Skill: Deepening Balm Formulation Skills

Enhance your balm formulation skills with our Easy Hydrating Lip Balm recipe! Building on the principles of crafting herbal salves and balms, this recipe delves deeper into the purpose of each ingredient. Learn how to combine oils, waxes, and butters to create a nourishing lip balm tailored to your needs. Master the art of ingredient selection and customization for effective and personalized skincare.

No matter the time of year, taking care of our lips is always essential! Whether you're basking in the summer sun, bracing against winter winds, or enjoying the crisp air of spring and fall, our lips can often bear the brunt of the elements. That's why I love creating DIY skincare to keep my lips hydrated and protected all year round. This week, I've whipped up a rich, hydrating lip balm to restore dry lips with just four simple ingredients. I prefer a light scent, so I've added a touch of essential oils, but that's entirely optional. This recipe is perfect for beginners and seasoned alchemists alike! Let's dive in!

A recipe to build off

Not only is it empowering to take your self care into your own hands, creating your own products means you can tailor them to your exact preferences. One of my favorite DIY products is lip balm—it's surprisingly easy to make, and once you grasp the basics, the possibilities are endless. This recipe teaches you the fundamental principles behind oil-based skincare recipes, which can be applied to many other formulations, like lotions or balms. Once you understand what each ingredient does, combining them in other ways to create different products becomes easy!

Oil Based Formulations

This recipe is oil-based, meaning all the ingredients are oils, waxes, or lipids. When all your ingredients are oil-soluble, you simply melt them together and stir, making for an easy-to-follow recipe. Before we get into the actual recipe, let’s go through each ingredient and their role in the formulation. I want to give you a fantastic recipe while also teaching you some skills so you can start devising your own creations!

Choose your Favorite Carrier Oil

The carrier oil is completely customizable and forms the base of the formula. It’s what all the other ingredients are dissolved in. I prefer to use fast-absorbing oils for immediate relief from chapped lips. This keeps the formula from feeling too oily while still providing instant hydration. Grapeseed oil or apricot kernel oil are my go-tos. For a more nourishing formula, try substituting jojoba oil.

Prevent Rancidity with Vitamin E

To keep your oil from going rancid quickly, I add vitamin E to my oil-based formulas. It’s also wonderful for repairing the skin. One of my go to antioxidants, vitamin E is technically an optional ingredient, though I highly recommend adding it!

Firm Up with Waxes

I like my lip balms to provide instant relief for chapped lips while being long-lasting. For these reasons beeswax is perfect for its healing and sealing qualities. For a vegan alternative, use candelilla or carnauba wax. The wax gives the lip balm its body, preventing it from melting. The amount of wax can be adjusted to create your desired texture—more wax for a firmer balm, less for a softer one. You will always want at a minimum 10% wax so that the lip balm holds its shape.

Enhance Texture with Plant Butters

The other base ingredient is a plant butter of your choice. I prefer sal butter for the matte finish it gives the formula, but shea butter is great too, or even coconut oil if that’s handy. The only downside to shea butter is it can crystallize over time, making the balm grainy. This is nothing to worry about as it does not impact the quality, just the texture. To prevent this, try putting your lip balm in the freezer while it sets. Plant butters act as thickening agents, creating a creamy texture and adding emollient properties. I find that when I don't use butter I need to reapply more often too.

Now those four ingredients create the base of this recipe, from here customize as you prefer. I like to do this by adding in different combinations of herbs and essential oils…

Add Natural Scent with Essential Oils

I prefer a mildly scented balm so I add just a touch of essential oils. Feel free to tweak these to your liking. Just make sure to use essential oils that are safe for your skin. If you don't know which ones are best just check out my blog post on Essential Oils that are Safe for the Skin!

Less is more when it comes to essential oils. Always add these dropwise, meaning add a drop or two, mix and then assess the scent before adding any more. To check the scent I recommend mixing in a bit of essential oil and then putting a drop on the back of your hand. Rub in the drop and smell to see if it is strong enough. It's easy to overdo it so add slowly and keep checking the scent as you go!

Infuse with Herbs

Customize your lip balm by adding your favorite herbs! Infuse them into the oil before formulating. Calendula buds make a great addition for their skin-healing properties, and peppermint adds a cooling sensation. I use peppermint essential oil for this recipe, but a peppermint leaf infusion would work as well.

Hydrating Lip Balm Recipe

Now that we’ve covered the ingredients and their purposes, let’s get into the actual recipe!

Besides your ingredients you will need a kitchen scale, a glass bowl and a small pot, or a double boiler. A kitchen scale is not completely required but I find it helpful when trying to create consistent recipes. I also gave the quantities for each ingredient in tablespoons so that even if you don't have a scale, you can still create this lip balm!

Ingredients

42 grams Jojoba Oil (3 tbsp)
4 grams Vitamin E (1/4 tbsp)
14.5 grams Beeswax (1 1/2 tbsp)
20 grams Sal Butter (1 1/2 tbsp)
5 drops Lemon EO
3 drops Spearmint EO

Procedure

Add a small amount of water to your pot and turn on the heat to medium-low. Make sure not to add too much water so that none gets into your balm. If using a double boiler, set that up instead.
Weigh each ingredient with your kitchen scale and add it to the bowl. Skip the essential oils for now.
Slowly heat your bowl until the waxes and butters melt, stirring frequently to help them melt evenly.
Once melted and mixed, remove from heat and add your essential oils dropwise, smelling as you go to avoid adding too much.
Stir to mix, then pour your lip balm into a jar or tube while still liquid and allow it to solidify completely before enjoying.

And there you have it—a potion of pure hydration! This easy hydrating lip balm, with its blend of luxurious oils and enchanting essential oils, is ready to weave its magic on your lips. Whether you're braving the summer sun, winter winds, or the breezes of spring and fall, let this balm be your trusty companion. Embrace the joy of crafting your own skincare and revel in the simple pleasures of self-care. Your lips deserve the very best, and with this divine creation, they shall have it!

Thank you for journeying through this recipe with me! May your lips stay soft and hydrated, and may you find inspiration in every season. Stay tuned for more magical DIY recipes!

Easy Hydrating Lip Balm Recipe