Botanically tinted lip balm
This lip balm recipe will keep your lips moisturized, with a subtle hint of color infused by botanicals. For a simple version, simply omit the coloring and its steps.
It’s been a while since I’ve shared a botanical recipe, hasn’t it? I recently sold out on a batch of these at the local market, and that planted in me the idea this would be a lovely offering to share with you all.
I hold this basic recipe close to my heart because this lip balm was the very first skincare preparation I did by myself, 11 years ago. At the time, I was studying in the city, living in the very heart of it, a short bike ride away from university, in a shared flat with artists and creatives — and have some pretty warm memories from that place. There was an outside spiral staircase connecting the different flats of the old building, most of them shared flats as well, and it wasn’t uncommon to have someone knocking at the kitchen window after midnight to ask for kitchen ingredients or rolling papers. Morning coffee in your own kitchen was optional, large dinners with borrowed chairs from different flats were the highlight of my week, and dumpster diving finds made all sense to be distributed throughout the building. I feel that this extended house, in an area that was just starting to become heavily gentrified, was one of my first experiences of what urban communities can look and feel like.
Alas, back to lip balms. During some winter, at that time, I dug up a lip balm recipe from goodness knows where. I remember being so terribly excited while roaming downtown with my bike to gather ingredients, and finding an old drugstore that sold blocks of beeswax by the kilo… I arrived home and claimed the kitchen mine for a while. My first batch was hard as stone, as I didn’t really understand how to work with beeswax. But after playing with proportions a few times, and tweaking some of the ingredients, I nailed it just right, stored my lip balm in little glass jars, and wrote the recipe in my journal.
And in my journal the recipe has been ever since, and today I am revisiting it to share with you. Because basic recipes are the perfect playground for experimentation, we’re adding some botanical color to it to make it fun, because we can, and because it’s winter and a little color and warmth will only help carry us as we ease into spring.
Botanically tinted lip balm
This lip balm will keep your lips moisturized with a subtle hint of color. For a simple version, simply omit the coloring and its steps.
(Makes two 0.3-oz tubes or tins)
ingredients
1 1/2 tbsp beeswax, grated
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp shea butter
3 drops cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) bark essential oil (optional)
1 tsp alkanet (Alkanna tinctoria) root powder
Note: Alkanet powder will give your lip balm a dark shade of red. If you can’t find alkanet powder near you, you can create a similar hue by combining 3/4 tsp beetroot powder and 1/4 tsp cocoa powder. I’ve made several lip balms with various colorings, and using alkanet root creates my favorite result by far.
If using beetroot and cacao powders instead of alkanet, stir them in only after removing the double boiler from the heat and proceed to pour your lip balm into your containers. I’ve found that beetroot powder can easily lump together at high temperatures, so you I wouldn’t recommend returning your mixture to the double boiler after adding this ingredient.
directions
Using a small double boiler (or a small pan fitting inside a larger one filled with 1–2 inches of water), melt the beeswax, coconut oil and shea butter together, stirring until liquid.
Remove from heat and stir in the alkanet powder until no lumps remain. Return to the double boiler, making sure it’s only warm enough to keep everything melted, and allow for the colors to saturate the liquid for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. In the meantime, prepare your lip balm containers.
Remove from heat and quickly filter the mixture through a fine sieve to catch any bits of alkanet root powder. Add the essential oil, if using.
Carefully pour into your lipstick tubes or tins while still melted.
Let sit in a quiet place for about half an hour, or until cool and firm, then cap. Your lip balm will keep for 6 months to 1 year in a cool place.
I’d love to know if you make this recipe! Do you have a favorite lip balm recipe you like to use? Do share!
Stay warm and colorful, Spring is near!,
Cat ✨
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