The fall and 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 and lip balm like, well, almost as fast as I go through a can of Stephen’s Belgian Dark Chocolate Hot Cocoa. About ten 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 balm ever since! We buy all our supplies from Majestic Mountain Sage. They have various containers and all sorts of butters and oils to experiment and make not only your own chapstick and lipbalm but homemade soaps and lotions too.  One time I sat down to figure out how much it actually cost us to make our own chapstick over the years and would you believe we 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. We made three batches last week to stock up for the coming cooler weather.

The following is my favorite recipe. All three butters are creamy and very nice to work with.

Vanilla Twist Lip Gloss

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

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. The beeswax will take the longest to melt. Once all your ingredients are melted remove from microwave or heat source and add flavor oils. Using a pipette carefully transfer your lip gloss into your containers. This makes 45 chapstick tubes.

Cocoa Mint Lipbalm

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 15 chapstick tubes or 10 lip balm containers.

Hershey helped with this recipe and she wanted to add a bit of color (from some old lipstick) and also ultrafine iridescent glitter. We added these with the essential oils.

Juicy Orange Chapstick

1.6 oz. Beeswax (3 TBSP)
2 oz. Coconut oil (4 TBSP.)
1.2 oz. Mango or Shea butter (2 TBSP)
3.2 oz. Sweet Almond Oil (6 TBSP)
15 drops Orange essential oil

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 fills 65 chapstick tubes.

With any of these recipes you can substitute whatever flavor essential oils you prefer.

Now I know there are simpler recipes using petroleum jelly but really who wants a byproduct of the petroleum industry on their lips? Blech!