Herbal Lip Balm Recipe
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How to make herbal lip balm using oils, waxes, and skin-soothing herbs. This easy, natural skincare recipe is fun to make, feels light and silky, and soothes chapped lips. It also includes two methods for making the infused oil needed for the recipe. A quick version and the classic cold-infusion method.
Lip balm is the most popular way to protect our lips from cold weather and getting chapped. Most of us have one (or more!) stashed in our handbags or pockets, especially in winter. Though we can buy lip balm easily enough, the products in shops and online are mostly made with petroleum jelly, synthetic flavors, and other ingredients that you might want to avoid. Fortunately, lip balm is easy to make at home!
To make it extra nourishing, I’d like to show you how to make lip balm using herbal-infused oil. You can use purchased or homegrown herbs to make it, then blend it with wax or cocoa butter to firm the oil up to the right consistency. The recipe below requires just a few natural ingredients and is suitable for absolute beginners!
Making Herbal Infused Oil
Though this recipe can include essential oil, herbal properties are mainly added via a homemade infused oil. It’s a fancy name for a light carrier oil, such as sweet almond oil or ricebran oil, that you infuse with herbal properties. It’s basically plant medicine!
Some herbs contain oil-soluble components that can migrate from the plant material into the oil. Herbs with healing and soothing properties for lip balm include peppermint, lemon balm, calendula, lavender, violet leaf, and plantain.
The main way you make infused oil is to let the dried herbs and the oil soak for about a month. After that, strain the herbs from the oil, discard or compost them, and then use the oil to make skincare recipes. The full instructions for making infused oil this way are in the recipe card below.
There’s also a quicker method if you’d like to make both the infused oil and lip balms on the same day. It calls for the same amount of oil and herbs, but it requires heat. Making infused oil this way takes about an hour, rather than the weeks it takes with cold infusion.
Make Infused Oil in an Hour
The main principle for making infused oil quickly is heating it to speed up the process. Therefore, begin by choosing a carrier oil that isn’t heat-sensitive, such as jojoba. Sweet almond oil is also fairly heat-tolerant. Once you have chosen your oil, mix it with the herbs in either a small stainless steel pan or a glass canning jar.
Now, you heat the oil and herbs using a double boiler. If you’re using a glass jar, set it in a crockpot filled with simmering water and set it to high. I like to place a cloth at the bottom for the glass to sit on. If you’re using a small saucepan (rather than a jar), set the pan inside a slightly larger pan filled halfway with simmering water. The heat from the water in the larger pan warms and melts the contents of the smaller pan.
Leave the herbs and oil to infuse over low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then strain the warm mixture through cheesecloth and/or a sieve. Discard the herbs, and pour the herbal-infused oil into a clean jar. It may contain herbal residue, and that is perfectly fine. If this happens, you can strain it again, if you wish, or just use it as is to make herbal lip balm.
Lip Balm Containers
Once you’ve melted and mixed the lip balm ingredients, you’ll pour the warm liquid into containers to cool. You can use any small tubes, pots, or jars, provided they are clean and sterile. If you reuse containers, make sure to clean them and let them dry completely. You could reuse lipstick tubes, lip balm pots, Altoids tins, or any other food-safe container, including glass or plastic.
I use custom-made lip balm containers for my recipes, and though I started off using plastic, I now use packaging that’s more sustainable. That includes metal lip balm tins and paper lip balm tubes. I use tubes for lip balms with a firmer consistency and pots for creamier formulations. This herbal lip balm recipe is relatively soft, so it’s best to stick with small pots.
If you’re reusing containers you already have, make sure to wipe all the oily residue out first. Then hand-wash them thoroughly. Be careful with running some items through the dishwasher, since some plastics can warp and melt. After cleaning the containers, allow them to air dry until no moisture remains. If any moisture is trapped inside a lip balm, it can cause oils to go rancid.
More Herbal Skincare Recipes
- Cocoa Butter Lip Balm Recipe
- Healing Skin Salve Recipe
- Chamomile Skin Cream Recipe
- Gentle Herbal Skin Cleanser Recipe
Herbal Lip Balm Recipe
Equipment
- 7 lip balm containers (10 ml / 0.34 oz)
Materials
Herb-infused Oil
- 1 cup carrier oil your choice of sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, apricot kernel, or ricebran oil
- 1 cup dried herbs your choice of peppermint, lemon balm, calendula, plantain, chamomile, and/or lavender
Herbal Lip Balm
- 1 TBSP beeswax or 2 tsp candelilla wax
- 1 TBSP shea butter (refined) or cocoa butter, which will create a firmer balm
- 3 TBSP herb-infused oil * made with dried herbs and a liquid carrier oil
- 7 drops peppermint (mentha piperita) essential oil * optional – use organic, if possible
Instructions
Ensuring hygienic practices
- When making this recipe, work with clean, dry, and sterilized equipment. Make sure to wash your hands thoroughly, and consider wearing gloves. Please also clean all surfaces, containers, and utensils used. Doing so will help keep your homemade lip balms hygienic and ensure they have a long shelf life.
Make the Herb-Infused Oil
- Herb-infused oil is the foundation of this recipe. You can make it using a single skincare herb or your choice of several. Choose types that taste nice, are non-toxic, and can help heal and protect the skin. You can use homegrown herbs or purchased material to make this recipe.
- Place the dried herbs in a clean, dry glass jar*, then pour the liquid carrier oil over them.
- Seal the jar with a lid and place it in a warm, dark place for four weeks. Over that time, come back and shake the jar every few days.
- At the end of a month, strain the herbs from the oil using a sieve lined with cheesecloth. Discard the herbs and use the oil to make herbal lip balm. You will likely have more oil than you need to create a single batch of this recipe.
Make the Herbal Lip Balms
- Measure the wax and infused oil into a small saucepan.
- Melt them together completely using the double-boiler method: float the pan with oils inside another pan filled with simmering water. This ensures the oils melt evenly and don’t get too hot.
- When the oils and wax are fully melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the essential oil, if using it.
- Pour the oil into the clean lip balm containers and allow them to cool and harden.
- Seal the herbal lip balms with lids once they are at room temperature.
- The herbal lip balms can be used immediately after they've cooled. Their best-by date is the closest best-by date of the specific ingredients you used or 1 year after making them. If you make these to give as gifts, label them with their ingredients and best-by date.
Notes
*Air, even inside a jar, can cause oil to oxidize and turn rancid. Choose the smallest size jar that the contents will fit in and aim for no more than an inch of headspace. * Do not use any more peppermint essential oil than what is called for. The recipe includes one drop of essential oil per 10 ml lip balm pot, which is under the 1% maximum for lip balm and other leave-on skincare products. Please also test for skin sensitivity before committing to using it in your lip balm. Essential oils are concentrated plant extracts and may cause sensitivity or allergic reactions for some people.
Please how can I produce a white bar soap and a very white ointment or balm or cream.
Please help me
Can I use infused olive oil for the infused oil?
You can, however, olive oil has a relatively strong flavor. It’s not the best carrier oil to use for lip balms.
Can I add a little castor oil to this recipe? Maybe I could do 3 tsp infused oil and 1 tsp castor oil to equal 4 tsp of oil – do you think that would work?
Hi Joy, yes that would work. Castor oil is great for lips, skin, and eyelashes but using too much could give a sticky feel to recipes. I’d probably be more conservative and start by using 1/2 tsp castor and 3.5 tsp infused oil.
Okay, thank you!
Have you ever made a Tallow/Mango butter lip balm? Sound like a good combo. Any recipe suggestions? Love all your recipes.
Susie
It would likely be a bit too soft for a lip balm but if you added beeswax or cocoa butter it would work a treat :)
Wish there were a printable recipe.
If there was, I couldn’t find it. Looks like a nice recipe though..
Hi Tanya! Can’t wait to try this! Are there any differences between using those lip balm tube containers and small tins? Could you also recommend where to buy them?
Thanks again for sharing your recipes!
The lip balm tubes are better suited for recipes that are harder (more hard oils) and the tins are great for both hard and soft recipes. Also, the tins are 100% recyclable which I see as a great bonus!
Hello, i made lip balm few weeks ago, i made 5 tins, i used new aluminium tins but when i open one after few weeks i found white mold or bacteria growing in a lip balm :( why this hapend if tins were dry and new?
thank you
Hi Inga, the white you’re seeing is not mold, but an effect that sometimes happens if the beeswax in the balm wasn’t melted enough. If you’d like to fix it, place the tins in the oven on low heat until they are melted. Then turn the oven off, stir each lip balm with the end of a clean skewer, and allow them to cool inside the oven.
Can I leave petals in the lip balm for aesthetics? Or could this cause issues?
Hi Maddie and yes you could, but ensure that they are completely dried before.
Hi Tanya,
I have mango butter and coconut oil on hand, could I use either of those for the solid oil/butter item?
Thanks for all the recipes, and happy holidays!
Bailey
Hi Bailey, both of those oils are a lot softer than the hard oils I recommend in the recipe. If you use them in their place, then your lip balm will be the consistency of a soft ointment, rather than a balm. You can of course use shea and mango butters to make lip balm, but they would need to be in different ratios to the liquid oil. Coconut oil is softer than mango butter so the ratios would be different for each. If you’d like to have a play, begin with a 3:1 ratio (butter to liquid oil).
I live near the east coast of South Africa where we can get very high temperatures. Would beeswax be the better oil to use as it is the hardest? And should I adjust to add more of the hard oils/waxes and slightly less of the grapeseed to ensure that I don’t get a melted mess when the temperatures rise?
You should always try to make a small batch of a recipe to see if there’s a problem with your ambient temperature. Adjust afterward, but based on an oil or wax’s melting point.
I made this recipe yesterday and had issues. I shaved Cocoa Butter to fill 1 tsp and then used 4 tsp of Grapeseed Oil, melted the butter and added the oil to it and thoroughly mixed over double boiler, then removed from heat and stirred in 4 drops of Vanilla Ice Cream flavoring oil. Poured into 4 clear plastic tubes and only 1/4 of the tube solidified and the rest is lovely smelling oil. For the hard butter, how should I measure out 1 tsp? Did I make a mistake in shaving it? Thank you for your help!! I’m excited to try this again!!! :)
You’ve used the wrong kind of flavoring. Food flavouring, including vanilla extract, will not mix with oils as its water-based. As for measuring the beeswax and butters, it doesn’t have to be exact. Eyeball a teaspoon of solid oils and it will do.
Good to know!!! Thank you!!! :)
Hi from Sunny South Africa,
Couldn’t you whip the water-based flavouring and oils into an emulsion to create a balm that would solidify?
I saw that Vicky used an ice-cream flavouring Oil – so why would it not solidify if it is oil-based? Just curious.:)
Because oil and water don’t mix and will always eventually separate.
Hi Tanya!
Thank you for this recipe! However, mine didn’t solidify. I used 1 tsp of shaved Cocoa Butter and 4 tsp of Grapeseed oil (my daughter-in-law is allergic to Almond oil) and 4 drops of Vanilla Ice Cream flavoring oil. Is it because I shaved the Cocoa Butter? How do you get a tsp of something so hard…..or are you saying 1 tsp of melted Cocoa Butter?
So excited to try this again and get it right! :)
Thank you!!
Vicki
Do you have a print friendly version of this recipe?
I love making lip balm! Its so easy and as you say, you can avoid all the dodgy ingredients in the bought ones. I made one lately with chamomile infused in macadamia oil, and shea butter/beeswax, with peppermint essential oil, I love it.
For the liquid oil would Olive Oil or Coconut Oil work well? Those are the only two I have on hand at the moment.
Thanks for posting this recipe! Do you suppose I could use coconut oil instead of cocoa butter, or would that make it too liquid?
Simply wonderful! This I must try, I might have to shuffle my to do list though ;)
I never use lip balm as such preferring lipstick but it is interesting to learn how simple it is to make. Well done you.
My my Elaine…aren't you the posh gardener? :) It is quite simple to make so if you're interested in trying it out you could possibly make it as a gift. It might be especially nice if you use herbs from your own garden.
Clever, clever – thank you :)
Have fun making some Dani :) You probably won't have chapped lips this time of year but if you use hemp seed oil or even red raspberry seed oil for your liquid ingredient then it will give some sunblock protection.
Lip balm is something I will never attempt to make, so I will just sit back and admire your creation. I bet it's really lovely and luxurious to use. I occasionally buy high street chemist ones, use them once then they end up in a drawer for years.
You must be one of the lucky people who doesn't suffer from wintery chapped lips then! Must be nice :)
This is a lovely simple recipe Tanya – I might even try making some as my lips do crack at this time of the year. I usually use something like Nivea on them rather than a lip balm.
Nivea is something I also use from time to time but it's not the tastiest lip cream. Hope you have a good experience in making lip balm yourself :)
That sounds easy enough. I bought some Body Shop Lip Butter, but it makes me sneeze so badly that I can't use it.
It's easy and also quite satisfying to make. Once you start making your own beauty products the more you question why you pay for it at the shop – especially if you've had reactions to store-bought as you have done.
What a great idea. I am looking for some more natural skin products and this fits the bill nicely. Thank you xxx
Glad to pass on the recipe Fran :)