Hello there I AM BACK! 😀
So many things have happened in these last few months… but it’s good to be back home also because I am able to make my little cosmetic experiments again! 😀
This recipe of this “Winter Delight Lip Rescue Balm” is not mine: it was invented by the lady (LOLA!) who started the forum where I have learnt most of my “cosmetic knowledge” (here is my SOURCES page 😉 ); I asked for her permission to share it because it is truly the best recipe for a lip balm I have ever tried!
(In case you know Italian and want to read the original recipe: go HERE)
It is more than two years I have been making this so it is very well tested!
Well, most of the lip balms contain only an oily phase. No matter how many times you might have heard that “shea butter (or any other oil or butter) has great hydration properties” well as a matter of fact… it doesn’t! 😀
If you keep using only an oil on your skin, the result is that your skin will actually become more dry after some time; this is because the grease will form a kind of layer on top of your skin which will initially prevent water from “leaving” the skin (and this is why greasy greasy lip balms make your lips feel so soft and juicy in the beginning), but it won’t bring any hydration at all (obviously, since it doesn’t contain any water)… Eventually what really happens is that your skin will lose hydration more slowly than without the “only grease” lip balm but eventually it will lose it anyway! 😉
So what is so special about this recipe?
It has a water phase too!!! 😀 😀 😀
Yes you read right! It contains a water phase which will actually REALLY help hydrate your lips! 😉
And on top of that… the ingredients are EXTREMELY EASY TO FIND! 😀
So what are you waiting for??? 😉
RECIPE:
Oil Phase:
Beeswax – (possibly the yellow virgin one and not the bleached one: it will give a better scent to the product 😉 ) 20
Rice Bran Oil – 45
Tocopheryl Acetate (or Tocopherol – but this will darken your lip balm) – 10
[if you want you can add a little tiny tip of a spoon of vanillin here. It will give a wonderful smell 😉 ]
Water Phase:
Glycerin – 5
Honey – 20
Phase C:
Sweet Orange Essential Oil – 5 drops
HOW TO:
As Lola explains in her recipe: this is a modified cold cream! What you have to do is to measure the two phases.
[In this picture is the measurement of the Oily Phase]
You heat up the two phases separately.
Once the wax has melted, you start mixing the Oily Phase (a spoon will be fine or you can use the same tool which I am using in the picture… but this might add bubbles and you don’t want this to happen) and you add DROP BY DROP the Water Phase.
[In this picture I had to stop my mixing… you DON’T DO THAT 😀 😀 😀 ]
Adding one drop at a time is very important: in fact this recipe doesn’t contain any emulsifier… what you want to do is to actually create extremely small water soluble particles so that when the beeswax will become cold again (therefore becoming solid again) it will keep these small water soluble particles separated! If you fail and pour too cold or too much Water Phase at a time… it won’t come out right and you won’t end up with a smooth lip balm… more likely you will end up with a solid thing (dunno how to call it) with big big bubbles of honey every now and then! Bleah! 😀
So be patient and STIR CONSTANTLY. It will take around 30 minutes!
[my grand-grand-ma used to say: “suffer suffer little girl if beautiful you want to appear!” 😀 so if you want soft and happy lips this winter… stir stir stir! 😉 ]
Eventually it should look something like this:
Actually it was the first time I was using this tool instead of a spoon and it created some bubbles (yeah I know… I should have known better but sometimes one needs to do something wrong to actually learn a lesson! 😀 ), so I suggest you use a normal spoon or (even better) spatula! 😉
However one month and a half has gone and it is still fine so I don’t think it is a big problem… simply it could have come out better! 😀
The very last step… when it looks kinda like up above you can add 5 drops of Sweet Orange Essential Oil!
The honey and this essential oil will create an IRRESISTIBLE SMELL!
This Lip Balm results in quite a creamy one so putting it in a stick is not an option. Find a nice little jar (of cosmetic use) and ENJOY! 😉
Let me know what you think of the recipe! 😀
Ah!
And I have a little contest for you:
This recipe doesn’t contain any preservative and that’s fine as it is… who can guess WHY? 😉
The reply will come in the next post [with the hope I remember ahahah 😀 ]
Now I am finalizing the recipe for a Leave-In Conditioner! Keep tuned! 😀
For more recipes click HERE
To learn how to formulate cosmetics click HERE
For a list of online cosmetic ingredients suppliers click HERE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
It's all in my hands 
Needed for those cold winter days 😦 Adorable owl!
AurumEve.com ~ Global Jewelry
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Thank you.
I think I already made cold cream (w/o) without realisig this. By weight, I used 50/50 water/oil(liquid oil) plus 13% bees wax from oil quantity. The cream was stable but now , after I’m reading your post about thickeners, I think is better to use some one (cetyl alcohol for example).
Thank you again.
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Is this in grams or percentages? I wanted to try this right away but now I’m not sure on the measurement. Thanks
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It is the same thing:
if you use these quantities as grams, you will get 100 grams of lip balm (which is quite a lot 😀 but you could store it and use it until next year or you could gift it 😀 ).
If you consider the quantities as percentage and, let’s say, you want to make 50 grams… you just cut half every quantity 😉
(just a suggestion: write down the recipe with the quantities cut in half and don’t rely on your memory to cut the quantities in the process of making the lip balm 🙂 it is indeed a very simple calculation, but sometimes in the process you could forget to divide by 2 and would end up wasting a lot of good ingredients for nothing 🙂 )
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Is there a reason for the rice bran oil? Does it have a certain weight or properties that you want? Are there other oils we could use?
What about almond oil or lanolin, have you used them much? I’ve become a fan of thick lanolin for my lips so I just got some liquid lanolin to try to use in some products.
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This was not my recipe, I have done this recipe even with a bit of castor oil and sunflower oil.
You can use ideally any oil, but it will change the feel of the balm at least a little. 🙂
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Also, are these measurements All in grams?
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Yes 🙂
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One more question! Could this recipe be modified to have more beeswax to make it a little more firm and not so fluffy?
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It is not very fluffy actually (it was only cause I used a whisk, but I shouldn’t have).
However you can try to increase the % of beeswax (you will have to adjust the amount of oil) however it won’t be too hard (not for a stick): this formulation with glycerin and honey is a “fake” cold cream. It is not meant to be a hard lipbalm for a stick (it would be a very different formulation if that was the aim 🙂 )
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Because honey itself is a natural preservative 😃 isnt it ?
Cant wait to make this.
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No honey is self preserved but in small amount in a water system it would work as a bug food.
But the reason why here there is no need for a preservative is that there is no free water: glycerin is in high% making any water or superficial humidity unavailable.
However, this recipe would need a preservative if anyone wanted to produce such a product, and probably a stabilizing agent/emulsifier as well: beeswax is not an emulsifier, here it “emulsifies” only mechanically! 🙂
However, this is still my favourite lipbalm recipe ever! 🙂
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This recipe looks fantastic, but I did not get the no preservative stuff. why are glycerin and honey classified as water fase if there is no water in there? and glicerin just preserve in % more than 70 and honey usually spoils recipes.. so I did not get it.. and could I skip the tocopheryl part?
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Water phase is for water soluble ingredients, so that’s why it is called water phase.
Glycerin has extremely low water activity because of her chemistry, honey has low water activity because of the high sugar content. Since there is no water to dilute them and since this is close to a cold cream we can skip preserving.
It is true that adding a little honey to a cosmetic like a shampoo or a cream is not a good idea, but this formulation a little exception: If you add a spoon of honey to a bottle of water, that is bug food… but honey on its own doesn’t spoil. That is the same concept 🙂
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Forgot: you can skip the Vitamin E and substitute with an oil 🙂
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=)
Thanks for answering
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But why is your honey too white? Mine is dark brown
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There is no picture of my honey but yes it was quite light in color: I used orange flower honey from the south of italy.
I have done this recipe also with chestnut honey (very dark) and the final color change was quite small.
However this lipbalm won’t color your lips! 🙂
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I am totally new to this…..but I would like to make your balm. What is the purpose of the beeswax? What does it do texturally or otherwise for the balm? Could I decrease it a little (and maybe up the oil)? I don’t mind something more creamy…would that work, you think? I am a little leary of using wax but you can reassure me. And right now I have pomegranate oil, which i absolutely love. Its very thick almost like vit e oil. Could I use that in place of the rice bran oil? Do you think Vit E would still be necessary given that PO is so full of antioxidants?
You have a wonderful blog and I really admire and respect how you answer so many questions.
Thank you!
Smita
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The beeswax is what keeps this together mechanically. This balm is not solid enough in the way that it cannot be made as a stick, but without the beeswax it would be separated liquid made of honey and glycerin and then oils. So, yes, you need the wax.
Vit E is not necessary: I have omitted it many times substituting it with other oils. You can change the oils with what you have 😉
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So attentive to her blog is refreshing!
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Thank you! Smita
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HI THERE! how long will this lip balm last without a preservative? 3, 6 months?
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I have used it within 3 months but there’s no way to know unless you get it tested
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Hi, I wonder if it would be a good idea to add Zinc Oxide to make it more suitable for daytime use? If so, what ratio do you recommend? Do you heat up the water phase to 70 celsius before mix two phases up? I’m completely new to DIY.
Thank you!
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Zinc Oxide would end up making your lips white, it is the same ingredient used in the diaper cream for the rashed butt of babies… So it means REALLY white and visible.
Why would you want to add it for day use? 🙂
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I want to add Zinc Oxide to add some SPF. I currently use Aesop Lip Blam which uses Zinc Oxide as sunscreen, it doesn’t look particular white to me (maybe just a little if you look carefully). My favourite lip balm is Fresh’s Sugar lip balm, a bit pricey; if this recipe works out would be just as good, would save me 85%+ cost.
Did you heat up the water phase to 70 celsius before mix two phases up, btw?
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DIY and SPF don’t work well together: SPF formulations are very well controlled and tested. There are many dangers which can actually make things worse in an “at home” SPF attempt and here is why.
The way Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide work as SPF is by making and even layer on the skin which PHYSICALLY protects the skin. A bit like putting very thick clothes on.
HOWEVER, serious brands who produce such “physical” SPF creams do actually a lot of testing on their products. They have to check the combination of the base they use with a specific particle size of zinc oxide. The fact is that there is a very HIGH RISK that the physical barrier has small holes in between and those extremely small holes are very dangerous because the reflective index of both zinc oxide and titanium dioxide is very high and those small places on the skin would end up getting an extremely dangerous UV exposure (as if there was something like a magnifying lens!).
I NEVER attempt doing SPF at home and I definitely DON’T suggest you to do, specially not with physical filters. Nowadays you could find chemical filters which tend to be less difficult to work with and definitely less dangerous.
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Thank you for the lengthy explanation. I have read articles about the risk of homemade sunscreen. Looks like I’ll have to continue buying lip balms with SPF (100g would last forever if I can only use it at night, lol). I did check the formula of Fresh Sugar lip balm, they do use chemical filters; Aesop’s use Zinc Oxide which doesn’t feel as nice (feels sticky).
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I heated up the phases, yes!
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Hello! I just wanted to leave a note to let you know that I just made this lipbalm, and it is lovely! It is my first DIY skincare attempt, and it came together so easily (though tocopherol is so messy lol!). I’m thrilled with the result: the texture is melting and soft, and leaves my lips so happy! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes and knowledge 🙂
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Hey there, I really love this formula, i’ve made it for friends a number of times now and it’s by far my favourite balm. I understand a preservative is not required however if you were to use one what kind of preservative would you use? thanks
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On the lips I just wouldn’t. If I wanted to be extra sure I would omit the honey and glycerin and just make a butter so 110% no preserving system needed
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Hello,
Just wanted to report that I just made this and it’s lovely. It feels really creamy (not sticky) and actually stays on my lips, even though it’s hard not to eat it because it smells so nice 🙂 I didn’t have rice bran oil so I used 30% almond oil and the rest coconut oil and that worked fine (it’s warm where I live so coconut oil is very soft at room temperature). Such an interesting, easy and useable formula! Thank you 🙂
Oh yes, and 50g of this is enough to fill a 50ml tub plus an extra tiny one like the ones that are used for samples (5ml maybe?).
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Update: After I loved the first version so much I made this again, using up a couple of oils I needed to do something with. So this time it was almond oil, some very fancy rosehip seed oil and a bit of coconut. I also experimented with different additives, making one version with peppermint oil (nice and fresh), one with cocoa CO2 extract (delicious) and one with some lip safe powder colourant. I’m extremely happy with all versions; the coloured one is a bit trickier to apply than a traditional lipstick but I love that I can get a nice strong colour AND the nice feeling and protection of this lip cream with it. Thanks again for this marvellous recipe 🙂
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