Lip Balm

I'm picky about lip balm, and kind of obsessed with making sure I always have some with me. Does that qualify as addiction?

Anyway, I used to be a huge fan of Burt's Bees original lip balm. I love the peppermint. It was the only lip balm that didn't leave a weird taste or even texture in my mouth when I accidentally (or on purpose) ate if off my lips. However, it's a pretty waxy balm- good for serious repair and protection. 99% of the time I do not need this level of protection. I wanted something lighter, almost lotion-like in that it would feel as though it were sinking into my lips instead of sitting on top of the skin.

So naturally I made some. It took a couple tweaks, but I really like what I ended up with. A couple notes here:

Cosmetic recipes are always formulated in percentages and always by WEIGHT (never volume). This is awesome. It may seem confusing when you first look at it, but it's really great because you can size the recipe to make as much or little as you want while still maintaining the quality. It does mean you need a scale to make this though, and preferably one that goes to .01g or .001g. On the up side of that, there are some small jewelers scales that do go that low and they are very affordable. Like $7 affordable.

On that same topic you will notice that "4 drops per 10g" is not in percentages and not in proper cosmetic formula format. A drop can be of varying size so this is by no means a precise measurement. If I were making this to sell, I'd want to get on that and figure out how much I really was using so I could be consistent from batch to batch. But I'm not. I make these just for me and on occasion a few friends. We don't notice a difference in minty taste or smell between batches when I use 'drops' as a measurement here.

A lot of lip balm recipes I see (that don't use percentages) make a butt-load of lip balm. Do you really want to make 30 tubes of something when you don't know if you'll like it? You really shouldn't as it might be a waste of supplies. I find a good amount to start with is 10g. This makes a little more than 2 tubes of lip balm. It's also very easy to convert the percentages into grams when you make 10g. 45% becomes 4.5g, 20% becomes 2g, etc.

Sunflower oil: it's a nice med-light oil, noncomedogenic (it is on your face after all), it's cheap and readily available. One downside is that it has a short shelf life, ie. might go rancid in 6 months. So I keep my not-yet-used balms in the fridge. I haven't experienced any issue with this yet.

Beeswax: makes the balm nice and substantial, resists rinse off and has a high melting point, so this doesn't end up in an oily soup in warm weather.

Refined, deodorized cocoa butter: I like this because it doesn't smell like chocolate but has great moisturizing, high melting properties. You could just as easily use the raw kind and have a mint chocolate balm!

Lanolin oil: I love, love lanolin. It has some serious protecting properties. You can rub this on your hands then wash them and it's still on there! I like it in the balm because it gives the balm staying power without being thick and waxy.

Palm kernel oil: Originally I was using coconut oil but it has a melting point of 76°F, that is a little low. I liked the feel of palm kernel oil when I got it on my hands while soaping (it took a couple washes to come off and made my hands so soft!) plus it has a higher melting point of 102°F.

I make a double boiler using a small pot, water and a beaker. I like the beaker for lip balms because it has a spout that makes pouring easy.

It's handy to pour with the tubes set up on a piece of paper or paper towel since I always spill some.

As the balm cools it puckers in the center and gets a little dent. This is just aesthetic and doesn't bother me. If it bothers you, you can top the tube off with a little more melted balm after the dent appears but before the balm is totally cooled and solid.

I label my balms with the ingredients. This is mostly just for fun because it looks nice. If I give these to friends or family I do like them to know what is in it.