Month: November 2019

Lip balms are among the easiest cosmetics to make.  At their most simple it’s just a matter of weighing out the ingredients, warming them up until everything has melted, stir and pour.

This recipe is a favourite, with the classic combination of chocolate and orange that is reminiscent of Christmas treats.

Don’t be tempted to increase the quantity of Orange Essential Oil in this recipe because at higher concentrations it becomes phototoxic.  I’ll discuss phototoxicity in a later post.

It makes about 110g of lip balm, which is about 18 tubes each containing 5.5g.  There’s a neat way of filling tubes that I discuss at the end of this post.  Alternatively, you can pour it into small tins.

In addition to the tubes or tins, you will need one glass jug and something to stir the mixture.

Ingredients

• 60 ml Apricot Kernal Oil
• 20 g Unrefined Cocoa Butter
• 20 g Beeswax
• 8 g Darkest Chocolate (I used Willy’s 100% Cocoa Solids Chocolate)

Additions

• 1.5 ml Vitamin E Oil
• 15 drops Bitter Orange 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.  Now you can heat up your jug of ingredients in a bain marie if you don’t have access to an oven that can be set at relatively low temperatures, but there is a surprise advantage to using an oven.  The oven heats the jug evenly and the contents pour easily.  If you heat the mixture in a bain marie, the top of the jug doesn’t get very warm and the mixture solidifies on the jug as you pour.

While the ingredients are warming up and melting in the oven, prepare your tubes or tins.

When the ingredients are all liquid, remove them from the oven.  Add the Vitamin E Oil 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.

Clean up with very hot water and washing-up liquid.

Lip Balm Tubes

I’m definitely not in favour of single-use plastics, but nor am I blind to the ease with which plastics can be kept hygienically clean.  Lip balm tubes can be washed out with very hot soapy water and re-used if you can persuade their recipients to return them to you.

I do use lip balm tubes.  I’d like to think most people would return them.  The choice, of course, is yours.

If you do chose to put your lip balms into tubes, there is a very convenient way of filling them.  The version I use is branded Kare & Kind and is available on Amazon or Ebay.  (There are cheaper suppliers of the empty tubes if you shop around.)

The filling tray will take up to 50 tubes.  As I normally make smaller quantities, I have filled a few tubes with cold-cast resin to use as blanking plugs.

 

This recipe was inspired by the Body Shop Hemp Hand Protector Cream. It’s great for people who have very dry skin, eczma or psoriasis. You don’t have to restrict its use to your hands.  As with all cosmetics,  you should carry out a patch test if you have any concerns about adverse reactions.

I used too much hemp oil in my first version. Although it worked well as a moisturiser, the smell of hemp and the green colour were too intense. (Think Incredible Hulk.) In this version I cut the hemp oil with moisturising grapeseed oil. Woody, resinous essential oils work with the smell of the hemp oil instead of trying to mask it.

This recipe makes about 350 g of handcreme. In addition to the ingredients, you will need:

• A stick blender. (You can use a whisk at a pinch.)
• A set of metric scales capable of weighing to the nearest gram.
• A container that you can use to put the stick blender in hot water to pre-heat it.
• 2 containers in which to heat and mix the ingredients. One container must be large enough to hold the full quantity; the other only has to hold the water phase ingredients. Although the container you will use for mixing has to be large enough to hold all the ingredients, the ingredients must fill it to a depth that will cover the blades of your stick blender. (I use two 500 ml Pyrex jugs. I know people who use Mason Jars successfully.)
•  A pan large enough to hold your 2 containers (or 2 pans, one for each).
• Something you can use to stir the ingredients as you heat them up. A small plastic spatula that can cope with boiling water is ideal because you can use it to scrape out very last trace of your handcreme into jars.
• Glass jars or plastic pots to store your handcreme.

Ingredients:

Oil Phase:

• 20 ml Hemp Seed Oil
• 80 ml Grapeseed Oil
• 10 g Beeswax
• 50 g Shea Butter
• 10 g Lanolin

Water Phase:

• 80 ml Distilled Witch Hazel
• 50 ml Aloe Vera Gel
• 20 ml Glycerine

Cool Down:

• 5 ml Vitamin E Oil
• 4 drops Myrrh Essential Oil
• 6 drops Juniper Essential Oil
• 4 drops Patchouli Essential Oil
• 6 drops Rosewood Essential Oil

Method:

Measure the Oil Phase ingredients into the container you will use for mixing your handcreme.

Measure the Water Phase ingredients into the second container.

Put both containers into the pan, then put enough water in the pan to come up to the level of the ingredients. Put a stirrer in the oil phase container so it heats up with the ingredients. (If you put a cold stirrer into the warm oils they will solidify on the stirrer.) Put the pan over a low heat so the water slowly comes up to the boil, then turn the heat down so the water just simmers.

Put your stick blender in the container you are going to use to pre-heat it, and put the kettle on. Prepare your containers ready to pour in your creme when you have made it.

Stir the oil phase occasionally until the wax and butter have melted. Then turn of the heat and take out the containers. Now put hot water into the container with your blender. Watch the oil phase as it starts to cool down. When it starts to go misty as it begins to solidify, put in your blender and run it as you add the water phase ingredients. Only run the blender until everything is mixed.

There will be a little oil gathering on the surface of the creme, and the container will be quite warm to touch. Briefly run the blender once or twice as the mixture cools.

When the creme starts to solidify, add the cooldown phase ingredients and briefly run the blender again until everything is mixed in. Disconnect the blender and scrape off as much as you can from the blender back into the container. Pour your creme into the prepared pots.

Put the lids on the pots and then put them in a fridge until you are ready to use them. You might like to label the pots, including the date you made the contents.

Clean up with hot water and washing-up liquid.