Homemade Lip Balm
It is pretty easy to make your own lip balm at home. Save up your used lip balm tubes and small containers or purchase new ones. It is inexpensive and makes a lovely little gift.
All you will need is some beeswax, oil (sweet almond or coconut), and a flavoring oil, if desired. You should start with a ratio of two parts oil to one part beeswax. You put these ingredients in a pan and heat until the wax is thoroughly melted. Add your flavoring as it begins to cool. Stir with an old chopstick or other disposable stick. Once it is cooled, check the consistancy. If it is too hard, add oil and reheat. If it is too soft, add more beeswax. You can vary the consistancy to suit your needs. Let’s say you wanted to make a creamy salve…that means you’ll be using more oil. You can use medicinal oils such as comfrey, tea tree and rosemary to make healing salves.
Pouring the liquid into a pyrex measuring cup will make it easier to pour into small openings.
You can also add other fats like shea butter. Shea butter is a whitish fat obtained from the seeds of the shea tree. You can add cocoa butter or even mango butter!
4 ounces of Sweet Almond oil and two ounces of Beeswax will make more than enough to fill a dozen ¼ oz. jars or tubes. To this size batch, you would add a few drops of essential oils (such as anise, peppermint or orange).
Other optional ingredients …. honey, wheat germ oil, vitamin E (just break open a capsule), lanolin, a small piece of an old lipstick (for color).
You can probably do this pretty easily in a microwave, too. But since I don’t own one, I can’t help you there!