The best lip balm for dry, chapped lips
Now is the time to take extra good care of your lips. As it gets colder outside, they tend to get drier from the temperature changes - going from central heating out into the cold. Living in Cyprus is not too bad, as the winters are lovely & warm, but I clearly remember my years in Denmark in the winter with temperatures well below 0! Very hard on the skin and lips!
When our lips get dry, our first reaction is to moisten them with our saliva – frequently licking them due to general discomfort – which only leads to more dryness. A moisturising balm will help soothe and cure dry lips.
It is quite easy to make your own lip balm and it basically consists of three ingredients: an oil, a wax and taste/scent. Mix it all together and you're good to go!
Our lip balms sell out fast as they are really moisturising and 100% natural. I'm happy to share with you our (not so secret) recipe...
Oils:
I use 4 different oils in the recipe, but if you don't/can't find some of them, just substitute with another. It's important to remember though, that the oil substituted should be of the same type: solid or liquid. A lip balm needs to be fairly hard so that it will not become runny in the tin can/tube, so my recipe has mostly solid oils: coconut oil, shea butter and cocoa butter as well as one liquid oil: almond oil. Also, if you prefer to use more almond oil or substitute for example shea butter (solid) with olive oil (liquid), you should add some more beeswax instead, to make the balm more solid.
Wax:
For the wax, I combine two: carnauba wax which gives a nice shine to the lips. It is plant based, so if you are vegan, you might want to use just this one. The other wax is beeswax which gives a harder, more solid feel to the balm.
Taste/Scent:
In this recipe I use peppermint essential oil, because it is my favourite! It's important not to overdo it when it comes to essential oils, as they are very potent. You can add a little cocoa powder to the peppermint and it will taste like After Eight chocolate. Other essential oils that you could use: citrus, like lemon, mandarin & orange or a combination of them all. Adding a little clove or cinnamon essential oil will make the lips plumper, but use with caution as they make the lips plump by irritating them, so you don't want too much!
You can also choose to leave the lip balm natural and it will have a slight chocolaty taste from the cocoa butter or you can experiment with food flavours like vanilla, cola etc.
I prefer to make them 100% natural.
The last ingredient that I always add to my lip balms is E-Vitamin. It is anti-inflammatory and is great at healing irritated skin. I use it out of a bottle, but if you have vitamin E capsules, you can simply cut one open and use that in the balm.
Recipe
Makes approximately 6 small lip balms in tin cans of 15 gr.
Ingredients:
30 gr coconut oil
25 gr almond oil
13 gr shea butter
13 gr cocoa butter
13 gr carnauba wax
5 gr beeswax
15 drops peppermint essential oil (or other)
15 drops E-Vitamin (or an E-Vitamin capsule)
How to:
Melt the oils together with the wax over a double boiler or in a glass bowl over a small pot of boiling water.
Once they have melted completely, set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Add the essential oil and E-Vitamin and stir until completely mixed.
From the bowl I transfer the mixture into a measuring cup so that it is easier to pour into the small tin cans.
At this point you have to work fairly quickly, as the oils harden. If the mixture becomes cloudy, give it a few seconds in the microwave to melt them again.
Pour the mixture carefully into each can, all the way to the top. It must look as if you are about to pour over the edge.
When they become cool and harden, they will recede a bit.
Let the lip balms set at room temperature for a few hours before putting the lid on.
Tip: straight after pouring the mixture into the cans, cover them with a box of some sort, to keep the heat inside.
Needless to say, make sure the edges of the box doesn't touch the cans or turn them over...
They will take slightly longer to harden, but the end result will be so much nicer looking, without a dent in the middle, or ugly air bubbles.
If you need to smoothen the surface of the lip balm (for visual purposes) after they are done, you can use a heat gun or a hairdryer to slightly melt the top.
They make great gifts as well, so with Christmas coming up, you are all set!
Let me know if you have any questions or run into trouble - I'll be more than happy to answer them.
You can buy our lip balms here if you find it's too much work :-)