PUCKER UP

Easy to make lip balm soothes your smackers

KILEY CRUSE World-Herald Sta Writer

In the winter when it seems I can’t hydrate my skin enough, lip balm is never far from reach.

When I looked at the ingredients in a favorite lip balm, it didn’t surprise me that it was loaded with ingredients I couldn’t pronounce. I already had two of the main ingredients on-hand, so I thought I’d give making lip balm a try. It was shockingly simple to make. You can control the ingredients and tailor them to your avor and texture preferences.

I tried, and slightly adapted, ve recipes. They all included beeswax and some combination of coconut oil, shea butter, avocado or olive oil, honey and essential oils. After trial and error, I found the consistency I prefer includes about 1/3 beeswax to 2/3 other ingredients. Some like a more solid lip balm. If that’s you, add a little more beeswax. Some like a softer lip balm. For that, increase the liquid oils. The recipes make fairly small batches — between 2 and 5 ½-ounce containers. I recommend using organic products if you can nd them. Plan to use the lip balms within six months.

To make lip balm, these general directions will work for all the recipes. You will need a clean, small container you can melt the ingredients in. I sterilized a tomato sauce can and it worked perfectly. I found ½-ounce lip balm containers by the soap and lotion making supplies at a local craft supply store.

1. Put an inch of water in a small pan and warm over medium heat.

2. Add beeswax to the melting container and set in the warm water. Be very careful not to get any water in the melting container or it will cause the wax to seize up. Gently stir until the beeswax is all melted. We used a wooden chopstick as our stirrer.

3. Add all other ingredients except oils or extracts. Stir occasionally until melted.

4. Remove from heat, add oils and extracts. Stir until combined.

5. Pour into lip balm containers. The wax will cool fairly quickly. A few times we had to re-melt some of the lip balm mixture.

6. Allow to cool completely before putting the lid on.

RIGHT:

Plain Lip Balm

• 1 tablespoon beeswax

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• 1 teaspoon raw honey

•

¼ teaspoon

SWEET ORANGE & VANILLA LIP BALM

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 teaspoons beeswax

• 2 teaspoons shea butter

• 8 to 10 drops sweet orange essential oil beeswax pastilles or grated beeswax coconut oil

Honey

CHOCOLATE LIP BALM

• 1½ teaspoons coconut oil

• 2½ teaspoons beeswax

• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder

• 2 teaspoons avocado oil

• 5 drops peppermint essential oil

COPYCAT BURT’S BEES BEESWAX LIP

BALM

• 2 tablespoons beeswax

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 2 tablespoons shea butter essential oils

Cinnamon Honey Lip Balm

• 1 teaspoon + 1 tablespoon beeswax

• 1 tablespoon shea butter

• 2 teaspoons coconut oil

• 1 teaspoon avocado oil

• 1 teaspoon honey

• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon oil flavoring (found with candy making supplies)

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

• 12 drops peppermint

NOTE: Make sure the honey is well incorporated. On our rst try, the honey separated and settled to the bottom essential oil

• of the lip balm container. We re-melted, stirred it up really well and it was ne on the second pour.