‘Tis the season. The time for cold, dry air and dry, chapped lips. One of the absolute easiest and maybe most satisfying things to make is lip balm! Once you’ve made it yourself, you’ll never want to buy it again.
I keep my “recipes” simple. 1 part beeswax to 3-4 parts oil. It’s easily customizable and fun to experiment with ingredients. This go round I decided to try something new and use infused castor oil. I’ve made solar infused oils before, but because those take some time I decided to try a new method. I really wanted to use some of my dried echinacea flowers and leaves. Echinacea is believed to calm and soothe chapped and dry skin and I wanted to make this a multipurpose balm.
To make a quick infused oil I filled a small mason jar with dried echinacea leaves and flowers. It’s important to use dried, because any water left in the plant will cause your oil to go rancid. I then filled the jar up with castor oil, put on the lid and ring, and placed in my slow cooker. You’ll want to fill the water up to almost the top of your jar. I turned the slow cooker on medium and left the cover off. After a few hours I took the jar out and placed on a towel to cool down. When the oil has cooled you can strain out the flowers.
To make the balm I used 1 part beeswax to 3 parts oil. Since I was only making one 2oz tin I used .5oz of beeswax, 1.5oz infused castor oil, and a few drops of eucalyptus oil. A digital scale makes it easy to measure my ingredients. If you don’t have a double boiler you can simply put the beeswax and castor oil in a small glass jar, place the jar in a saucepan fill a few inches with water. Heat on medium until the wax has melted and is incorporated. Lastly, add a few drops of your scent of choice. I use eucalyptus because it is refreshing and invigorating. Carefully pour the melted ingredients into your container. It will set up pretty quickly.
That’s all to that! I love this balm and use it for so many things- dry lips, eczema, chapped cheeks from the wind. If you do choose to use eucalyptus oil it’s important to note that it is not considered an infant safe oil for the skin. So it shouldn’t be used for children under 2. The essential oil can definitely be left out or replaced with one that is considered safe for small children if that’s a concern. There’s a lot of good information out there on which ones are.
Balms are very forgiving to make- if it’s too hard simply melt it down and add more oil. If it’s too soft- simply melt it back down and add more beeswax. I hope this post inspires you to get creative and try something new!
These tins are great! Perfect for balms, spices, and even small candles
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