I looked though a multitude of recipes but could never find one that seemed just right. Most of them contained too many ingredients, and as I've stated before, I'm lazy. Eventually I settled on a 3 ingredient recipe. But before I get into my experiments, let's talk about why the commercial stuff isn't so good for the delicate skin on your lips.
Many chap sticks and lip balms contain petroleum products. This is not only a potential carcinogen, but may also damage your skin on a deep level and can be toxic to your organs. Lanolin is another ingredient that is common in lip balm and lotions. This can disrupt your immune system function and make it more difficult for your body to fight off infection. Artificial colors and fragrances are in there, and as you know, tend to be one of the more toxic ingredients.
Ironically, when I checked out my day to day lip product, baby lips by Maybelline, many of the ingredients are know irritants to the skin. I have heard that companies do this sort of thing to ensure you will keep using their product. I don't know if that is true, but it wouldn't surprise me. Overall, my product got a 6 out of 10 on the toxic scale. And considering how much lip balm I use, and how many different lip products I have (seriously, I have some sort of problem), I really want the product I use to be good for me.
So on to the chapstick making!
I have been really into the orange colored lip balm as of late, so that was the first color I attempted. I decided to try and reduce carrot juice to a syrup and color the mix. I wasn't sure if the carrot juice would stay orange once heated, but it did. It got a little darker and took on a bit of a red tint as well, but still looked orange.
The recipe I used had just three ingredients, coconut oil, bees wax, and sweet almond oil. The original recipe called for a 1:1 ratio for wax to oil, but I found that was too much and had to add a bit more coconut oil so it would spread. I followed the directions, which were to melt all three ingredients together and then add whatever coloring agent you want, but that wasn't the best idea. You can see in the picture that my reduction stayed all clumped together because the wax cooled instantly around it and completely incased it. I stirred it around and it worked somewhat. The color was very light and the mix was grainy. I used a coffee filter to strain out the clumps and it still had some color to it. Even so, it turns out carrots don't offer too much in the way oil soluble color. I then tried adding beet root powder to see if it did anything more, but had the same clumping issue. In the end it had a pale yellow color to it.
The balm itself is wonderful though. The almond and coconut mix well and it is very healing. Both oils are moisturizing and offer many benefits to the skin (detailed in earlier posts). The bees wax has the benefit of coating the lips and sealing in the moisture. Even though my chapstick doesn't offer much in the way of color, I'm still quite happy with the results.
You can see that it did get some yellow/orange color to it, but it doesn't add much on the lips.If you want to try and make your own version of this recipe, here's what you'll need:
Ingredients
3 T coconut oil
1 T sweet almond oil
2 T bees wax
about 10 lip balm containers, tubes or pots
color (optional)
Tools:
measuring spoon
glass cup measure with a spout
Mix oils in glass measuring cup, microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Stir in coloring agent until mixed. Add bees wax and microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted. Pour into containers and let cool.
It's as easy as that! I have made 2 more batches since this one that I will be posting on soon. The next color I tried to make was red and I used a slightly different recipe. Stay tuned :)
