DIY vegan lippies

Per the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild (HSCG) . . . 

The first two things you will need to do are:

Choose your container

Depending on what you plan to do with the finished product, you can really use almost anything to hold your lip balm. If you plan to add lip balm to your product line or give as a gift to friends, family, or potential customers, you will want to purchase tubes (they come in white, clear or a variety of colors) or tins or glass/plastic jars.  Most of these containers can be found at your favorite handcrafted supplier or by doing a simple Internet search. If you are a self-proclaimed lip balm addict (like myself) and you will be keeping your goods, you can easily use small containers purchased at local craft stores, kitchen goods stores or even the nearest dollar store. Whatever container you decide on, you’ll want to be sure it securely seals closed and is not too big to grab on the go and stash in your pocket.

Choose your ingredients

Like any handcrafted beauty/body product, making lip balm is a creative work of art that you can make with as few as two or three ingredients, or you can get very creative and add several ingredients to increase conditioning or to add flavor or color to your masterpiece. Let’s take a look at some of the potential ingredients you could choose from and what they would add to the perfect lip balm.

Tried and true, coconut oil is a perfect base oil to use for your lip balm. Coconut oil has many great qualities, first being its firmness. In addition, coconut oil naturally contains Vitamin E, and has a superior moisture-retaining capacity, which adds to coconut oil’s ability to prevent cracking of the skin.

Next, let’s try some beeswax.  Much like coconut oil, beeswax is naturally a protectant. Bees produce wax naturally to line their honeycombs to protect where baby bees grow and honey is stored. When used in lip balm, beeswax protects the lips from environmental damage (such as drying and cracking) and helps hold in moisture; all while not clogging pores. Beeswax also contains Vitamin A and is a humectant – a water attractor -- aiding with keeping your lips hydrated.  Most importantly, you will want to use beeswax for its hardening quality to pull it all together.

You will definitely want to use at least one of the above ingredients to help your lip balm solidify.  In addition, the following ingredients are also popular choices:

Body Butter: Not a necessity, but if you have some on hand, you can’t go wrong adding a dash of cocoa butter, mango butter or shea butter. Any of the three will provide ultra moisture to your lip balm.

Various oils: Using Jojoba oil or Sweet Almond oil; these are are two very popular oils to use in lip balm because they are super nourishing!

Vitamin E:  A couple drops of Vitamin E added to your lip balm can go a long way. Vitamin E is an antioxidant and also a nutrient for your skin that can potentially limit the environmental damage to your skin.  You can purchase Vitamin E in capsule form at the pharmacy and simply puncture a couple of capsules to use in your recipe.

Essential oils: These are completely optional, but adding essential oils in your lip balm will add a pleasant smell and give you the opportunity to personalize your product.

Cosmetic recipes from Vegan Beauty Review blog by Sunny

DIY Vegan Lipstick

3/4 tsp. candelilla wax

1 tsp. shea or cocoa butter
1 tsp. jojoba, sweet almond, coconut, or olive oil
1–3 tsp. beet root powder or red mica (the amount depends on how intense you want the color to be)
A couple of drops peppermint essential oil
Lip balm tubes or small tins

• Using a microwave or double boiler, heat the wax, butter, and oil in a glass bowl until the wax and butter have completely melted.
• Remove from the heat and add the beet root powder and essential oil.
• Immediately pour the mixture into lip balm tubes or tins.
• Refrigerate until cool.

DIY Ultimate Vegan Lip Balm

Over the years I’ve had to streamline and eliminate some products so I can handle things best and give 110% to what I am doing. On that list of products once loved and eventually nixed was my fabulous vegan lip balm. I tend to use my unrefined shea butter now, or straight mango butter, but a good tube of lip balm can’t be beat, especially if it is tinted. I mixed up a couple of beautiful lip-safe mineral pigment blends.

Ratio: (given so you can play with the recipe and make smaller batches – try tbsp instead of cups for a smaller qty)

• 3 parts butters
• 2 parts wax
• 4 parts oil

Tinted Vegan Lip Balm
makes 2 1/4 cups, i.e 18oz, i.e. lots of lip balm!

• 1/4 cup unrefined shea butter
• 1/2 cup fair trade cocoa butter
• 1/4 cup candelilla wax
• 1/4 cup carnuba wax
• 1 cup jojoba oil
• 1/2 tsp vitamin e oil (soy)
• * 90-180 drops essential oil or organic flavor oil
• * 3/4 tsp mineral pigment

Your measurements should be of the melted material so use a heat resistant measuring cup to measure and heat. Many recipes call for a double boiler but because I like to use the same container for heating and measuring I use the microwave in 30 second bursts and remove when there are no solid pieces remaining. I like to melt my waxes first, then my butters and then add my oil. When you add your oil it may cause it to solidify a bit so just pop it back in the micro for a few more rounds of 30 seconds. Test the consistency on your hand (this is crazy hot! Don’t burn yourself, I stir with a chopstick then let it cool a bit on the end and put a dab on the back of my hand to see if the consistency is what I am going for).

If it is too thick/waxy, add more oil, too thin, add more butter. Play around with the oils and butters you use – cocoa is harder than shea, jojoba is a liquid wax so provides a more shelf-stable product and is great for your lips. Castor oil would have a wonderful consistency that might lead to longer wear while apricot kernel or sweet almond would be light and readily absorbed. Once you have the consistency you like start adding your organic flavor oils and essential oils.

We split our batch into two at this point so we could have two colors/flavors. Be sure you are using high quality oils! Never ever ever use a “essence” “perfume” “fragrance” or anything of the like. Organic extracts are great for scents that can’t be obtained as essential oils. If you are using extracts be sure they are in an oil base rather than alcohol as alcohol will not mix with your lip balm, it will just bead up and be yucky. Be careful with citrus, mints, anise, cinnamon, and clove as these are wonderful but powerful oils. Test as you go to see if it is too warming or cooling and play around. Also, if you wouldn’t eat it from your garden or spice cabinet do not use the essential oil in something that goes on your lips – i.e. no mugwort lip balm!

Variation oil combos -Tropical Bliss:

• 90 tangerine essential oil
• 30 coconut organic extract

Variation -Peppermint Kiss:

• 60 peppermint essential oil
• 60 spearmint essential oil
• 60 vanilla organic extract

You can add in some mineral pigment as long as you know it is safe for lips. Just because it is a mineral doesn’t mean you can use it without caution. Lead is a mineral, my dearies, you don’t want that on your lips! :c) Micas and iron oxides are your best bet. Mary mixed up two beautiful mica blends for our use!  A coppery, sun-kissed blend and a shimmery wine tint, both beautiful. Just stir them in gently until the color is distributed throughout. If things start to solidify put them back in the micro for 30 seconds but use a lid once the essential oils are in to avoid them volatilizing too much.

Now you can pour! Tubes and a little pouring tray can be found online and are very helpful to do many at once but you can just as easily use empty candy tins, small jars, etc. For the trays and tubes just pop them in securely and begin pouring. Don’t worry about getting it on the tray or even spilling over (as long as you are working on a very clean surface, of course!) as you can just scrape off the cooled excess, remelt, and pour again. Once cooled thoroughly scrape off the top, wiggle and twist to get the lip balm out (I find this is easier in the thin tubes), wipe off or scrape off the top for an even and clean surface and put on the lid! You’ve just made magical home made vegan lip balm. :c)  Any excess can be poured into a Tupperware and kept for your next batch.

DIY Vegan Lip Balm

Recipe 1 Ingredients:

2 oz. hemp seed oil, avocado oil or almond oil
1 oz. virgin coconut oil
1.2 oz candelilla wax
1/4 tsp. rosemary extract
few drops of vitamin E oil
few drops of an essential oil for that perfect scent (peppermint, orange, lemon, grapefruit, rose, vanilla, etc.)

Melt the candelilla wax in a pan over low heat (but don’t let it boil). Once melted add the remaining ingredients except for the essential oil. Heat through and transfer to a heat safe container with a pour spout. Add essential oil and then stir well and pour immediately into lip balm tubes. Top off the lip balm (but not with your hands). Let it cool and enjoy. This recipe makes about 5 ounces of lip balm – enough to share with all of your gal pals.

Recipe 2 for my vegan lip balm-a-holics, Creamy Cocoa Lip Balm:

4 oz. extra virgin olive oil
3 oz. candelilla wax
1/2 vitamin E capsule
1/2 tsp. cocoa powder

Follow the same directions as mentioned above and ta-da!

DIY Lipgloss, 2 recipes

DIY Chocolate Lip Gloss

• 1.5 Tbsp. cocoa butter
• 1/2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 Vitamin E capsule
• A few drops of Stevia
• For some extra umph: a few drops of peppermint oil or vanilla extract (totally optional)

Melt the cocoa butter in a pyrex cup. Stir in the cocoa powder until it’s well blended. Add the Vitamin E capsule and Stevia and give it a final stir before pouring your homemade lip gloss into a new or used lip gloss pot. Allow it to chill in the fridge for a couple hours and enjoy! It should last for at least a year. And you can definitely add vegetable color like beet powder for a pretty tint. 

DIY Mint Chocolate Lip Gloss 

• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon sweet almond oil
• 1 teaspoon cocoa butter
• 3 drops vitamin E oil
• 2-3 drops peppermint essential oil

Melt the cocoa butter, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and vitamin E oil together by setting them in a glass bowl on top of a pot of steaming water. When everything has melted, remove from heat and then stir in the peppermint essential oil. Now that the mixture is nice and smooth, pour the lip gloss into a small container and allow it to fully cool (if you’re impatient like I am, you can plop it in the fridge).

Lip glossaholics, get ready to  make the most bomb (aka mega moisturizing, sweet-smelling, vegan, and cruelty-free) mint chocolate-y lip buttah evah! It’s easy and cheap to whip up, and your lips are gonna love you for it! 

Variation 1: DIY Lip Plumper 

• Pure cinnamon essential oil (or cinnamon leaf oil)
• Clear lip gloss (or you can totes use 2-3 tablespoons of almond or jojoba oil instead)

Mix ~10 drops of cinnamon essential oil with your lip gloss in its container (again, feel free to mix this with nourishing almond or jojoba oil instead). Mix it super well, though!

Variation 2: DIY Ultimate Lip Plumper

 Let’s face it, not all of us are blessed with naturally super plump lips like Angelina Jolie or Kim Kardashian. So, we gotta step up our game when it comes to getting them looking nice and kissable!

There are a lot of lip plumpers out there to buy, but if you ain’t into spending your hard earned cash on products like this, then girl, do I have some good news for you.

You can pretty much make your own DIY lip plumper from home that is almost as effective as any you could buy in stores!

If you think about it, the purpose of a plumper is to increase the swelling in your lips, which is definitely something we can achieve through a simple recipe as opposed to spending way too much on any over-the-counter product.

So what are we waiting for, let’s get down to business! Believe it or not, plumpers are incredibly easy to make and best of all, they’re ridiculously cheap! You’ll just need the following ingredients first before I take you through the process of mixing them together.

Here’s What You’ll Need

1. Cinnamon oil & clove Oil (or any essential oil which is going to act as an irritant causing your lips to swell in the process)
2. Cayenne pepper – kinda obvious what this ingredient is going to do when you consider the skin on our lips are half as thick as anywhere else on our face. Cayenne pepper is going to help irritate your skin, causing inflammation in the process. I mean how else do you think we’re going to get our lips to swell? 
3. Your fave vegan lip balm (in a tube, not a tub) – now this ingredient is just going to be the base and will make up the majority of the remedy.
4. Vitamin E Oil – such as important part of this plumper as it will help to add back the moisture you’ll be losing from the other ingredients, PLUS as an added bonus will help improve the shelf life of the product.

Let’s Start Cooking!

Okay so to do this, you’re just going to need to half fill a small pot with water and place a one litre pyrex measuring container inside the pot of water, which I should add needs to be sitting on your stove of course!

Now all you need to do is follow these steps before your lip plumper is ready for action:

Step 1: Turn the heat on to about the medium temperature of your stove. The water inside the pot is going to be doing all the cooking so give it a chance to heat up, not to a level where it is boiling, but instead just a nice little simmer will do the job.

Step 2: We’re now going to grab our tube of lip balm and remove it completely before throwing directly into the pyrex measure container. Make sure you hang onto the empty tube as we’re going to use that shortly to store our plumper.

Step 3: Once the lip balm is fully melted, add in about half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and stir the mixture around with a butter knife or whatever you find that won’t absorb too much of the remedy.

Step 4: Take the measuring container off the heat and pour into the mixture about a teaspoon of each of the cinnamon and clove oil, stirring all the while.

Step 5: Next throw in a couple of drops of Vitamin E.

Step 6: Take your empty lip balm tube and make sure the plastic column in the middle that holds the plumper together is completely down into the tube. Now all you need to do is literally pour the mixture directly into the empty tube all the way to the top.

Guess what? You’re done!!

Just wait around 20 minutes to an hour for the mixture to dry before using it on your lips and remember this is a super potent lip plumper so it’s going to burn! If you find it too much to handle, try decreasing the amount of essential oils and cayenne pepper until you find a happy medium!

Happy plumping!

DIY Lip Scrub

What you’ll need:

• 2 tsp of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of jojoba oil (you can add more if you like it a lil’ slimier)
• 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 drops of peppermint oil (for tinglies)

Mix all of your ingredients together in a bowl. Then use a finger or toothbrush to apply the recipe and gently scrub in a circular motion for 10 seconds. Rinse your lips with warm water and pat dry. Lube it up with your favorite vegan lip balm. Store the leftover scrub in a small jar for late-ah. Enjoy!