Monday, January 14, 2013

Lip Balm!


 

   Me and my family are lip balm fanatics. We used to slather our lips in Vaseline, which was extremely effective, but since I became suspicious that petroleum by products might possibly be not-so-good for us, I decided to look into all natural lip balms.
   Burt's Bees is really awesome, but at more that $3 a tube - tubes that sometimes wind up getting washed in the laundry by accident - I wondered if there were a better option.
So I looked around for a cheaper, better, DIY version.
Lo and behold, there is!


       I use three ingredients - olive oil, bees wax, and essential oil.
The one thing that is harder to find is the lip balm tubes, but I got some on Etsy. You can also use little tins, small containers, and the like, but I don't really like putting the lip balm on my fingers and then on my lips. The tubes, to me, are the best.


I use white bees wax because I think it has a less pronounced smell so whatever essential oil I use is the main scent.
So, here's how to do it:

First, get your tubes ready. I like to tie up the number of tubes I think I will need with a hair tie so they will stay upright and put the bundle into a shallow bowl to catch any drips.
 
Then, put 5 Tablespoons of olive oil into a small metal container.
Put the metal container into a  pot of boiling water.
When the oil is hot, add 1 Tablespoon of bees wax.
Let them melt together.


Here you can see the wax just beginning to melt in the hot oil.
I use clothes pins to keep the container from floating around in the water. Having to hold it with my hands could result in steam burns, so this is my go-to method for things like this.

When it is hot and completely melted, remove it from the hot water bath and add essential oil.
For peppermint, which is quite potent, I only used 8 drops.
(I have done this with lemon essential oil, and used 12 drops or so, but I didn't want to overdo it with the mint. )
Then, mix the essential oil in and carefully pour the mixture into your lip balm tubes.







Wait 20 minutes or so for the lip balm to cool, put the lids on, wipe off any excess, and you're good to go.

Tips:
Because there are no preservatives in it, this lip balm will only last about 6 months, so make it when you need it.

This batch made 10 tubes of lip balm.

Whatever container you use to heat the wax and oil will be nearly impossible to clean, so make sure to use something you don't want to use for anything else.