Love Your Lips--Young's Lip Balm

I've been meaning to create a lip balm for my sister. The last time we visited she was complaining about extremely dry lips. Making lip balm can be pretty simple, but I never can choose between the oils cause they all have such good properties I want to add to my balm. So my lip balms usually have 5 or more oils/fats. Here is my recipe:

Beeswax-->45 grams
Lanolin-->20 grams
Shea Butter-->20 grams
Palm Oil-->17 grams
Cocoa Butter, White deodorized-->34 grams
Castor Oil-->45 grams
Avocado Oil-->31 grams
Vitamin E-->8 grams
Sweet Almond Oil-->7 grams
Black Cherry Flavor Oil-->4 grams
Allantoin -->1 gram

I use grams to be more precise when measuring such small amounts. My scale lets me switch between ounces and grams. Weighing also gives me better precision than volume measuring so I can consistently get the same results.

Gather your ingredients, tools and equipment. You will also need: a double boiler (I use a small saucepan and a small stainless steel bowl), a scale, a spoon to stir, a pipette, lip tubes or pots and various small bowls.In a small bowl, measure the beeswax, palm oil and cocoa butter and set on the double boiler to melt gently. Some might use their microwave, but I like to gently melt my oils. Cocoa butter can cause crystals in your lip balm which isn't too pleasing. Stir occasionally. When you see a few small pieces floating around, take off the heat. Add the lanolin and shea butter. Shea Butter can also cause crystalization, so it needs to be treated gently. Stir and put back on the double boiler until mostly melted. Add the castor, avocado and sweet almond oil, stir. The cooler liquids will cause the some of the melted oils to slightly solidify, just keep stirring a little. Add the Vitamin E (I used Vitamin E Acetate) and yes, stir again. Take off heat. Most of these oils don't do well when overheated. Heat only long enough to return to a liquid state.

In a condiment bowl, weigh out your allantoin and flavor oil. Mix well. Add to oils, stirring well. You will notice the allantoin will cause the oils to be cloudy, don't worry, this won't matter when the balm is solid. At this point, you may notice a ring of balm around the edges of the bowl is solid. As long as the middle of the bowl is still liquid, this is good. Too hot and the flavor will burn off and the allantoin will fry.Time to fill your lip tubes or pots. I've chosen tubes. Since I've yet to purchase a lip balm filler tray, I use a plastic pipette. Fill to the top, I've filled 10 tubes and put the rest in a half pint canning jar for later. After the tubes have cooled down, you will see a "dimple". Leave as is or take some more lip balm and fill in the dimple. Let cool down completely, cap and label. Simple, yes?
All the ingredients can be found at Majestic Mountain Sage as well as the lip tubes and pipettes and a whole lot of other really neat things.
If you wanted to try your own recipe, I used this formula:

20% Beeswax
25% oils that are solid at room temperature (like coconut and lanolin)
15% oils that are brittle at room temperature (like cocoa butter)
40% oils that are liquid at room temperature (like castor, olive and sweet almond oil)

All oils/fats should be cosmetic or food grade.

Lip balms are simple gifts to make. I keep jars of lip balm ready to be melted and poured into containers for on the spot gifts. Try making your own and find out just how addicting lip balms can be. :-)