Easy recipes for how to make your own natural homemade lip gloss and lip balm for you or your Valentines.
Valentine’s Day is exactly one week from today.
I have nothing. Frantically searching my brain for some Valentine’s Day subject to write about I toyed with a cute boy-meets-girl and bat eyelashes at one another, the excitement of receiving a handwritten card or a flower from a boy (or girl) and slowly peeling open the note as you glance up ever so slightly from the corners of your eyes to see if anyone is watching, the anticipation of your first kiss with a special someone – or your first kiss ever – where your breath catches in your throat, the clocks slowing until the entire world skips a beat to let you have a moment.
Then there are childhood memories of valentines licked and sealed, with names scrawled brightly across the front, of paper-wrapped tissue boxes decorated in pink paper hearts and glitter that sit on top of desks and wait for small hands to drop in cute little cards with characters emblazoned across the front and temporary tattoos tucked inside. Small boxes are opened, full of chalky candy hearts in pastel colors with curt messages proclaiming love and requesting calls from the mouths they fill.
Kids, of course, grow up, and those tissue boxes are exchanged for candy-colored dresses and awkward shuffling in the school cafeteria with paper streamers twisted around support columns. Groups of kids stand huddled together arranged by some imaginary social status that they wear plastered across their faces and running through their veins and body language, turning them into automatons. They sway to the mainstream pop that blares through the school speakers, trying to sneak glances from across the tiled floor without the other parties catching on. Really, though, they hope to catch the other party staring back.
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As you grow older there can be pressure for the exchange of gifts and proper dinner reservations, complete with longing looks shared over a candlelit table. If you’re lucky, the conversation flows freely, and you are rewarded with a kiss.
In the middle of February when lips are dry and chapped.
Be kind to your friends this Valentine’s Day, and be sure to properly prepare them by bestowing the gift of smoothing lip balm. All crusty kisses aside, it makes a great winter treat for anyone you’re fond of, even if you are the recipient.
On second thought, I think I will go with a boy-meets-girl story after all. Happy Valentine’s Day.
2 teaspoons olive oil or jojoba oil
2 teaspoons coconut oil (solid at 74º F)
1 teaspoon shea butter or cocoa butter
1/2 teaspoon pure aloe vera
1/4 teaspoon vitamin E oil
5-7 drops essential oil (like peppermint or grapefruit)
In a double boiler, combine the beeswax, olive oil, coconut oil, and the shea/cocoa butter. Heat over low heat just until oils and beeswax are melted. Remove from heat. Stir in aloe vera, vitamin E, and the essential oils.
Pour the mixture into small 0.15-ounce tubes. Allow to cool completely to set.
Makes (7) 0.15-ounce lip balm tubes.
1 tablespoon olive oil or jojoba oil
2 teaspoons coconut oil (solid at 74º F)
1 teaspoon shea butter (can substitute with cocoa butter)
1/2 teaspoon castor oil
1/2 teaspoon lanolin
1/2 teaspoon pure aloe vera
1/4 teaspoon vitamin E oil
5-10 drops essential oil (like peppermint or grapefruit)
In a double boiler, combine the beeswax, olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, castor oil, and lanolin. Heat over low heat just until oils and beeswax are melted. Remove from heat. Stir in aloe vera, vitamin E, and the essential oils.
Pour the mixture into small 1/2-ounce tins.
Makes (4) 1/2-ounce lip gloss tins.
About the Ingredients
- Beeswax: Bees don’t just make honey. They make wax, too.
- Coconut Oil: I used unrefined extra virgin coconut oil that is solid at temperatures above 74º F. Below 74º F it will look like a white solid. It’s the same oil I use to cook with. For 1 teaspoon per recipe, I don’t believe it’s necessary to buy something special for this application. I also use coconut oil in the shaving cream and sugar scrub recipes.
- Shea Butter: When buying shea butter, I usually opt for an unrefined shea butter. I find that it is softer than its refined counterparts. It does seem to have a slightly lower melting point, though, which can make lip balms softer, but also can make shaving creams less stable.
- Cocoa Butter: Cocoa butter is a vegetable fat from the cacao bean. It is an antioxidant-rich moisturizer. It’s melting point is higher than shea butters, so it will make your lip balm and gloss a bit more stable/stiff than using shea butter.
- Vitamin E: I add vitamin E mostly for its smoothing properties, both on your lips and in the mix itself. You can cheat and just pop a few of those Vitamin E tabs and squeeze the oil out of them. It takes approximately 3 tabs to get the right amount, so if you have those around, just use them.
- Aloe: The aloe in these recipes can be left out. however, it contributes greatly to the lip gloss and also serves to make the lip balm slightly more silky on application. If you have it around for summer sunburns or scar treatment, add it in.
- Castor Oil: I use this on my face, and it is a great moisturizer and skin conditioner.
- Lanolin: This works to moisturize and protect chapped skin, which includes the lip skin. I will also be including it on a chapped skin bar I’m working on for a later post.
- Essential Oils: I went with three different flavors for the lip balms and gloss. We did one that was half vanilla, half peppermint for a vanilla mint lip gloss. We also made a few grapefruit-scented glosses, and we did all of our lip balms in pure peppermint.
- Tubes and Tins: I found a variety of tubes on Amazon, but I was determined to find a few small tins for the lip gloss. Specialty Bottle came to the rescue with these 1/2-ounce tins, and I added them on to a jar order.
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This is so. Very. COOL! Thanks for the recipe and shopping tips. Can’t wait to try this!
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These are brilliant – will you be my valentine?
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Of course!
This is a really lovely post. Great photography. Where do you shop for the specialty ingredients?
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Thank you, Robin! If you look under the recipes, there are links to several of the ingredients. I buy in bulk from Amazon and places like Mountain Rose Herbs or from local shops. I hope that helps a bit.
This is so awesome! If I have an addiction it would be lip balm. I have to have it, all the time. I have tubes in every jacket pocket, by my recliner, by the bed, in my purse, in the car. I’m not kidding. I love that you made your own and would really love the peppermint. So smart!
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I figured out a natural way to tint them the other day, and now I’m excited to make a few more with Kiera. An alternative to lipstick, if you will.
I love the pure ingredients and this is just the sweetest idea for Valentine’s Day.
This might be a silly question but where can I purchase beeswax?
I get mine from Amazon (link above) and Mountain Rose Herbs. It depends on if I’m ordering other stuff or if I’m taking advantage of the prime shipping from Amazon regarding where I’m ordering.
Super sweet Valentine’s Day gifts. I can only imagine how much fun our girls would have with this project!
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Thanks so much for all of your posts! Where did you find stickers small enough to fit on the lip balm containers? I’ve looked at Staples, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Michael, and on the internet. Did you cut them out of a larger sticker sheet?
They ones are Avery 5410 1″ rounds that I bought from Staples.
What a great idea! I need to try and make some of this. I always have dry lips, I use so much lip gloss.
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Beautiful! I’m always on the lookout for paraben free cosmetics and this DIY product is a great idea. Thanks for sharing it.
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I’m so loving this!
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Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve been wanting to try to make my own lip balm and this will be the perfect recipe to try! And it’s a great gift to give!
These look fantastic! What method have you found to tint them? Can’t wait to make these!
love this idea of making your own lip balm to give out!!!
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This is similar to a lotion recipe I use! Perfect!
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Are you taking orders? I always have to have my lip gloss with me — they’re scattered all over the house.
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What a fun DIY gift – I can’t wait to give these a try!
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Such a smart, easy and FUN project for Valentine’s Day. I can never have enough lip balm!
These sound fantastic! Homemade lip balm is on my to-do list once I run out of the stuff I already have. Pinning for later!
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Wow I am so amazed…you look like you’re your own fancy boutique! I am impressed that you did it AND made it so beautiful…I would likely just put it all in a little tuppeware. Sounds awful but true
Hey, it all works the same, right?!
So excited to try this! Silly question-is it aloe vera gel? I think there’s other forms of aloe so thought I better check!
I have an aloe plant that I broke off. As long as you use a pure aloe vera gel, I believe you should be fine.
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