The winter weather can be harsh. Particularly here in the desert where the blowing winds and dry air deliver a double whammy to our skin and lips. To keep our chapped lips at bay our family goes through chapstick like, well, almost as fast as I go through a can of Stephen’s Belgian Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa. About five years ago I decided to try and make our own chapstick. All it took was one shot and we were hooked. We’ve been making our own chapstick and lip gloss ever since. The initial cost to buy all the ingredients was about $50 but we are still using the ingredients and have literally made a couple hundred tubes of chapstick and jars of lip gloss bringing our average cost per tube to about $0.20. We still have enough of the ingredients left to
make about 150 more tubes which will mean we literally paid about 12 cents for each tube of chapstick!! Is that a steal or what? What’s even better – we know exactly what’s going into the chapstick and consequently what we are putting on our lips.
Here are our two favorite recipes from Majestic Mountain Sage where we bought all of our ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1.6 ounces Aloe Butter (3 TBSP.)
1.6 ounces Avocado Butter (3 TBSP)
1.6 ounces Beeswax (3 TBSP)
.8 ounces Mango Butter (1 1/2 TBSP)
Flavors (or choose your own combination)
15 drops Vanilla Banilla Flavor Oil
5 drops Lime Essential Oil
Optional Ingredients
For a little shimmer you can add
2 – .15cc scoops of Ultrafine, Iridescent Glitter (please do not use the Fine Glitter, it is too large)
Equipment
- Microwave safe glass beaker/measuring cup or Double Boiler
Scale
Transfer pipettes
Lip Balm Containers for filling
Instructions
Weigh the fixed oil ingredients into either a double boiler or glass beaker. If you choose to use the microwave pay special attention to your mixture as things get HOT very quickly in the microwave. I recommend using short bursts of time. Heat for 20 to 30 seconds at a time and stir well so pieces will melt completely without excessive heat. Once all your ingredients are melted remove from microwave or heat source and add flavor oils and desired color. Using a pipette carefully transfer your lip gloss into your containers.
Ingredients:
- .25 ounces Beeswax (1 1/2 teapoons)
.33 ounces Shea Butter (2 teaspoons)
.33 ounces Regular Cocoa Butter (2 teaspoons)
.40 ounces Sweet Almond Oil (2 1/2 teaspoons)
2 mL Vitamin E Acetate (I squeeze about 4 vitamin E gel capsules into the mixture) optional
10 drops Peppermint Essential Oil
Instructions:
Weigh all ingredients, then melt the oils and Beeswax in microwave. Add the essential oil and pour into prepared containers. Let them cool, then cap. This quantity fills 4 (MMS) lip balm tubes and 3 (MMS) lip Balm Jars, with just enough remaining for your anxious family members to sample.
You can substitute whatever flavor essential oils you prefer. Our personal favorite is orange.
Now I know there are simpler recipes using petroleum jelly but really who wants a byproduct of the petroleum industry on their lips? Blech!
Next we want to try make our own lotions and soaps.
Visit Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar for more activities and ideas.
I love Magestic Mountain Sage!! I have made lotion for years from their ingredients!! I haven’t done it in a while, but I really should!
Great Idea. How about just sending me a sample just to see if i like it 🙂 it is much easier for you to make than for me to make. Love you Aunt Nancy
Such great ideas today! I gotta try this. I’m a chapstick hog!
Do you have a good moisturizing lotion recipe, too?
Thanks for the link,this is something I would love to try. Seems like we can never find any ‘lipstuff’ around here when we need some.
Thanks also for the tip on Good Reads.
I used to make my own chapstick too! There was something very satisfying about making a product even better than what is in the stores. Unfortunately I ran out of ingredients! Have you ever made lotion bars? Similiar concept, but for the rest of the body.
Wow, this is really cool. I want to try it. Can you buy the tubes to fill at the same store where you buy the ingredients, generally?
I really would like to do this. Where do you buy the tubes to hold the chapstick?
http://www.clarkandcrystal.com/myblog
MommyTime and Crystal,
I buy the tubes and containers from Majestic Mountain Sage too. It looks like the prices have increased a little from when I bought them several years ago.
Oh wow… seems too ambitious forme right now, but such a fun idea!
Sometimes those things smell so good I’m tempted to lick them! 🙂
Nice! I will probably not attempt this any time soon, but it does look like fun..
Not only would this be great to have on hand for all the reasons you gave but I bet it would be a fun activity for B-day parties and sleep overs and even mom parties.
What a wonderful idea. Belgian Dark is also my favorite Stephen’s Hot Chocolate. Irish Creme is my second favorite. I buy the largest cannisters I can year round.
What do you use do you measure your ingredients? I don’t want to buy a scale for 300+ dollars because that would kind of take the inexpensive out of this whole project.
By the way, I LOVE your blog. I read it at least once a week. I am going to start a blog this summer. You have inspired me in a big way.
Thank you!
Karen Kent
Karen,
Good question! I actually just convert the weights into tablespoon/teaspoon measurements. It’s not as precise but I’ve never had a recipe fail yet.
8 liquid ounces = one cup or 16 tablespoons. So 1 ounce = 2 TBPS.
I’ve gone and added the tablespoon measurements in the recipes on the post. Hope that helps!