This Christmas, I made all homemade gifts for my family and friends. Adrian and I gave them jellies we had made in the summer, and I decided to try my hand at making a nice, thick, luxurious lip balm!
As usual, I did a lot of reading and decided on a recipe, which I tweaked a little bit.
Manuka Honey, Orange Lip Balm:
60g beeswax
40g cocoa butter
20g Shea butter
90g rose infused grapeseed oil
10g castor oil
40g Manuka honey
24 drops orange essential oil
40g cocoa butter
20g Shea butter
90g rose infused grapeseed oil
10g castor oil
40g Manuka honey
24 drops orange essential oil
I also added 2 tsp of beetroot powder because I wanted it to be slightly tinted.
I melted all the ingredients together in a double boiler, saving a tiny bit of the grapeseed oil to mix with the beetroot powder to make a paste, before I added that to the bowl. Once everything has blended, I added the essential oil until it smelled as strongly as I wanted to.
Unfortunately, the beetroot powder didn't blend in as nicely as I wanted it to, and I had to keep blending the mixture with a hand blender as it cooled so I could mix the powder in fully. It still didn't fully incorporate, and instead left tiny specks of pink. It looks pretty, though it does nothing to tint your lips....
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| The trick is to let it cool little by little, blending it at intervals through the whole cooling process |
I am, however, really happy with it. It is perfect for the Saskatchewan winters - it's thick, it stays on nicely and for quite a while, and it smells AND tastes amazing!
This recipe made WAY more little jars than I thought it would - almost 30! So I was able to give one to everyone in the family, and some friends and some of Adrian's coworkers, and I still have a few leftover!
The ingredients in this, as usual, are all chosen carefully and for a reason. The benefits of each are listed below:
Beeswax: forms a protective barrier on the skin while still allowing it to breathe. It also helps heal skin, which makes it ideal for chapped lips in cold and windy weather. Beeswax also draws moisture to the skin and is slightly antibacterial.
Cocoa butter: helps protect against free radicals, deeply hydrates skin, and helps heal it too.
Shea butter: is also deeply hydrating, skin strengthening and protecting. It also has a bit of UV protection.
Rose infused oil: is skin softening, cleansing, moisture retaining, antibacterial, healing and soothing.
Castor oil: is high in fatty acids that penetrate the skin nicely and attract moisture to the skin. This added ingredient is also why the lip balm stays on so long and feels so nice and thick.
Manuka honey: is antimicrobial and antibacterial. It also helps draw moisture to the skin and deeply nourishes it.
