This lip balm is coloured, but not with the intensity of a lip gloss or lipstick.
The colour is obtained from alkanet. You may have encountered alkanet before. It’s what gives the distinctive red colour to a Rhogan Josh curry. You can buy alkanet at Asian food stores or online. The alkanet colours an oil that is used in the recipe. I use light olive oil, but any light cooking oil will work. I gently fry a couple of tablespoonsfull of alkanet in about 100 ml of oil until the oil takes on the red colour. After letting it cool, I strainthe oil into a clean glass jar or bottle. Then I keep it somewhere dark and cool (ideally in a refrigerator) until I want to use it.
I’ve used Castor Oil in this recipe. It’s a very good lip conditioner, and is slightly glossy.
To complement the rose colour, I’ve added a hint of mica (glitter) powder. Any more than just a hint might be too much.
This recipe makes about 75g of lip balm, which is a little more than 12 tubes of 5.5 g each.
Ingredients
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- 30 ml Castor Oil
- 15 g Unrefined Cocoa Butter
- 15 g Beeswax
- 15 ml Olive Oil coloured with Alkanet
Additions
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- 1 ml Vitamin E Oil
- 0.2 g Purple mica powder
- 4 drops Rose Essential Oil
Method
Measure all the ingredients (except the additions) into the glass jug. Put the stirrer into the jug with the ingredients, and then put the jug into an oven at 70-75C, or heat it in a bain marie.
While the ingredients are warming up and melting, prepare your tubes or tins.
When the ingredients are all liquid, remove them from the oven. Add the Vitamin E Oil, mica and the Essential Oil. Stir. Pour into the tubes or tins.
Keep your lip balm in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Product Information
I don’t sell my cosmetics, so I am not obliged to provide detailed product information. However, I have provided double-sided slips of paper that describes the product and its ingredients:
… and on the reverse:
Latterly, I’ve tended to refer people to these webpages for ingredients and recipes.