Do NOT Copy

Do NOT Copy

Home Made Lip Care Recipes

Ingredients assembled
      Have you ever been annoyed by the high prices of organic products?  Why not make your own?  It just takes a little time and some products many of us already have in our kitchen!
      I will talk about products you can use to take care of your lips first since many of us are suffering with chapped lips in this cold, dry season we call winter.  I found several different recipes on the Internet from lip balm to salve, to chap stick.  I even found some recipes for lip glosses and lip color, though this post will focus on taking care of you lips not making them pretty.  Well, unless you think they are pretty when they are smooth and supple with no added colors and no red skin surrounding them.
       I found many variations of recipes out there, many of them contained several key ingredients: Sweet almond oil, beeswax, honey, aloe vera gel, coconut oil, and olive oil.  These each have their own health benefits so knowing their properties will help you to decide which one to use in your own products.
Wax Melting in Hot Oil
       I can discuss a few of them briefly here, but please do not rely on one source to get all of your information.  Sweet almond oil is, of course, made from almonds so do not use it if you have an allergy to them.  Another note of caution, if you have a condition that involves low blood sugar levels please consult your doctor prior to trying any product containing sao because it is known to help lower blood sugar levels.  It lubricates the skin without giving it a greasy feel, acts as an emulsifier (which binds oil and water together when they normally do not like to be mixed together), and is readily absorbed into the skin.  For more information please google sweet almond oil.  This is a good starting point.  Beeswax is used in place of petroleum products in order to thicken the healthy oils you are using, but it does help the skin to absorb them more readily has some anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and helps wounds to heal more quickly.  Honey helps skin to heal more quickly and helps to protect skin among other things.  Aloe Vera gel has a great many benefits  as well, but for our purposes here I will just say that it will relieve dry itchy skin.  I can't say enough about the benefits of coconut oil, in fact I REALLY need to remember to use it much more frequently but for skin care purposes used outside the body it is known to help with inflammation.  Olive oil was know to the ancient Greeks as liquid gold, and for good reason apparently.  It has a greasy feel to it though, but it is moisturizing, cleansing, and protects from sun damage.
Added Ingredients
Once Waxes Were Melted

                              Lip Balm
      The first recipe I have to share with you is a wonderful lip balm that makes over a cup, though it would be easy to cut this recipe in half.  It made enough to fill 3 half jelly jars full of lip balm.  I know it's a lot, but lip balm can be used all year round so I am sure it will get used.  You can infuse the oil with beneficial herbs or flower petals prior to using it in this recipe if desired.  If you don't like the tingly feeling of the stronger store brands of lip balms, this is a great one to try.

Ingredients:1 cup of sweet almond oil, 2 Tablespoons of beeswax, 1 Tablespoon of food quality paraffin wax (optional, the original recipe says 2-3 T beeswax I just got tired of trying to chisel pieces of beeswax off my block), 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 teaspoon of vitamin e oil, and 2 teaspoons full of aloe vera gel.  Flavoring or essential oils if desired such as vanilla extract or mint.

Finished Lip Balm
Procedure:   Heat oil, I used a small crock pot that will be reserved for this purpose.  You don't have this, use a non-reactive pan that is large enough to accommodate all of the ingredients and still leaves room to vigorously stir it all together.  If using a stove as your heat source please make sure to monitor your lip balm and keep the temperatures on the lower end of the heating scale.   Add small chunks of beeswax to the oil once it is heated.  (Word to the wise, if anyplace around you sells it is pellet or small chunks you may want to invest in those rather than a large chunks because they tend to like to fly all over the place and it's hardness makes it difficult to shave just a few shreds off).  Okay, really I only threw in the paraffin wax was because it came off the block much easier and I wanted to add more wax to make sure the final product was pretty solid.
     Once the wax is completely melted, remove from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients quickly, then pour into containers to cool.  Cover once it is completely cooled down.
     In retrospect I am wondering if I should have tried pouring some of this mixture into some old chap stick tubes or an old Carmex jar to make a more portable lip balm.  It doesn't add a lot of gloss or glamour but your lips will thank you.

Note:  Make sure to label the containers clearly, I bet you would just hate to put your home make vapor rub on your lips.

Chapped Lips Salve

      Okay, so I called this salve on the container that I put it in though upon reflection it is really more of a gel.  It works great and adds some shine, well, provided you don't lick it off.  The aloe makes it taste not so great though so that shouldn't be a huge problem.   This one is super easy and doesn't require any heat or equipment really, um mm, other than the jar you are storing it in and something to stir it with...  In fact, you just put some aloe gel into the container, add a tiny bit of honey and mix.  You may add a couple of drops of vitamin E oil to act as a preservative if you wish.  Alright, I mixed mine in a measuring cup because I wanted enough to fill one little "pot" for each bathroom then I poured it out into the containers once they were equally full.

Home Made Vaseline

      Vaseline aka petroleum jelly is wonderful to soothe dry lips, but who wants an oil byproduct on your lips?  I haven't technically made this yet; but judging by the ingredients in it, I would say that it should turn out exactly like the lip balm listed first following the same procedure of melting wax in heated oil.
      Use 1/2 c of oil and 1 ounce beeswax.  The recipes I saw online suggested olive oil though I would guess you can use others as well such as jojoba, coconut, flax seed, olive, or sweet almond oil.

Chap stick

    You can bet I plan on making some of these as well, but I've got a busy day ahead so I thought I'd just talk about proportions here.  I believe these will be a stiffer blend than the balm above since the online sources seem to recommend a 1 to 1 ratio of oil to wax for this type of recipe.  I'm thinking these may be a better candidate for my portable home made blends in the old chap stick tubes?
     Use 1 T oil to 1 T wax, melt wax in hot oil.  Once wax is melted remove from heat and add scents if desired.  1-2 drops should do it, there are many great essential oils out there to try.









Thank you for stopping by to chat with me. Please leave me a message, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Cindy

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Love it !!!! Can see I will have to come by more often to see what your up to :).

Agent8 said...

sounds interesting, but I will not likely do this because I would have to spend much $$ to gather these ingredients and since I only seem to need to buy lip balm or chap stick ,about 1 tube per year, it does not sound like it would be cost effective (for me) even if I bought the most expensive product available (which I do not. Burt's Bees is good for me.
Also wondering how one would carry such an item in one's purse or pocket, conveniently available when one needs it? I'm certainly not going to carry a jelly jar.
Very interesting thing to think about...There are few products one cannot make at home and this certainly illustrates that.

Heather@TheWelcomingHouseBlog said...

You can simply re-heat those half jars and pour it into lip containers, then let it cool, Cindy. And since I tote a whole small jar of Carmex in my purse, I am quite sure I could tote a small mini-jar of homemade lip balm as easily. :)
Great idea, and since I have everything you listed sitting around (including beeswax granules) then I am going to try it! thanks Cindy!
~Heather

Unknown said...

Barb, Heather is right, you can melt it down to put it in other containers as well. I used half jelly jars bit you certainly don't need to make that much. I didn't buy these products just for the recipe because I have them around the house. Coconut oil is supposed to be good for hypothyroidism, plus I make my own soaps and things so it's not really wasted to have these ingredients. I didn't know there were many people who don't keep at least aloe and honey on hand. I guess it's to each their own, Burt's Bees is still kind of expensive if you ask me.