DIY Vegan Lip Balms
Lip balms make great gifts and stocking fillers, and you can make them in a flash: it basically entails melting a bunch of oils and butters together, pouring into a tin and leaving to set.
Many lip balms are made with beeswax, but here we’re choosing plant waxes instead to make our lip balms vegan.
Take note of plant wax melting points:
Carnauba: 82-86 degrees C
Soy wax: 52 degrees C
You will need to melt all your ingredients together to at least the above temperatures, and it is recommended to heat them a bit higher to ensure full melting.
As lip balms are anhydrous (no water, oils only) products, you don’t need to worry about a preservative. We like to add in a smidgen of Vitamin E oil for it's antioxidant and skin benefits however.
There are actually a variety of ways to adjust the texture, feel and appearance of lip balms, including using cetyl alcohol, different ratios of wax to oils, wax combinations, adding in other actives such as lanolin (not vegan though) or lecithin, the list goes on. We'd like to keep our recipes relatively simple though, so we've just selected a handful of good waxes, butters and oils to make our lip balms. Give them a try!
Choc Mac Lip Balm
I love chocolate coated macadamia nuts so I extended the theme to this lip balm! It has a subtle chocolatey nutty scent that is just right and not overpowering.
24.2g - makes 2 x 15ml lip balms
4g | 16.5% soy wax
7g | 29% raw cocoa butter
4g | 16.5% refined coconut oil or other neutral oil
9g | 37.2% macadamia nut oil
0.2 g | 0.8% Vitamin E oil
Weigh out all the ingredients and add them to the beaker. Melt everything together (be careful, the beaker will get hot), then quickly stir in the essential oils. Pour into your tins and then leave in the fridge to set up.
Vanilla & Sandalwood Lip Balm
While not necessary for a simple lip balm formula, the addition of lecithin makes this balm more creamy and spreadable. And we just love the combination of sandalwood and vanilla!
25g - makes 2 x 15ml lip balms
1.12g| 4.5% lecithin
10g | 40% avocado butter
9.88g | 39.5% carrier oil of choice - I usually just use almond oil but other options could be apricot kernel, hazelnut, macadamia, etc
3.75g | 15% soy wax
0.13g | 0.5% Vitamin E oil
0.13g | 0.25-0.5% vanilla and sandalwood essential oil
Weigh out all the ingredients except the essential oils, and add them to the beaker. Melt everything together (be careful, the beaker will get hot), then quickly stir in the essential oils. Pour into your tins and then leave in the fridge to set up.
Glossy Lip Balm
This lip balm uses castor oil as its main carrier oil. Castor oil is a rich and thick oil and is often used in lip care for its glossy properties. It really gives a nice skin feel and look to this balm. Carnauba wax is also known in the cosmetics world for giving a nice finish to lip products. I haven’t added any fragrance to this, but you are welcome to if you like.
25g - makes 2 x 15ml lip balms
12.35g | 49.4% castor oil
3.75g | 15% carnauba wax
8.75g | 35% avocado butter
0.15g | 0.6% Vitamin E oil
Weigh out all the ingredients and add them to the beaker. Melt everything together (be careful, the beaker will get hot), then quickly stir in the essential oils. Pour into your tins and then leave in the fridge to set up.
Fun Variations
Use a macerated carrier oil - learn how to make macerated oils here.
Try different butters and essential oil combinations eg: cocoa butter and peppermint essential oil; or try coffee bean oil as the carrier oil and use cocoa butter, to get a great mochaccino flavor.
Adding in something unique like sea buckthorn oil will give a gorgeous orangey colour. It won’t really tint your lips but it will make your balm appear a nice rich orange.
Try other fragrance combos: lavender and vanilla, citrus, spearmint, etc
Add in some mica for a light tint and shear shimmer.
Cleaning Up
Once you have decanted your hot lip balm mixture into tins, get a paper towel and wipe away the excess wax mixture inside the beaker. Then you can simply wash it with soap and water and there’s no waxy residue or cleanup hassles!
