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°C
• Soy wax: 52°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.

Do Lip Balms Need A Preservative?

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
• Lip balm tins or jars
• 50ml beaker

Method:

1. Weigh out all the ingredients and add them to the beaker.
2. Melt everything together (be careful, the beaker will get hot).
3. Quickly stir in the essential oils.
4. 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
• Lip balm tins or jars
• 50ml beaker

Method:

1. Weigh out all the ingredients except the essential oils, and add them to the beaker.
2. Melt everything together (be careful, the beaker will get hot).
3. Quickly stir in the essential oils.
4. Pour into your tins and then leave in the fridge to set up.