We are deep into Winter here in Australia, which for me traditionally meant trying to keep on top of my chapped lips. Here at the Grand Ole Apiary, we have our own supply of gorgeous, unadulterated beeswax – and I love finding ways to use it! So, a couple of years ago, I decided to make my own lip balm. I looked online for a good lip balm recipe with beeswax, but none of the recipes grabbed me. They seemed to use a whole lot of ingredients, with the beeswax being just a small amount – almost a token amount just to say it was there. I wanted all the benefits of beeswax in my lip balm, and I don’t see the point of bulking it out with useless or unnecessary additives. So I did some experimenting. And boy, did I find something good!
Ok, lets start with getting rid of some stuff.
Here is an example of the ingredient lists I was being confronted with:
- beeswax
- shea butter
- cocoa butter
- almond oil
- jojoba oil
- vitamin E oil
- essential oil
Like what???? What’s all that stuff in there for? No.
Im just gonna……
- beeswax
shea buttercocoa butter- almond oil
jojoba oilvitamin E oilessential oil
There. That’s better.
Now, you can see that all that is left is beeswax, and one carrier oil. I tried this recipe (it took a few adjustments to get the proportions correct) and it was great! But I still had one problem.
Let’s get local
I don’t like Almond Oil much. I will use it here and there, but honestly I don’t like supporting the almond industry in Australia. They use way too much of our precious water to grow, and as someone who lives near one of the rivers they take the water from, I don’t appreciate that much!
So I ditched that too. In my area, Olive Oil is much, much more sustainable. Olive trees literally grow on our roadsides and we have several local olive oil producers. So that was a super easy switch out decision for me.
TAda! My SUPER EASY lip balm recipe with beeswax
- Place the following ingredients into a small jar:
- 3 tsp (10g) grated/pelleted beeswax
- 2 TBS olive oil
2. Heat until melted. You can do this by placing the jar directly into a small pot of simmering water.
3. Carefully (the jar is very hot!) pour into your chosen container/tube.
This recipe will make enough for about 4-5 lip balms. If you are not making more than one, you can simply leave the remaining mix in the jar. Let cool, and store with the lid on. When you need more lip balm, just reheat and pour!
That’s it!
It really couldn’t be easier to make this super easy lip balm! And the beeswax really works wonders on dry or chapped lips. I personally love that there are no ingredients in here that I don’t need. I think sometimes unnecessary ingredients are added to make a recipe “unique”, but I just want simple!
Let me know if you agree – do you like to have an array of different oils? Or do you prefer a minimalist approach?
PS – If you have leftover beeswax, you should try making some lovely beeswax wraps! Check out my DIY Beeswax Wraps – How to make at home (and save money!) tutorial for easy step-by-step beeswax wraps.
Kerryn Grey says
I had lots of bees wax left over from my wraps, so ordered 20 lip balm containers $7. and made up the following:
7 teaspoons grated bees wax,
6 teaspoons coconut oil
6 teaspoons Jajoba oil (Had this left over from a face cream I made)
2 drops of mango oil essence (use any oil you have)
I added a teaspoon of honey as hubby hates to taste the oil, but loves honey, wont add this next time as it settled too quickly in the last pour.
thegrandoleapiary says
Yes I would so love to find a recipe with honey that works, but I haven’t yet unfortunately! Oh well, balm on the lips, honey on the tongue haha!