It's been a while since I posted...and for that, I apologize! But I hope you enjoy this week's short tutorial on making simple homemade lip balm. This project would be great for small Christmas gifts or a stocking stuffer...and it's a great introduction to what goes into lip balm for someone who is interested in taking some of the mystery out of this type of project.
Gather your materials!
- Pots or Tubes for your lip balm (20 small pots or around 12 tubes)
- lip balm base (see breakdown of this below)
- flavoring
- colorant (if desired)
- disposable eye dropper
- microwave safe bowl
STEP ONE:
To start you'll need a lip balm base.
Now - for mine, I just got a finished lip balm base from Brambleberry.com
BUT! here's a basic lip balm base which would be easy to also make if you wanted to buy the ingredients separately.
-2 tsp. beeswax (chop or grate it, then measure)
-2 1/4 tsp. jojoba oil
I've talked to a few friends who like to make their own lip salves and they say that getting the texture and balance right for your personal taste is the hardest part. If you want a softer lip balm, add more oil... a waxier lip balm is from less oil.
STEP TWO
Melt your base on a microwave safe container until it's melted. Some say you want to leave it in there for about 1 1/2 minutes...but it really would depend on your microwave. You don't want to boil your base...because if it's too hot, it will crack and break when drying in your pots. I just kept an eye on my base until it was melted all the way through.
STEP THREE
Add your flavoring and colorant.
1 oz. flavoring of your choice. (check out all these great options here... all food safe and yummy!)
.25 oz colorant (or a few drops)... also needs to be food safe.. like these
STEP FOUR
Using a disposable eye dropper, dispense your melted base into your lip balm base before it cools. You have to be a bit quick on your feet here so that the base doesn't cool before you've transferred all your lip balm into their finished pots.
TIPS & TRICKS
- I wasn't fast enough during Step Four, so my eye dropper got filled with lip balm and my lip balm started to cool in my bowl! Eeek!!! But... I'm a little smarter than the average bear so I just put that bowl back in the microwave for about 20 seconds until the material was warm again and kept going until I had used up all my base.
- To fix my little eye dropper, I did the same thing...just popped it in the microwave for a few seconds so that it would release some of the lip balm that was stuck inside. You don't want to cook any of the dropper for too long or you'll melt your eye dropper...and probably burn your little fingers when you touch it. So be careful!
- I think this would be a great little project for kids - ages 6 and up who can understand the concept of dangerous hot liquids. Kids would have fun choosing the color and flavors and giving these to friends at school for Christmas presents. For me, this project made about 20 little pots of lip balm.
- Total cost for this project is around $20. So it's truly an affordable gift giving idea.
If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!
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3 comments:
what a great project! i admit i've been intrigued by the idea of making my own beauty products before... i've always wondered, how much does one have to worry about contamination? especially for something going on your lips? what might the shelf life be for this kind of balm? anybody know?
Since the base is wax and oil based... you can probably assume pretty safely that the shelf life is very long. I saw some that use beet juice for the colorant, but using food in your lip balm seems like a really bad idea and would change the shelf life FOR SURE. :)
that makes a lot of sense, katy! thanks!
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