The Seventh Healthy Day of Christmas: Homemade Lip Balm
Following on yesterday's post about the fine art of gift-giving over the holidays, why not take some time this weekend to craft a few gifts for your nearest and dearest? Not only is this recipe for homemade lip balm from Kitchn quick, easy, and inexpensive, the end product is way better for you than a lot of the commercial brands of lip balm and chap stick you can by at the drug store (many of which are filled with harmful environmental toxins).
Making gifts for friends and family is a great way to infuse your gift-giving with all kinds of love and good intentions!
Peppermint Lip Balm
Makes approximately 25 5-gram lip balm pots
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons white beeswax pellets
- 4 tablespoons coconut oil
- 6 tablespoons sweet almond oil
- 6 to 10 drops peppermint essential oil
Materials
- 25+ lip gloss containers
- Pint-sized mason jar
- Jar lifter
- Pot of boiling water
- A disposable chopstick for stirring the gloss
Directions
Fill a medium sauce pot halfway up with water and set it on the stove to boil. You don't want to use a pot that is too deep, as you want the mason jar to be able to sit in the water without getting any water inside of the jar.
Add the beeswax, coconut oil and almond oil to the mason jar. Once the pot of water is boiling, use your jar lifter to set the mason jar down so it's sitting inside the boiling water. As the jar heats up, the ingredients inside the jar will melt. Use your chopstick to stir everything together. Once the mixture is clear and melted, use your jar lifter to remove it from the heat. Stir in the peppermint essential oil with your chopstick.
Open all of your containers and lay them right side up on some paper towels. Set the lids aside. Once you are able to handle your jar without scalding yourself (I still recommend using an oven glove), pour the liquid lip balm evenly into the containers.
When the lip balm has cooled it will become solid. At this point, it's ready for use, and you can screw the lids back on.
Recipe Notes
Not into peppermint? Make any kind of balm you like by subbing in your favorite essential oil, or leaving it out entirely.
Want a tinted lip balm? It's easy. Get out your favorite lip colour, scrape a bit off of the tip (the more you add, the richer the colour), and add it to your wax and oils as they are melting. Make sure to stir once the oil comes to temperature as it will make the colour more even.