So, I’ve mentioned my super awesome friend Holly several times on this blog. She’s the kind of friend who brings you family dinner when you’ve had surgery, who will can 4 million ears of corn with you, who you can discuss gardening and raising chickens with (because she has them too!) and who you never run out of things to talk about with.
She’s also the kind of friend who will write an awesome blog post for you when she’s whipped up some amazing homemade lip balm. Seriously, this stuff is good. Super good. Like, don’t have to fight with your 6 year-old who hates to have anything put on his lips, good.
I am a lover of EOS lip balm (you know those overpriced little egg shaped ones??) I’ve been using this instead… you’ll need to make some. Or become friends with someone like Holly so they will make you some.
So without further ado I present my guest and super friend, Holly!
(just a note- she wrote this last weekend when we were in the throws of the “Polar Vortex” and it was like -20 here! Buurrrr!!)
Krista and I have talked multiple times about many different things that we would like to make- everything from jams and jellies to laundry detergent and everything in between. When she said in December that she wanted to do a challenge to start to swap things out for more natural ones I was all over that. I sent her a text almost immediately. My first thought (after “this is going to be fun!”) was how can I help? I suggested to her that maybe we trade off- each of us make some stuff, then trade and critique! That takes a lot of work off of each of us, and forces me to actually do some of the stuff that I’ve been talking about forever….I like a good challenge!
One of the things I’ve actually gone out and bought supplies for was a Burt’s Bees lip balm copy-cat. I’ve read multiple recipes for this and LOVE Burt’s Bees, so I thought it was perfect. When Krista told me that she had ordered beeswax to do this also, but that it had been backordered I thought it was double perfect! I decided last night during the bitter cold deep freeze that I would try it. When I looked at the multiple recipes online they each had things in common and some small differences, so I took things I liked and got rid of some things I didn’t. Now I know that Krista may throw me off the blog for saying that I’m not really a fan of coconut oil. It’s greasy and to me always feels gritty. That was one thing that I saw most recipes had, so, since I had cocoa butter wafers I thought I would try that instead. I’ve never been a very good recipe follower anyway, so of course I had to make my own changes!
Here’s my version of the recipe.
1oz Beeswax
20 Wafers Cocoa Butter
½ oz. Shea Butter (a good spoon full)
13 Drops of Peppermint essential oil
The directions are easy. Drop it all (except for the essential oil) in a double boiler and melt.
My version of a ‘double-boiler’ looks a little different…..
I’m too cheap to buy a real one when I can take a Pyrex bowl on top of a big pan full of water. It works great.
Keep melting…
After it’s all melted add your essential oil.
Then, you can do one of a couple things. Since I had not made it before, I wanted to see what the consistency would be, so I stuck it into my blast chiller (outside) and let it solidify (about 5 minutes last night….), you could also just drop it into the containers at this point.
Once it was cool I tried it out. I loved it- it was minty, but not too minty, and it was solid enough to make sure I didn’t feel like I had just stuck my lips in goo. It also lasts FOREVER on my lips and smells a little bit like chocolate!
To put it in the containers I went ahead and heated it again, and then used my trusty turkey baster to drop it into the lip balm containers
Despite that you can notice the mess that I continued to leave down the sides of each container…
Let them sit overnight, then clean and cap! Ta-Da! Easy! My recipe made 18 containers. Factoring in the price that I paid for everything, then dividing it by the number of batches I could get out of each ingredient, each tube cost me approximately $0.41. The most expensive part of the whole thing was the Lip Balm Tubes at $0.25 each. Even better there’s no ingredients that I can’t pronounce!
Afterthought: I would perhaps offer a few recommendations based on my clean-up later…. 1. Don’t use a turkey baster you plan on using again. 2. Clean the tubes off when they are still warm….
And since the whole house smelled like a giant Peppermint Patty I had to proceed to make those too to quell the craving that the lip balm created….oops, J
You want Holly to be your friend now too don’t you?? Just a note (and an affiliate link) everything for this recipe can be ordered from Mountain Rose Herbs. That’s where Holly got hers, and we both love their products and service!
now!! 
Some of the pictures aren’t showing up for me. I love this recipe though, hopefully one of these days I will make a batch of my own!
Pictures not showing up for me either?? Anonymous Mother XOXO