Lip Gloss and Lip Scrub

I love peppermint lip balm.  I bought a little tube at the spa for $6.50 and used it all the time.  It was almost gone and I really didn't want to spend $6.50 to buy another if I could make some myself.  There are tons of recipes online for lip balm/lip gloss but most made more than I wanted and some had ingredients I either didn't have or didn't want on my lips. 

I love coconut oil and use it for all sorts of things, but I knew I needed something in the recipe that would give it a more solid texture when finished.  Organic Beeswax pellets seemed a good choice and it was used in many of the recipes I had looked at.

I also wanted it to have a little color tint to it to make it look prettier in the container.  I was amazed at the many suggestions I saw for tinting lip gloss.  Chunks of your favorite lipstick, powdered drink mix, food coloring and crayons were among the many suggestions. The crayon suggestion seemed to be the one that would give the most color options, so  I poked around in some of my hidey-holes looking for that box of crayon bits and old colored pencils that I knew was there.  I found it.  I even found a couple of pink non-toxic crayons in the jumble.  What I also found was that "Crayon Smell".   I just couldn't bring myself to put that in a lip gloss.   Then I spotted some red tealights; left over from some Christmas-Past I'm sure.  I figured just a little bit of the soy candle wax wouldn't hurt and it wouldn't take much to tint the small batch I intended to make.

I set out 5 lip gloss containers and gathered my ingredients and utensils. I used a glass measuring cup to melt and mix the ingredients in.  I used a metal measuring spoon to stir with.

1/4 c. Coconut oil
1 Tbsp. Beeswax pellets
1 tsp. shaved candle wax
12 drops of peppermint essential oil. 

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Here are some links where you can find ingredients I used:

Carrington Farms Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, 12 Ounce
(At the time of this posting the coconut oil is on sale)

Organic White Beeswax Pellets by Your Natural Planet - 14 oz - Tested and Certified 100% Organic

The peppermint oil I had on hand came from
Youngliving.com

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I combined coconut oil, beeswax and candle wax in the glass measuring cup and put it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds at a time, stirring the mixture each time until the waxes were completely melted. (Monitor the melting process very carefully when using a microwave.  You could also use a double boiler to melt the ingredients if you prefer). 

I let the mixture cool just a little bit before I stirred in the essential oil and then started pouring mixture into the containers.  By the time I had filled the 5 containers I realized I had plenty left in the measuring cup and it was starting to cool and thicken.  I poured some into the empty glass candle holder that I had used to hold the waxes before melting.  I still needed another container, so I filled up the metal measuring spoon that was sitting there.  Only a small amount remained after that and it was cooling fast. I used a spatula to scrape the sides and put the rest of the mixture into the empty tealight holder.

In less than an hour the gloss and solidified nicely.  I tried a small sample from one of my oddball containers.  The balm liquefied quickly as the coconut oil warmed from the body heat.  It was smooth and went on without dragging like some chapsticks can.  The coconut oil gave it a really nice gloss. The gloss had a light pink tint in the container that did NOT show up as color on my lips - which was fine with me.  It did make my lips soft and shiny and the peppermint tingled nicely.

I am pleased with how this recipe came out and will definitely make it again experimenting with different essential oils.  I have some tangerine essential oil that I think would be quite tasty!

I dipped the bottom of the metal measuring spoon in hot water and it only took a couple of seconds for the outer layer to get soft enough for me to pop out the little dome of gloss and put it in an empty tealight container .

I was curious to see how the lip gloss would react when it was exposed to higher temperatures so I put one of the pots on the front porch table at noon today.  The temperature was just over 80 degrees when I set it out there.

Notice that "tablecloth" it's sitting on? It is made from plastic bags!  I'm pretty sure that project will show up at some point in this blog :)

I was gone a bit longer than expected.  It was 4pm and about 83 degrees when I came back to check it. You can see in the photos below that it was a bit sweaty on the top, but it was still solid.  Glad to see that the beeswax kept the coconut oil from melting at 76-78 degrees as it normally would.

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Lip Scrub (in the picture at the top of this post)

There is no need for complicated instructions here!  This lip scrub was just Sweet almond oil and Sugar in equal parts (1:1)  I added a little vanilla extract, Orange essential oil, and Peppermint essential oil to make the one pictured.  I had another batch that was just Peppermint and another that was just Orange/Vanilla (like a creamscicle - yummy)

Just apply a little bit to your lips and scrub lightly.  Follow up with a bit of Peppermint lip gloss and your lips will be perfect.