DIY LipBalm/Chapstick/whatever you want to call it

Back in the day, I really wasn't very good at following instructions. I had found a recipe online for homemade chap stick, which called for coconut oil, and bee's wax. I couldn't find any coconut oil, so I thought that extra virgin olive oil would serve a good substitute. Then I assumed that normal candle wax was pretty much the same as bee's wax, so I used that instead. I was pretty disappointed with the result

There isn't really any moral to this story, other than make sure you follow the following instructions... but I just thought it was a funny story to share :)

So here it is! My recipe, 10 years later, for homemade chap stick. This is an awesome gift, and people are almost always way more impressed than they should be because this craft is SO easy

♥ Coconut oil- or virtually any type of solid oil... this includes coco butter and Shea butter. Many tutorials call for tons of other ingredients, but I just use coconut oil, and it turns out perfect

♥Bee's Wax

♥Essential oil- Your choice of which scent you would like, but make sure it is edible! Common flavors are lavender, rose merry, peppermint, and lemongrass, but if you wanna get a little crazy, here is the list of FDA approved essential oils safe for consumption

♥Chap stick container- Unless you have some sort of specialty store that you know of that sells empty chap stick tubes, you can either go to the dollar store and purchase a set of crappy chap sticks and just use the tubes from those... or... there are tons of online suppliers which sell beautiful little tins.... try here if you live in the US, or here for Canadians... for everyone else just do a google search for "lip balm tin"

Alternately, you could just scavenge your house, and find old chap sticks and tins

♥ Syringe or Dropper- Optional but recommended

I know I haven't added the amounts of bee's wax and coconut oil, but that's because I'll leave how much you want to make up to you

All you need to know is that the ratio of oil to wax should be 2:1

First, scoop out your coconut oil.

When I first saw coconut oil, I was alarmed at its hard texture... if you are like me, don't be :)

Next, measure out your oil and your bees wax. I used 4oz of wax, and 8 oz of oil... this made roughly 6 tubes of chap stick

Now, chop up your bees wax so it's nice and fine... this just speeds up the melting process

Add your wax to a pot

My mom was horrified when I originally tried using her nice copper sauce pan for this project, so perhaps stick to your ceramic pots.

By the way, nice nails in the picture, hey ? Tutorial for that here

Let your wax melt... it should look like this

(I know I take a lot of photo's, but whenever I do projects, I always doubt whether I'm doing it right, so I like to have lots of picture of what it should look like along the way)

Add in your oil once the wax is melted

Mix it up till it all melts

Suck up solution in your syringe

Pour the mixture into your tube or tin or whatever you've chosen to use

Add enough that it sits in a bubble at the top of the container, almost ready to overflow

This is because the liquid will contract when it cools off

Allow about 10 minutes to cool

And there you go!

Tips and Other Things

♥ To add a pigmint, you can either shave off a few strips from your favorite lipstick, or you can even throw in a crayon

♥ Tea Tree oil has antibacterial and healing properties (true story), and it smells great! Try a few drops in your chap stick

♥ Vitamin E helps protect and heal skin... you can also try adding this into the pot 

♥ Try playing around with your desired texture. If you want it smoother and glossier, add more oil. If you are dissatisfied with the texture initially, you can always re-melt it and add in more oil or more wax

♥ If you make extra, you can seal it in a little Tupperware container and keep it till the next time you need a new batch of lip balm. Just add it to your pot again to re-melt

Enjoy your smooth, soft, kissable lips!

♥ Olivia 

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