Today is a very special treat: a guest post by the amazing Hilda Forss. Hilda Forss is a freelance graphic designer currently based in Sweden. In her spare time, she runs the website Hildablue.com, a blog on natural homemade skin and hair care products with simple tips on how to lead a more eco-conscious beauty life. Her blog is amazing. If there is ANY beauty or self-care product you want to know how to make naturally, odds are Hilda Blue has it. It is from her site that I got most of the information to start using Henna on my hair. Not all of these recipes are strictly vegan, as one uses beeswax, but they are all strictly awesome.
Thank you again, Hilda, for this amazing post!:
A few years ago, when I first started making my own homemade skin care products and cutting chemicals from my beauty routine, the first product I made was a homemade lip balm. And to this day, lip balms are among my absolute favorite beauty products to make at home. In this post, I will share a few of my own favorite recipe blends for making your own personal lip balms for soft and shiny lips.
So why should I make my own lip balms, you might ask, when I can buy them super cheap from the closest grocery store? Well, if you ask me, there are several benefits of making them yourself. First and foremost, you’re in complete charge of what the product contains. More often than not, the lip balms on the market contain ingredients that you really shouldn’t want on your lips. The main thing to look out for is mineral oils, which can be listed in the ingredient description as a variety of things (petrolatum, vaselin, petroleum jelly, anything with “paraffin” in it etc.). When applying a lip balm with mineral oil, the lips are coated with an oily surface, that strips your lips from their natural oils. The result is lips that seem soft at first, but the quickly go dry again, making you put on more lip balms, which soon again will make your lips dry, leading to a vicious circle where you need to add more and more lip balm. Sound familiar? This is a pretty darn good deal for the companies who make the lip balm, less so for you…
Another reason for making your own lip balms is that they are very customizable. You can make personalized gifts for your friends just by adding a few drops of their favorite scent, you can use a specific vegetable oil that is especially well suited for your skin, or pick ingredients based on what you happen to have in your cupboards.
Add to this the face that homemade lip balms are cheap, easy to make and so much fun!
The key ingredients in a homemade lip balm is a vegetable oil and something to make the oil solid. Commonly, beeswax is used. The vegetable oil can be any vegetable oil you have at hand. Some of my favorite oils to use are: olive, almond, jojoba, avocado or grapeseed oil.
Beeswax can be found online, or, preferably, by contacting a local beekeeper. Look for beekepers in farmers markets or try looking them up online and contact them directly. if you go through a personal beekeper, the beeswax will probably be cheaper than online – some even hand it out for free! At the same time you support a local entrepreneur, and you can be sure where your wax comes from. If you are vegan, or don’t want to use beeswax for other reasons, you can substitute the beeswax with a vegetable wax, such as carnauba, candelilla, jojoba or soy wax. You can also use cocoa butter or shea butter, which will make the lip balm a bit softer than with beeswax.
With these just an oil and a wax you’ve got everything you need for making a super easy lip balm. Melt 1 teaspoon of beeswax in a double boiler, add 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil, pour into a glass or metal jar and you’re done! It’s not harder than that.
These are three recipes to get you stated. The essential oils mentioned are suggestions, and you are more than welcome to change them to anything you like or have at hand (or leave them out). Happy experimenting!
Ginger lime
2 tsp grated beeswax or vegetable wax
2 tsp shea butter
2 tsp olive oil, jojoba oil or almond oil
3 drops ginger essential oil
7 drops lime essential oil
If your wax comes in a block, grate it coarsely to make the measuring easier. In a double boiler on low heat, melt the beeswax together with the she butter and olive oil, stir with a wooden spoon and leave it to cool. Before the mixture has solidified, try dipping your finger into the mixture, when it’s lukewarm it’s ok to add the essential oils. Stir well and pour the mixture into a small, clean container.
Chocolate kiss
1 tbsp cocoa butter
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp beeswax (optional)
3 drops peppermint or orange essential oil (optional)
Grate the beeswax, and combine with cocoa butter, cocoa powder, coconut oil and vegetable oil. Melt in a double boiler on low heat. Stir well for a few minutes, then turn down the heat and allow to cool, then add the essential oils (if you want to add any). Stir well and pour into a container. Let the beeswax cool in the fridge for about an hour.
In this recipe, the beeswax is optional. Without the beeswax, the lip balm will be a lot softer, but still solid.
Blood mandarin
This recipe uses an old lipstick to add a very light tint to it. You can try using beetroot powder or iron oxides instead, if you want to make sure it’s completely natural.
1 tbsp beeswax or vegetable wax
4 tbsp avocado oil or olive oil
1 tsp lipstick
1/4 tsp (or about 2 capsules) vitamin E oil
5 drops mandarin (or other citrusy) essential oil
Grate the beeswax, melt the beeswax together with the vegetable oil in a double boiler on low heat. Stir well. Turn off the heat, add lipstick, keep stirring. When the lipstick has completely melted into the mixture, allow to cool. When the mixture is lukewarm, add the essential oil and vitamin E. Pour into glass or metal container.
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