Cocoa Butter Lip Balm Recipe
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This cocoa butter lip balm recipe is incredibly simple to make, tastes naturally like chocolate, and leaves your lips soft and shiny. The project makes five to ten lip balms and only needs about half an hour and a few natural ingredients, including cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, and beeswax.
This homemade lip balm recipe is one of the best lip balms I’ve made. It’s firm, nourishing, and tastes delicious! Skin-conditioning cocoa butter and golden beeswax provide the flavor, but you can add optional vanilla flavor oil or essential oil as well. Peppermint or sweet orange would be lovely options. The liquid oil in the recipe could also be replaced with an infused oil to give the lip balms extra skin-healing properties.
Cocoa butter is a great oil for lip balm recipes because it tastes great, provides excellent skin-conditioning properties, and helps solidify the mixture. Without hard oils like cocoa butter, lip balm won’t firm up. Beeswax is another great ingredient for lip balms, as it helps firm the balm and lock in the other ingredients. However, if you would prefer, you can replace the beeswax in this recipe with candelilla wax to make it vegan.
How to Make Lip Balm
One of the easiest skincare products you can make is lip balm. All they are is a combination of liquid and solid oils that, when melted together, will create an oily substance that is softer than the hard oils and harder than the liquid oils. You can adjust the ratio of these to get the consistency you like. When you get those right, you can add aroma, color, and antioxidants (like vitamin E) to make the product look and taste nice.
This cocoa butter lip balm is approximately one part beeswax, two parts cocoa butter, and three parts sweet almond oil, yielding five to ten nourishing lip balms. Like all lip balm recipes, you can use kitchen utensils and pots to make them, and it will take about half an hour. If you watch them around the heat source, it’s even safe enough for children to make.
Tips for Making Cocoa Butter Lip Balm
Making lip balm is fairly straightforward. You gently melt the main ingredients, add any extras, and then pour the hot mixture into containers. After they’ve cooled and hardened, they’re ready to use! If you use ingredients well within their best-by dates, the finished lip balms can have a shelf life of up to two years. Let me share some more tips for making them a little more professional.
First, like shea butter and mango butter, cocoa butter can become grainy in balms. They naturally contain palmitic acid and stearic acid. Both of these fatty acids melt and re-solidify at a higher temperature than other parts of the oil. With temperature changes or slow cooling times, they can solidify into harmless little lumps in homemade lip balm.
You can see and feel these lumps on your lips, but they melt quickly. They’re also completely natural, and the graininess is more of an annoyance than a real issue. To avoid them, though, heat the oils to 175°F (80°C) and hold them at that temperature, stirring for five or more minutes. Pour the cocoa butter lip balms, then cool them as quickly as possible—you can put them in the fridge if need be. It’s also best to store the lip balms in a place with a constant cool temperature.
Finishing Touches to Homemade Lip Balms
Choosing the right lip balm containers is an important part of making them. If it’s not nice to use or challenging to get the balm out, it affects the entire experience. Pouring lip balm into small tins is the easiest way to package them. However, it’s better to pour harder lip balms, like this cocoa butter lip balm recipe, into tubes. It’s easier to push them out and rub your lips on the balm than try to dig it out of a tin with your finger. It’s a personal choice, though, so I’ve included both types in the photos.
When pouring into tubes, you must be much more careful about spilling on the sides. It’s also best to fill them only about 3/4 full at first. If you do that, allow them to harden, then top them up with more melted balm to get a nice, smooth finish. Fill them completely, and they’ll cool, leaving a heat tunnel (a hole) visible on top.
Another nice touch is to label your lip balms. There are professional options (usually printed stickers), but you can make gorgeous homemade labels for lip balm tubes by writing on paper and taping them on. To sell lip balms, the label must include the ingredients, a best-by date, a batch number, and contact details, such as your address. This isn’t necessary if you’re gifting them, though.
More Skincare Recipes
- Lemon Balm Lip Balm Recipe (for Cold Sores)
- Cocoa Butter Heel Balm Recipe
- Coconut Oil Body Butter Recipe
- Cinnamon Soap Recipe
Cocoa Butter Lip Balm Recipe
Equipment
Materials
- 2.25 tsp beeswax 10.5 g /0.37 oz / or candelilla wax
- 5 tsp cocoa butter 22 g /0.77 oz
- 7.5 tsp sweet almond oil 33.5 g / 1.18 oz / or another liquid oil such as apricot kernel, grapeseed, cold-pressed sunflower, or jojoba oil
- 10 drops vanilla flavor oil * optional
- 10 drops vitamin e oil optional
Instructions
- Measure the beeswax, cocoa butter, and sweet almond oil into a small pan.
- Melt the oils completely using the double-boiler method: float the pan with oils inside a pan filled with boiling water. This ensures that the oils melt evenly but don’t get too hot.
- When the oils and wax are fully melted, add the optional flavor oil and vitamin E and stir well.
- Pour the oil into the clean lip balm containers and allow to cool*
- You can put the lip balm lids on once the balms have cooled and are at room temperature. Don't put them on before they are completely cool because the warmth can cause moisture to form inside the lids.
- You can use the cocoa butter lip balms immediately. Their best-by date is the closest best-by date of the specific ingredients you used.
Hello Tanya,
Thanks for this recipe! I’m going to try it but can I use calendula infused olive oil instead of the sweet almond oil?
Hi Tina, yes you can. You can many other types of liquid oils to replace the sweet almond oil in this recipe. Olive oil, rice bran oil, apricot kernel oil, sunflower oil…you name it. The replacement oil can be plain or infused with herbs. I also have a herbal lip balm recipe that specifically uses infused oils.
Hi there! Absolutely love your site. Wondering if soy wax can be used instead of beeswax for this lip balm or is that messing with recipe too much? TIa
Hi Ivana, yes you could use soy wax or rapeseed wax if you’d prefer. You might need to tweak the ratio of ingredients to include more soy wax (since it’s softer than beeswax) but it’s easy to remelt the lip balm and add a little more in.
I was using this recipe 2 times. Unfortunatelly it is drying my lips and my friends lips as well, so it is not only me. I don’t know why. I changed only the oil from Almond to sunflower Organic cold pressed oil. May it be fault of cacao butter? With shea butter I never had such a problems.
Hi Johanna, it’s unlikely that any of the oils/butters in this recipe or your sunflower oil addition are the culprit. If anything, it will be the flavor/essential oil you used. Try making another small batch but without any flavor and I’m sure it will be fine. If you’d like, please email me tanya at lovelygreens dot com with more information on your ingredients and I’m sure we can work out what’s gone wrong.
Joanna, I don’t particularly have a solution for you but I wanted to let you know that you’re not alone. For whatever reason some oils dry out my lips (and sometimes skin) as well.
It might be worth trying each oil separately on your lips to see if there is a specific one that is the culprit. But I also find that when my lips are not very dry to start with (like after washing my face), my lips are less likely to be dried out by oils.
Hi Tanya,
Thank you for this lovely recipe but I was wondering, can I substitute vanilla flavor oil for vanilla absolute oil?
Thank you!
Hi Araceli, do you mean substitute vanilla absolute for the flavor oil? Absolute has a tendency to bead up and not incorporate in lip balms. At safe usage rates (about one drop per 10 ml of balm) it also doesn’t scent or flavor the lip balm very well. Vanilla bean infused into the oils isn’t a good option, either, since they’ll tint the lip balm dark brown. Although I’ve never tried, you could look into using vanilla CO2 extraction. That may work if you’re trying to create natural vanilla lip balm.
Can I add some lanolin to this recipe. If so how much , & would you liquid lanolin or solid. Love your recipes
Susie
Hi Susie, as mentioned in my previous comment, yes, you can use liquid lanolin to replace the liquid oil ingredient in this recipe and it’s very straightforward. Using solid is also possible but will involve more tinkering. It has a softer consistency than the wax and butter used so is not a direct replacement for either. You’d have to work out a way for solid lanolin to replace a little of the wax or butter AND some of the liquid oil.
Love making homemade lip balm and used containers I found at Hobby Lobby. I wanted a bit of color so dug out the last 1/2” of my favorite lipstick (that part in the bottom of the tube) and melted it with the oils/butter/wax. I love it! Thank you! I didn’t harvest enough lemon balm this year from my huge plant but definitely want to try your lemon balm lip balm recipe.
Using a bit of lipstick is a great idea! They’re often colored with micas or mineral pigments such as red iron oxide, which you can buy as ingredients.
Is there a way to print this recipe. I like keeping printed. Opines of recipe I like so I can make hand written notes on them. Also have you use liquid lanolin in this recipe?
Thanks in advance for a reply
Hi Susie, there’s a print project button in the recipe card. And yes, you can use liquid lanolin to replace part or all of the sweet almond oil component.
Love all your recipes. Can’t wait to try this one. I have Homemade vanilla from a friend that is made with Vodka. No water. Is that useable in this recipe?
Sorry, Susie, but homemade vanilla can’t be used in lip balm recipes. Vodka is mostly made of water and water does not mix with oils. If you attempt using it, the oil component of the balms will solidify with a layer of liquid vodka underneath.
Thank you for the lip balm recipe. I like comercial cocoa butter lip balms such as Palmer’s. I bet you recipe is better. Can’t wait to try it.
Thank you for the advice for heating it for a certain amount of time at 175 degrees and cool in freezer to improve consistency. Graininess has plagued the Shea butter skin balm I make. The grains melt on contact but they feel funny. That should help.
Hi Tanya,
i made sweet almond oil infused with vanilla pods, how can i used this in lip balm? like 10 drops of vanilla oil or like 30 g of sweet almond oil with vanilla flavour? Thank you :)
I’d try using the infused oil as a direct replacement for the plain sweet almond oil, and leave the flavor oil out.
This looks so good! What a fun remedy to make with kids and have ready for the summer!
Hi Tanya,
Instead of the Vanilla flavoring oil, could you use an essential oil like Peppermint or Lavender?
Thanks!
Shari
Yes, if the essential oil has class 1 IFRA approval. Not all essential oils are of the same quality or safe for all purposes. The manufacturer should have the IFRA document to list the product’s uses so check that (and the maximum usage rate) before using it for lip products.
Thank you! That’s very helpful! I will do that.
And, thanks for your response!
Shari
In the directions, you mentioncooling it quickly so the shea butter doesn’t get grainy. But this recipe doesn’t contain shea butter.
Does cocoa butter do the same thing?
Thanks!
Yep! Both shea and cocoa butters tend to go grainy when cooled too slowly.
Ok I am confused in the directions it says to put in freezer to cool quickly to avoid graininess in the cocoa butter. But in the comment above it says the exact opposite. I am getting ready to make lip balm and would like to know which is accurate. Do Cocoa and Shea butters need slow or quick cooling? Thanks
Cool them as quickly as you can Sarah :) In winter, though, lip balms cool relatively quickly in a cold room though. Putting the balms in the fridge will help ensure a quicker hardening though.
Mine came out perfect using this recipe. It has a wonderful aroma and goes on smooth. One batch is tined with mineral makeup. After all ingredients were melted together, I added a mineral powder. Someone commented about a gritty texture, I noticed it too slightly, but it’s seemed to disappears after the first application. Great recipe, thanks for sharing.
The slightly grainy texture comes from the shea butter but as you say, it melts on contact with the skin. I’ll pop advice on how to avoid this happening in the recipe. Thanks for sharing your feedback Vikki :)
Hey! I love making lip balms!! I like to combine beeswax, cocoa and shea, a small amount of vanilla bean infused coconut oil, and maybe some sweet almond or apricot kernel. Lately I’ve been adding some drops of German chamomile CO2.
I am curious about the drag marks thing you mentioned. What does it look like?
Thank you for a great blog !!
It’s when the balm lifts from the inner edge of the container in places. You can see an uneven finish from the outside of clear containers. It’s not a big deal but doesn’t look as nice in my opinion.
Where do you find those cute labels? Thank you!
I made them :) It’s just my handwriting on adhesive kraft paper.
Hi,
I’m thinking of making this lip balm, is there anyway of making it so it has an spf in it and what could I use.
Thanks
There is no safe way for the home crafter to create any product that protects against UV light. There are ingredients that can be used but no true way to test how effective it is or what spf the end product is.
Can I substitute a few drops of doterra essential oil for the vanilla flavor oil and if so which one do you recommend?
I don’t use DoTerra oils so I can’t help you there. Sorry!
Hi there,
I just discovered your blog in doing research to make my own products. I love it!
I have been making balms but I have found that the cocoa butter sets “blistery” which gives it a rough looking texture and feel. It dissolves just like the rest of the ingredients when you rub it but it looks and feels funny.
Do you have any idea what causes this to happen?
Thank you in advance!
Do you mean a gritty texture? That’s common with some butters but you can reduce the chance of it happening by heating your butter (before you add the other oils) to 175F and holding it for 20-30 minutes. Cool your balms quickly too by placing them in the refrigerator.
Hi tania, i made this lip balm with your exact ingredients, but it’s very soft, any ideas as to why this has happened, and should i put more beeswax or cocoa butter, or more of both ?
Hi Irene! The recipe is tried and tested and is actually more on the hard side than soft. It’s possible that your digital kitchen scale isn’t functioning properly. Try again making extra sure that your ingredients and measurements are correct. I’d maybe try to get a hold of another scale as well.
Did you with the ingredients or use the ration measurements? The teaspoon measurements do not double on the last ingredient like the weight measurement does for the last ingredient. The ratio is off.
Hi Anna, I’m not sure what you mean? Everything looks okay from my end.
Did you weigh the ingredients or use the teaspoon measurements? The teaspoon measurements do not double in amount from the ingredient before it on the last ingredient like the weight measurement does for the last ingredient. The ratio is off.
I use weight then measure how much it is in volume when I create skin care recipes. I’m looking at the recipe card from my end and everything doubles in size when 2x is pressed, and triples in amount when 3x is pressed. So, I’m not sure what you mean.
I noticed that the ratios do not increase in the same increments as well. Meaning that the *volume* measurements increase by the mentioned ratio (1:2:3) but the *weight* measurements increase by the ratio of 1:2:4, thus making it confusing.
I followed the 1:2:3 ratio but measured by weight (because it just seemed like too much liquid oil, so doing 4 parts oil would have been excessive) and found it to be very soft as well. Going to attempt melting in extra beeswax to get the right consistency.
Wishing everybody fun experimenting with what is best for them! :)
Very sorry if this was confusing to you, and I’m glad you were able to tweak your lip balm to get it to the right consistency for you. Happy making :)
Hi Tania, if i leave out the vanilla flavour oils should i put more of the other ingredients in ?
Nope :) You’ll be fine leaving out the vanilla and get more of a taste of the cocoa butter is all.
hi Tanya what can I use instead of vanilla flavour oil. I don’t get this here. Thanks
Any flavour oil you’d like — or you can leave it unflavoured. Don’t use vanilla extract meant for cooking since it has a water content. You know what happens when you mix oil and water together!
Hello
Can you substitute the coco butter for another butter i.e. mango or Shea?
Cocoa butter is rock hard, whereas the other butters are creamier. They’re a different consistency so if you directly replaced them with anything else, the lip balm would probably be too soft.
Hi Tanya, thank you for this lovely recipe! I really want to try this myself. Just a quick question: how come you need to add a preservative like Geogard Ultra in face lotion but not in lip balm? Thank you!!
Hi Gina and lovely to hear from you! Preservatives are only required in recipes (including food products) that have a water content and need to have a shelf-life. Bacteria and pathogens grow in wet environments so you need to protect your food and beauty items by using a preservative. Lip balms don’t require them because there’s no water in them. Hope this helps :)