Minty Lip Love

One dark, arctic winter day my friend Miriam and I were restless with cabin fever, so we decided to try to make some chap stick (we used lots of that stuff in Alaska!) and we wanted it to be like Burt’s Bee peppermint lip balm.  Ten minutes later we had 20 tubes of peppermint perfection at a fraction of the price Burt charges!  This is much simpler than making soap- no chemical reactions to control- it’s just melt and pour.

Here’s my basic ratio (I prefer ratios to recipes- that way I can up or down size to my heart’s desire. But who am I kidding- I always upsize!)

1 part beeswax

1 part coconut oil

1 part shea butter or cocoa butter (or any other solid fat you prefer)

stevia and peppermint essential oil to taste

That’s it!  I usually make 15-20 at a time, and 1.5 ounces of each of the ingredients does about that.   I buy all the supplies on Amazon (except the beeswax as we have a couple hives)

I was out of shea butter, so for this batch we used cocoa butter and it was amazing.  Smells and tastes like chocolate mint!

Warning- beeswax is impossible to wash off.  I have a mason jar devoted to lip balm and lotion making (it’s a quart, but a pint or half pint would work well for this recipe.  I have the bigger jar cause it is also  used for lotion.) Place the jar in a pan of boiling water to melt the beeswax, it will take the longest to melt as it’s really hard.  Once melted, add the other fats and stir until they are liquid (because of the beeswax I stir with a disposable spoon) then add stevia and peppermint oil and pour into containers.  It hardens up quickly, so be ready to pour right away.

*Save the frustration of trying to get beeswax off your counter and cover the work space with wax paper or newspaper.

This stores for months if you don’t have a bunch of beggar friends asking for it.  Friends are better than lip balm anyways:)