DIY Vegan Lip Balm Recipe Featuring Essential Oils

What is a Vegan Lip Balm? Vegan Lip Balms don’t use any ingredients that are either directly derived, or are released naturally as a by-product from an animal or insect (like beeswax).

This means that if you want to adhere to strict vegan standards as you make your own homemade vegan lip balm, all the ingredients you use must be 100% plant-based.  

When making a lip balm one of the most important ingredients to incorporate is wax. Waxes offer the right thick feeling to your lip balm. Depending on the quantity of wax used in your recipe, wax can offer a variety of textures, from an ointment-like consistency to a hard solid. Typically, there is little therapeutic value in waxes, and their purpose is strictly to help create the product’s texture.  

What are your options if you don’t want to use Beeswax? 

Let’s look at 2 common plant waxes that can be used to replace Beeswax in your DIY skincare recipes.

Candelilla Wax:

Derived from a desert ground bush called the Candelilla plant that primarily grows in a region of northern Mexico. During the rainy season the long spiky leaf-like stalks ooze a kind of milky substance that turns wax-like to protect the plant. When harvested, this waxy coating is removed and further processed into a wax that is used in a variety of industries, including beauty and cosmetics.  Candelilla offers stability, thickening and shine to skin care products and depending on the quantity used can offer a wide variety of textures.

Carnauba Wax:

Derived from the palm leaves of a tall tree that grows in the grassy plains of northern Brazil. During the dry seasons the leaves protect themselves from the environment by secreting a waxy substance. The palm fronds are then cut down, dried further in the sun and the coating is scraped off and further processed to yield the wax.  Like candelilla wax, carnauba wax offers stability, thickening and shine to skin care products, and can also be used in furniture and car waxes due to its high-shine capabilities.

Working with either Candelilla or Carnauba Wax in your DIY Vegan Lip Balm can be slightly tricky.  Since they are much harder waxes than beeswax, you want to make sure you use a much smaller quantity.

Here is a simple DIY Vegan Lip Balm recipe you can make at home:

Here is what’s you’ll need

• Find a lip balm tray with .15 oz lip balm tubes that snap into place. Like this: Lip Balm Tray.

• Heat source, like an electric hotplate or your kitchen stove top - you need this to help slowly melt all the ingredients together.

• A shallow saucepan filled with about 1 inch of water

• A double boiler insert to melt all the ingredients and to use to pour into the molds, something like this is perfect.

• Mixing tools, like a stainless steel spoon, or disposable wooden sticks, like popsicle sticks.

• Various small glass bowls, measuring cups and spoons to place your ingredients in.

• A digital scale that can measure amounts to .00, and has a “tare” feature and can easily switch between grams and ounces.

• Paper Towel

• Oven Mit

• Parchment Paper

Here are the ingredients you’ll need to make a 100 grams (3.3 ounces):

• 18 grams of Candelilla or Carnauba Wax 

• 15 grams of Shea Butter 

• 25 grams of Cocoa Butter

• 40 grams of Jojoba Oil

• 1 grams (20 drops) of Vitamin E Oil

• 1 gram (20 drops) of Sweet Orange Essential Oil

Here is how to make lip balm with Jojoba Oil:

1. Thoroughly clean and disinfect a counter or table top in your kitchen, and line a 18 inch area with parchment paper
2. Snap in 22 lip balm tubes into your lip balm tray and set them on top of the parchment paper.
3. Using your digital scale, measure out the Candelilla in a beaker or measuring cup and set aside
4. Next, measure out the Cocoa and Shea Butters in a beaker or measuring cup and set aside.
5. Measure out the Jojoba Oil in a separate measuring cup or beaker and set aside.
6. Set your saucepan filled with about 1 inch of water on your heat source and warm until it starts to steam.
7. Place the double boiler insert into your saucepan, and add the measured Candelilla Wax into the double boiler insert and let it melt thoroughly.
8. Once it is melted, add the shea and cocoa butters and the jojoba oil and stir thoroughly over the heat until everything is melted and well incorporated. 
9. Turn off heat, and using your oven mit, lift the double boiler insert out of the pan and wipe off the sides and bottom of the double boiler insert of any excess water, so that no water is left dripping.
10. Add your 20 drops of Sweet Orange Essential Oil and the 20 drops of Vitamin E Oil to the melted mixture and stir well.
11. Carefully pour the mixture into each lip balm tube in the tray.
12. Cover the tray with a loose sheet of parchment paper and set into the refrigerator for at least 8 hours to set.
13. Once the Lip Balms have set, pop them out of the molds and they are ready to use!

What are the therapeutic properties of the ingredients we are using in the recipe?

Cocoa Butter:

Cocoa Butter is the fatty oil that is expeller pressed from the dried and naturally fermented Cacao Seeds (or beans) that make chocolate.The fatty oil floats to the top and hardens and is used for both culinary purposes and skin care. The butter is loaded with deeply nourishing and protective properties that have been shown to repair and restore damaged skin, soothe away dryness and promotes the skin’s resilience and elasticity.  Expeller pressed virgin Cocoa Butter also has the rich and intoxicating aroma of chocolate, which make it a delicious choice to use for a lip balm.

Shea Butter:

Shea Butter is the fatty oil that is expeller pressed from the nuts (seeds) of the Shea Tree. The nuts are often gathered by hand after they have fallen from the tree, and then boiled to soften the outer shell and smashed.  The fatty butter-like oil floats to the top and is then skimmed off and processed.  Shea Butter has a notable array of skin benefits, from soothing dry and damaged skin, to reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.  It is loaded with nutrients that make our skin feel deeply nourished and resilient.

Jojoba Oil:

Jojoba Oil is expeller pressed from the seed of the Jojoba plant.  The oil mimics our own skin’s natural oils, and can provide similar soothing benefits to the skin. Rich in essential fatty acids and sterols, Jojoba has been shown to repair dry damaged skin and offer protection against environmental stressors.

Vitamin E Oil:

Our choice to use Vitamin E is mostly to help stabilize the scrub and ensure its shelf life.  Vitamin E is an antioxidant that can slow down the aging process of our Argan and Tamanu Oils.

Sweet Orange Essential Oil:

Sweet Orange Essential Oils is bright, uplifting and cleansing when applied to the lips.  Plus its unique set of molecules has been shown to be antibacterial, antimicrobial and antiseptic - perfect aromatherapeutic properties for use in a lip balm.

Making these Vegan Lip Balm with Jojoba Oil can make wonderful gifts!  Let us know how you turn out!