Most of the recipes I found online were not exactly what I liked, so I just mixed up my own. I knew that I did not want just wax and coconut oil, like most Pinterest posts I read. I also wanted it to be fragrant and to add some Vitamin E for extra-soothing-comfort. I decided on mint because it's winter but also because I felt like mint would marry well with the cocoa scent as well (sort of like an after eight combo). Originally, I was going to add some Castor oil (visible in my mise-en-place image) as it does provide extra shine...but then I decided against it. I was not sure if the castor oil I have is edible. So, since this concoction will go on the lips (and will most likely be ingested, albeit in small quantities), I decided to leave it out. Better safe than sorry; and what's the point in making your own stuff if it ends up being unhealthy anyways? ;-)
This recipe yielded 11 containers. So I made 2 batches to fill all 24 containers.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz organic coconut oil
1.5 oz organic beeswax
1.5 oz organic cocoa butter
15 drops Vitam E (supplement)
10-15 drops Mint oil or extract (must be edible)
I decided to get out my scale and weigh all dry ingredients, to make sure I got a true 1:1:1 ratio. I put my measuring cup on the scale and then zeroed it out. I then added all my dry ingredients to equal 1.5 oz each (I added one more oz of cocoa after taking the photo). I decided on this amount as it would be easy to do the math. LOL. As I added my dry ingredients I looked for 1.5 oz - 3 oz - 4.5 oz. I do HATE MATH! O__o
Cocoa butter, coconut oil and beeswax all into my measuring cup, ready to be melted in a double boiler.
Since I don't have a true double boiler I just put the ring from a mason jar inside my pot of water...
...and I sat my measuring cup on it. I turned the stove on on LOW and waited for the solids to melt.
Waiting for them to melt was about as fun as watching grass grow. -__- It ended up taking over 30 minutes to melt on low, but it was well worth the wait, as it all melted smoothly...no clumps left!
...pure melted oil left (I used both a wooden skewer and a butter knife to mix/handle the balm).
At this point I added the Liquid Vitamin E...
...and the mint. It smelled so yummy! ^__^
I then slowly poured into my containers. As the liquid cooled it solidified VERY quickly, so I scraped the hard balm back to the bottom of the measuring cup and put it back on the stove to re-melt.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Amazon.com |
I forgot to take a photo of my containers before filling them. I got them at Hobby Lobby for $9.99 for 24. They looked like these and are beads containers. I washed them VERY well with dish soap and water...and I dry them for a several days prior to making the chapstick.
This was my first batch. I only got 11 containers filled. I filled them on a tray for easy clean-up in case of spills...and what do you know? I spilled! LOL. The melamine tray made it easy to scrape the spilled balm, when solid, and put it back into my double boiler for re-melting. Cleaning the measuring cup and butter knife was also really easy. As soon as I filled the lip balm tins, I immediately wiped the cup and knife with a paper towel. Because they were still hot, the waxy mess came off quickly and then I washed them as usual. Not much of a mess.
I put the containers in my COLD oven overnight - to cool completely. The lids went on only the next day. I was afraid that condensation would form otherwise, and since there is not preservatives in this balm, I wanted to make sure everything was nice and dry before sealing.
I then got my labels out (got also these at Hobby Lobby - had to use envelope seals as they were the only round labels small enough to fit these tiny boxes)...
...and used a sharpie fine point to write the content on them.
I waited about 2 hours before adhering the labels to the boxes but, given the very waxy finish of the labels, it was still not long enough for the ink to dry. GRRRRRRRR. I guess I'll keep the ugly ones for myself.
Here is the final batch of lip balms. I hope that my peeps will enjoy them. Hopefully they will let me know how they like the consistency and will give me pointers if any improvements needs to be made to this recipe.
No comments:
Post a Comment