Blend-It-Yourself Lip Balm
To get you started, here’s one of the simplest things you can make for yourself: a natural lip balm.
It’s a particularly important element of your self-care because the skin on your lips doesn’t produce its own oil (making it a unique part of your body) – that’s why lips can get quite dry. They’re also constantly exposed to the changing weather conditions, drying winds and so forth. There’s certainly no hiding them away, so take care of them – have lips to be proud of.
You need three ingredients: wax, butter and oil.
These need to be in the basic proportions of 1:1:3
(1 part wax, to 1 part butter and 3 parts oil)
So, for example: 15g wax, 1 tablespoon (15g) butter, and 3 tablespoons (45ml) oil
For the wax, natural beeswax is great, there’s even the potential that using local beeswax can help with hayfever in a similar way to eating local honey. A vegan alternative is candelilla wax, you’ll need to multiply the quantity of wax by four if you’re using this.
The butter can be any cosmetic butter, ideally one that sets quite hard such as cocoa butter or shea butter. Or, if you want a butter derived from a temperate-grown plant, there’s walnut butter.
The oil should be a cold-pressed seed oil. Temperate options you may have in your kitchen are sunflower oil or rapeseed oil, they’re fine. Or olive oil. For more specialist cosmetic oils try sweet almond oil or thistle oil which will give a less greasy finish to the final product.
Having assembled your ingredients, combine them using the gentle heat of a bain marie. That means putting a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of water so they are warmed by the steam, rather than giving them direct heat. Stir as they melt to ensure all is well combined (I prefer to do this with a small whisk). Once you have an amber liquid, remove it from the heat and keep stirring as it cools. You’ll notice a change in consistency, that’s when you can pour your balm into your pot and let it set. In a few minutes you will have your very own natural lip balm and the power to keep your lips hydrated and protected.
Additional notes:
- you can add extra flower power to your lip balm by using a herb-infused oil. Calendula and comfrey are good healing options for this.
- Once at the amber liquid stage, you may chose to add a few drops of essential oil. For example, tea tree oil is good for cold sores, chamomile is healing or lemon can be refreshing.
- You can find tins and tubes designed to hold lip balm by searching online. Why not make a few for friends too.
- For more information and a video about making your own lip balm – and everything you need to do so in a handy kit, visit the news section of my website www.fieldfreshskincare.co.uk
