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Three creamy-colored lip balms in round containers sit on a wood table with dried herbs around them.
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5 from 2 votes

Herbal Lip Balm Recipe

Make these herbal lip balms with natural wax, nourishing oil, and healing herbs. The ratio of ingredients is 1 part hard wax, 1 part creamy butter/oil, and 4 parts liquid infused oil by volume. This recipe is flexible, though, and you can use your preferred mix of herbs and other ingredients, and you can leave out the essential oil if you wish.
Keyword Lip balm, skin care recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Infusing time 28 days
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 10 lip balms
Author Tanya Anderson
Cost $15

Equipment

Ingredients

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

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

This is a fairly flexible lip balm recipe, and you can use the oils and wax you'd like. However, different choices may impact how firm/soft the final lip balm is and how it tastes. One popular lip balm oil is coconut oil, and if you wish to use it in this recipe, you can replace up to 1/3 of the infused oil with it.
* You can also use pure calendula-infused oil or another skin-safe herb-infused oil if you already have it on hand. 
*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.