Homemade cocoa butter lip balm recipe with essential oils
Chilly weather calls desperately for a good lip balm recipe. This easy cocoa butter lip balm recipe has only three ingredients and it can be whipped up in five minutes or so! Don’t know what to give your friends for a Christmas present and Christmas is tomorrow? Make an adorable lip balm that heals dry lips, tastes good and has an irresistible scent.
When the cold comes I’ll make some lip balm to take care of my lips and the lips of our whole family. The change from autumn to winter sneaks silently. All of a sudden, the rainy autumn has changed to a cold winter and I am not prepared. Luckily this easy lip balm recipe is done in no time regardless of the weather! When this is done I have one worry less about keeping the family in good health in times of freezing snow storms.
Tips for making
- Use quality ingredients, and choose organic when it is possible.
- Essential oils are very strong, so do not exaggerate the amount!
- Adjust the recipe depending the size of your lip balm jars or tubes. Make just the amount you’ll need for it is so easy to do more when the jar is empty.
- I use for lip balms repurposed jam jars. I remove the label with running hot water and soap. If the glue of the label does not come off I use either butter that I melt in my hands, rub on and the wash normally or a nail polish remover. Depending the colors and style of the lid, I paint them or let plain, if they don’t have any texts on them. Repurposing jam jars is cheeper and there’s always some small jars you’ll find at home. Scroll to the end for decoration and gift ideas!
- Clean well the jars to extend the expiration date.
The benefits of homemade cocoa butter lip balm
Homemade lip balm is beneficial for you in many ways. It is, most of all, your possibility to know and decide the raw material used in your product that you apply to your skin. The starting costs of skin care products might be high and that makes people wonder. But when you have started you’ll notice that the same basic ingredients are used in many different types of skin care products. You can easily buy in bulk the ingredients and eventually, it will be cheaper.
If you think for example this lip balm recipe. Coconut oil you might already have in the kitchen – what you can eat you can apply to your skin without any doubt. Cocoa butter is more expensive, but the need for this recipe can be as small as 2 tablespoons if you are doing only one lip balm. Essential oils last for several years and for this one, you need a few drops at the minimum. Versatile essential oils you can use in diffusers, other skin care products and even house cleaning!
So the homemade lip balm is inexpensive, no doubt. In addition, it is quick to make. 5-10 minutes and you have your homemade lip balm ready in the jar a cooling. How cool is that!
When you make yourself your lip balm you can use all natural ingredients with no additional preservatives, fragrances or other ingredients that you cannot even pronounce. It contains what YOU want – nothing more, nothing less.
Ingredients we are using
Cocoa butter
Cocoa butter is a vegetable fat that is made of cocoa beans. Cocoa butter has several benefits and uses. It absorbs well into the skin and it protects the skin from dryness due to its moisturizing properties. Cocoa butter is safe to use and very rarely causes any skin irritations or other problems. For lip balm moisturizing cocoa butter is the key ingredient to use.
Coconut oil
Use unrefined and organic when possible. unrefined is less processed. The melting point of coconut oil is lower than body temperature so it spreads easily. Read more about the differences between choosing and usage of refined and unrefined coconut oil here.
Essential oils to use for lip balm
LAVENDER Is lavender good for lip balm? The answer is yes! I prefer to use lavender in many skin products for its soothing properties and calming scent. To know more about using and the benefits of lavender essential oil you can find Laura from Our Oily House to explain you a bit more in here.
TEA TREE Another essential oil that I use often is tea tree. The tea tree is purifying and it cleanses well and also boosts your immune system! Read about the benefits and uses of tea tree essential oils here.
ROSEMARY Often rosemary is used only in the kitchen but as an essential oil, I find it very helpful in skin care as well. It has cleansing properties that are beneficial for the skin. It can be used for skin imperfections too. Find more about rosemary essential oil here.
Tools you may need
- Cutting board and knife
- Measuring spoons
- Little stainless steal pot
- Spoon for stirring
- Little jars with lids or lip balm tubes for storing
Making cocoa butter lip balm
Start with melting the cocoa butter and coconut oil and you have two options there. You can heat the cocoa butter and coconut oil on a bain-marie or directly in a pot.
To create a bain-marie put a heatproof bowl on the top of a pot filled with about five centimeters of water to create the steam to heat the bowl. Make sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. This is a good option if you are afraid to burn your delicate ingredients.
However, I do find it easier and faster when heating directly in a pot. Coconut oil melts already at 24°C (75,2°F) and cocoa butter at 35°C (95°F) so you do not need to heat that much. When the oil and butter start to turn into liquid form just turn off the heat. Continue stirring the mixture and the rest of the chunks will melt in after a while due to the heat of the liquid.
How to do
So now to the recipe itself. Measure the cocoa butter in the pot. The cocoa butter you have might be in smaller chunks that are easy just eyeball to have the amount you need. If you have a big chunk of cocoa butter, like I do, use a knife to cut smaller chunks and add to the pot. To cut easier and safer you can heat the blade of the knife with running hot water.
Put the pot with the cocoa butter and coconut oil on the stove and turn on a low heat.
When the mixture is all melted, stir for a while to cool it down. If you want all of the lip balms to have the same scent you can add the essential oils directly to the pot. To vary the scents you can pour the mixture in lip balm jars and add the essential oils in each jar separately. Due to Christmas and the idea of giving these as presents, I wanted to have two different scents. One with plain lavender and the other with a mixture of rosemary and tea tree.
Just drop the essential oil into the jar and use a small spoon or a toothpick to mix it well. Stir enough to make the scent spread into the mix evenly.
Close the lids well and move the lip balms to cool down to the fridge. I use for this purpose a small tray (repurposed crayon box!) to facilitate moving the lip balms. It takes up to 1 hour to chill the mixture. You can see the change in colour and texture that is first trans lucid and then firm lip balm.
Using the cocoa butter lip balm
Take a small amount of the blame with your finger and spread it evenly on your lips. Use it regularly during the cold and especially windy weather. Remember that if you keep it in the inside pocket of your jacket in a warm place the balm melts very quickly to the liquid state. So be just careful when you open the jar. The balm settles down again easily in cold temperatures.
Storage
You can keep the unopened jars to extend the expiration date. When applying the balm with a finger remember to use an opened lip balm within a few months.
Little Helper
Making homemade cocoa butter lip balm with your little helper is not too challenging. The measuring of the ingredients is fun and quick! When the mixture is melting there is time for arranging the jars. Opening and closing them is also good entertainment.
When using essential oils with kids remember that they are very strong so leave measuring for older children. Enjoy sniffing quickly the different scents to decide together which scents are good and which are not so enjoyable – children do have clear opinions on this one!
Homemade cocoa butter lip balm recipe with essential oils
Materials
- 6 tbsp cocoa butter
- 6 tbsp coconut oil
- 20-24 drops of essential oils
Tools
- Measuring spoon
- Cutting board and knife
- Tiny pot
- 6 jars for storing the lip balms
Instructions
- Measure the cocoa butter to the pot. The cocoa butter you have might be in a smaller chunks that is easy just eyeball to have the amount you need. If you have a big chunk of cocoa butter, like I do, use a knife to cut smaller chunks and add to the pot. To cut easier and safer you can heat the blade of the knife with running hot water. Put the pot on the stove on a low heat.
- When mixture is all melted, stir for a while to cool it down.
- If you want all of the lip balms to have same scent you can add the essential oils directly to the pot. In order to vary the scents you can pour the mixture in lip balm jars and add the essential oils in each jar separately. Just drop the essential oil to the jar and use a small spoon or a tooth pick to mix it well. Stir enough to make the scent spread into the mix evenly.
- Close the lids well and move the lip balms to cool down to the fridge. It takes up to 1 hour to chill the mixture. You can see the change in colour and texture that is first trans lucid and then firm lip balm.
Using
Take a small amount of the blame with your finger and spread it evenly on your lips. Use it regularly during the cold and specially windy weather. Remember that if you keep it in the inside pocket of your jacket that in warm place the balm melts very quickly to the liquid state. So be just careful when you open the jar. The balm settles down again easily in cold temperature.
Storage
You can keep the unopened jars to extend the expiration date. When applying the balm with finger remember to use an opened lip balm within few months.
Notes
Melting the basis
You can heat the cocoa butter and coconut oil on a bain-marie or directly in a pot.
To create a bain-marie put a heatproof bowl on the top of pot filled with about five centimeters of water to create the steam to heat the bowl. Make sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. This is a good option if you are afraid to burn your ingredients that are delicate.
However I do find it easier and faster when heating directly in a pot. Coconut oil melts already in 24°C (75,2°F) and cocoa butter in 35°C (95°F) so you do not need to heat that much. When the oils and butters starts to turn into liquid form just turn off the heat. Continue stirring the mixture and the rest of the chunks will melt in after a while due the heat of the liquid.
Adjusting the recipe
You can adjust the recipe depending the size of your jars. Use coconut oil and cocoa butter with 1:1 ratio and about 3-4 drops of essential oil for each 2 tablespoons. For exampe I had 1 tbs cocoa butter, 1 tbs coconut oil 4 drops of essential oil per jar in this recipe.
Are you going to try the cocoa butter lip balm?
Are you thinking to try the cocoa butter lip balm? Will you do it for you and your family or give it as a Christmas present? What scents you would like to use in your lip balm? Let me know in the comments!
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This is such a cool idea! While it may be a little messy, it sounds like a lot of fun to make and being able to know exactly what’s in the lip balm and have whatever scent we like is amazing! Thank you for sharing this, and for the warning about how quikcly it can turn back to liquid when warm lol
Thanks for your comment and insights, Katherine. I’m glad you liked it!