healing ointment that’s very portable – great for use on scrapes and bug bites. You can add a few drops of cinnamon or ginger essential oils. These oils increase circulation and can make your lips appear plumper.[1] Don’t use too much as they can also be irritating.

You can make a stretch mark balm by omitting the oil and adding more butter. Nothing soothes dry, itchy skin like cocoa butter. Add some grapeseed oil and it makes it all that much more nourishing. You can add a small amount of zinc oxide or one of the oils with natural SPF listed above to act as a sunscreen. And if you want it a bit sweeter, add a small amount of powdered stevia. You’ll literally need just a pinch as this herb is very, very sweet!

Do you have a favorite homemade lip balm recipe?

Share your experience in the comments!

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Sources

  1. Pasupuleti Visweswara Rao. Cinnamon: A Multifaceted Medicinal Plant. Hindawi. April 2014.
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About Debra Maslowski

Debra is a master gardener, a certified herbalist, a natural living instructor, and more. She taught Matt and Betsy how to make soap so they decided to bring her on as a staff writer! Debra recently started an organic herb farm in the mountains of Western North Carolina. You can even purchase her handmade products on Amazon!

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DISCLAIMER: Information on DIY Natural™ is not reviewed or endorsed by the FDA and is NOT intended to be substituted for the advice of your health care professional. If you rely solely upon this advice you do so at your own risk. Read full Disclaimer & Disclosure statements here.

Comments

  1. Avatar photoBrendon Murrufo says

    Merely wanna input on few general things, The website pattern is perfect, the articles is very wonderful : D.

  2. Avatar photoAngel says

    This may be a silly question, but when you say to “Add enough wax to make a total of ¾ cup,” do you mean that you only add enough wax to bring the liquid mixture of the oil, butter, and wax to 3/4 cup?

  3. Avatar photoAlex says

    I have made lipbalm using only beeswax pellets and olive oil (in a 1:4 ratio). From memory, one teaspoon of beeswax pellets and four teaspoons of olive oil was enough to fill about 5 or 6 lipbalm tubes. So you don’t need a lot. I experimented a lot with ratios using a microwave (for some reason the stove method did not work at all). I found it helpful to make separate small batches one after the other with different ratios and writing down whether I liked the consistency. My teenage daughter prefers ours to well-known brands because it works so well, and even her picky friends agreed it works well, once they got over the fact it smells only of wax and olive oil!

  4. Avatar photoVicki P says

    I’m wondering if honey can be added anywhere in this recipe or maybe it might make it too runny?

    • Avatar photoDebra Maslowski says

      You wouldn’t be able to use liquid honey, Vicki, because that’s a water base while all the other ingredients are oil based. It would separate. But..there is honey powder on the market. I saw it at a specialty food store. You could try that. It may clump at first, but keep working with it to get the lumps out and it should be fine.

  5. Avatar photoPetra says

    Looks like a easy recipe, plus I have all ingredients. Can I use Carrot essential oil, since it has a natural SPF in it? Thanks

  6. Avatar photoJamie says

    I made lip balm and added beet root powder and cocoa powder for a bit of color once all the wax and oils melted together, but the powder would not dissolve. Some formed petit clumps. However, most just swirled around in the oil as individual particles refusing to dissolve. I ended up only using the top part of the mixture since the powder sank to the bottom. Any recommendations on how to get an even, dissolved color?
    Thank you.

    • Avatar photoDebra Maslowski says

      I had the same problem, Jamie, so I did exactly that. I made a batch, put the beet root or cocoa powder in and then let it settle. When it was cool and hard, I skimmed off the part that had the particles in it (i remelted that and used it myself) and remelted the rest to pour into the tubes.

    • Avatar photoDebra Maslowski says

      A lot! I’m not exactly sure, Carol, since I use a continuous recipe. I make the one recipe, fill 20 or so tubes, and then sore it until next time. It keeps well in the freezer. Then when I’m ready to make more, I just add the recipe to the old stuff and keep going. Of course, I mark them to be sure I’m not mixing chocolate with root beer or something!

  7. Avatar photoDeb says

    Love the idea of making my own, but have issues with using a microwave. That takes the “natural” out of it for me. Will try making this on the stove. Thanks!