Soothe and protect lips with this easy to make natural homemade lip balm recipe!

Learning how to make lip balm is truly nothing more than heating together some oil, beeswax, and honey. It’s a simple process that is also frugal and allow you to know and understand every ingredient being applied to your body.

This DIY lip balm recipe is a good starting point for learning how to make other homemade skin care products and herbal remedies. It also makes for an amazing bit of self-care to keep for yourself or give as a perfect gift to loved ones near and far. 

Type of Oils

When making lip balm an oil of some kind is required, it is the main ingredient after all. Regular old olive oil will work just fine. Use that if you have it in your kitchen.

Sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil etc. can all be used equally well. The color of the oil will determine the color of the final product. For example, grapeseed oil tends to be green in color meaning your lip balm will also be green – nothing wrong with that just know ahead of time. Experiment and see what you like best for your particular lips and weather conditions.

This is the great thing about making your own lip balm, you get to experiment to find out which natural ingredients work best for you without having to spend a fortune on beauty products from the store.

Herbal infused oils can also be used for an added layer of healing and soothing. Any single herb or combination of herbs can be used to create your own custom lip balm. Consider soothing herbs like lavender, calendula, dandelion, rose, chamomile, etc.

Beeswax

Beeswax is what makes the oil harden into a smooth, spreadable consistently that won’t spill out of your containers. 

Beeswax can often be purchased in pellet style pastilles or blocks. If you buy the block kind, simply grate a bit to get the desired amount. Pastilles are certainly easy to just scoop and measure.

White beeswax gives a whiter color to the final product while the yellow beeswax will give a yellow color. This is a personal choice and doesn’t truly matter for effectiveness of the beeswax lip balm recipe.

Honey

Honey serves a couple of purposes in a good lip balm. First, raw honey sweetens it up a little making it nice for spreading and and providing a litlte natural flavoring. 

Second honey is very soothing to the skin making it one of the best things for sun or wind burned lips.

If you happen to have crystallized honey, this is good project to use it in since the ingredients will be heated up and the heat will decrystallize the honey.

Use whatever honey happens to be in the pantry. For an extra healing punch try something like Manuka honey which has been studied extensively for its medicinal qualities. but there’s no reason in most cases to buy anything fancy. 

Essential Oils

The addition of essential oils is completely optional. Some essential oils do have extra healing power, lavender for burns as an example, however in lip balm they’re mostly used for flavor.

Pick your favorite essential oil or feel free to skip it if desired and just use the flavor from the honey. Peppermint oil is always a good choice for flavor if you’re making a large batch to give away. 

If you used an herbal infused oil, match the infused oil to the essential oil – lavender essential oil with lavender infused oil, for example, makes a perfect lavender lip balm. 

A small amount can go long way with different essential oils, you may want to start lighter and taste it in your first batch and then add more later if it feels necessary. 

Storage Containers

Lip balm obviously needs some kind of container. The choices are truly endless.

Feel free to pour the lip balm into old candy tins (like the ones Altoids come in). This is definitely what I do most often when making my own products to keep (not give away) for frugality and ease. 

Reuse old small tins from purchased lip balms. Simply clean those out well with some boiling water to get rid of old beeswax and other bits.

Small jars, like the one often found in gift baskets or for samples can make great and reusable lip balm containers. 

Lip balm tins and lip balm tubes are easy to buy in craft supply stores and online. The tins tend to be easier to clean and reuse in the future but use whatever is easiest and makes the most sense for yourself.

Great for Gifts

Lip balm makes for great homemade gifts. Make a big batch and simply label to stick into care packages, stockings, gift baskets, and more.

It truly doesn’t take much longer to make a big batch than it does to make a small batch so go for it all in one sitting.

Package it up with some homemade beeswax candles for a lovely gift basket!

Storage

Keep the lip balm stored at room temperature and in a dry place. All oils can go rancid so use up lip balm within a year. The shelf life might be a bit longer but err on the side of caution and use up within a ye

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