Making Lip Balm with Honey

Today we are going to be making lip balm. Lip balm is a fairly simple proposition, much like other balms the basic ingredients are fats hardened with beeswax. It needs to be fairly firm to work in lip balm tubes, or a softer balm can be put in small tins, etc.

But the idea I found particularly fascinating was using real honey in a lip balm. And this requires a bit of a trick, because honey is water-soluble, not fat-soluble. If you pour honey into a pot of melted fats and oils, it will immediately sink to the bottom. If you try to stir it in, it will soon separate and sink to the bottom again. But with some research I found a technique to incorporate honey that works well and was able to make the most delightful honey lip balms, and I am going to share that secret with you.

In order to combine water-soluble and fat-soluble components, what you need is an emulsifier. Contrary to what some claim, beeswax alone is not an emulsifier. It may contribute some stability by physically hardening the mixture, but this is not a true emulsifier. The confusion probably stems from a very old technique of creating an emulsifier by combining beeswax with borax to produce creams, etc. In this case, it is the reaction between the beeswax and the borax that produces an emulsifier, not either component alone. However, this technique is not suitable for our application where we only want to incorporate a little bit of water-soluble components into an otherwise fat-soluble base.

There are a variety of emulsifiers available, but many are synthetic and I wanted to keep my formulas as natural as possible. The solution I found was lanolin. This product is derived from the natural coating of sheep’s wool and serves as a natural emulsifier. In a lip balm, it serves double duty, as it is also a marvelous skin-protectant in its own right.

Now, let’s get down to the actual steps to making this amazing lip balm.
As with other ointments, we will melt and combine the ingredients using a double boiler set up (a bain-marie, if you want to be fancy). Here, I have simply nested a metal bowl into pan of water on the stove top, which is really all you need. I begin by melting the hardest ingredients first.

2 tablespoons of shea butter and 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of beeswax. This recipe has a pretty high proportion of shea butter, both because of its skin conditioning properties and to help keep the lip balm firm so that it melts onto your lips, but hopefully not in your pocket.

Once the shea butter and beeswax are melted, we add 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of coconut oil.

Now we add the secret ingredient, 1 tablespoon of lanolin. Besides its skin-protectant properties, this is the ingredient that will allow us to mix in the next two ingredients.

In addition to honey, I also like to use glycerin, a skin-protectant and emollient that is also water-soluble. It is naturally derived from vegetable oil and has a sweet taste, too. So now we add 1 teaspoon of glycerin.

And 1 teaspoon of honey!

You can see that both of these ingredients sink to the bottom and bead up. Although the lanolin will stabilize the emulsion, it still takes vigorous mixing to create it. You can see a whisk here, but I would actually suggest an immersion blender.

I like to get all of my lip balm tubes lined up neatly in advance, before I get ready to start pouring.

Now, before we add the aromatic essential oils, we remove the bowl from the hot water bath and allow it to cool until it just begins to harden. This way, we won’t lose volatile essential oils by overheating them. If it begins to harden too much, set the bowl back on the hot water bath briefly and stir it back in. Once the essential oils or other flavors are mixed in, we are ready to pour it up in the containers. I like to use a syringe, like the kind used to measure medicine, to fill the lip balm tubes.

Here you can see what the hot liquid looks like in the tubes. As you can see, the first tubes have already begun to set up while I was pouring the rest.

And here you can see what they look like once they have cooled and hardened. As you can see, each batch makes about 16 tubes. This is part of the reason I also sell some of my lip balm, after all, who really needs 16 tubes of lip balm, all of the same flavor!

Base Recipe

• 5 parts Beeswax
• 6 parts Shea butter
• 4 parts Coconut oil
• 3 parts Lanolin
• 1 part Glycerin
• 1 part Honey
• a small amount of essential oils or flavoring

The best flavorings are fat-soluble, such as steam-distilled essential oils, CO₂-extracts, and cold-pressed oils. However, with the lanolin you may be able to incorporate some water-soluble flavorings as well. Here are a few of my favorite recipes.

Sweet Cinnamon

• 0.7 ml cinnamon bark essential oil
• 0.7 ml clove bud essential oil

I love that this one is different from what you get with most lip balms. It produces a bit of tingly warm sensation on the lips. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Honey Vanilla

• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

This one is just sweet and soothing. The vanilla only enhances the natural sweetness of the honey. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

French Vanilla Latte

• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract
• 1.5 ml coffee CO₂-extract

This one has the robust flavor of coffee balanced with fragrant vanilla and that sweet hint of honey, for the flavor of a delightful coffee beverage! You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Merry Mint

• 0.4 ml spearmint essential oil
• 0.2 ml peppermint essential oil

Mint is popular flavor for lip balm, but I wanted to do it a bit differently. I find some mint lip balms overpowering and I wanted something a bit milder. I also decided to use a blend of peppermint and spearmint. It has a cool, tingly sensation with a light, balanced mint flavor. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here:

Lavender Vanilla

• 0.7 ml lavender essential oil
• 1 ml vanilla CO₂-extract

Lavender has been a common request, so I developed this blend. The lavender gives it floral and herbaceous notes, rather unique for a lip balm. The vanilla helps to round it out. I find this one soothing and pleasant. You can also buy it from my Etsy store here: