Homemade Lip Balm - Cocoa Peppermint

Last week, I made some Cocoa Peppermint Lip Balm! I've always thought about how expensive lip balm can be at stores (we commonly say Chapstick when we actually mean lip balm - Chapstick is a brand name, and personally, not my favorite).  Such a little amount of actual lip balm for such a big price - especially if you go for the organic, natural stuff (a few of my favorites: Burt's Bees and The Merry Hempsters). But you have to have moisturized lips! Besides trying to carry around a jar of petroleum jelly all the time, I either have to suck it up and buy some quality lip balm and try not to lose it or, the alternative I never gave much thought (until now), make homemade lip balm.

Luckily for me, my dear Aunt Kathy is just as interested in herbs, oils and other 'antique remedies.' Once I turned her onto Mountain Rose Herbs (I was heavily hinting for a gift card from them for Christmas), she got her own stash of goodies, including some empty lip balm tubes. She graciously gave me some (on top of the gift card!). I couldn't imagine making my own lip balm but again, lucky for me, the good people who supplied the tubes also provided me with a great recipe.

The recipe I used can be found HERE. I happened to have gotten all the ingredient from Mountain Rose Herbs except for the peppermint essential oil and vitamin E oil (which I already had in my collection before I got this recipe). Making the lip balm was simple. I suggest using a double boiler and if you heat the ingredients in a Pyrex cup instead of the actual pan, be patient! It took mine a while for everything to melt (but maybe that is because my double boiler isn't the best!).

The finished product smells delightful and makes my lips tingle when I first put it on (that's the peppermint). The recipe yielded 10 tubes of homemade lip balm - which is way too much lip balm for me.

Interested in trying some out for yourself? Leave a comment on this blog post. I will put all names in a drawing and pick a name at random this Friday at 7pm CT. Good luck!