Make your own lip balm

If you are a lip balm junkie and your habit is costing you loads of cash, why not make your own balms? Its so simple to do.

You’ll need: a good lip balm base, flavor oil that is skin-safe/edible, chapstick tubes or small pots or some other tiny containers (our local Dollar Tree store has these travel container sets that include a small round pill case, perfect for a balm pot), Stevia to sweeten your balms unless your flavor oil is presweetened/or you prefer unsweetened, newspaper or waxed paper to protect your countertops, small disposable Dixie cups/pipettes, and a clean medicine measuring cup.
If you are beginner in the bath and body crafts department, never fear! There are all sorts of great balm bases available online. My favorite to use is a mixture of soybean oil, beeswax, sunflower seed oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, and Vit. E. The formulation is perfect...not too thick but very nourishing on the lips. I don’t like to keep all those oils on hand so I prefer to buy a premade base:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=10620888

Now that you have all your ingredients, start by melting your base in the microwave, slowly, about 35 seconds at a time. After it is melted, let it cool for a brief time. If you add your flavor oil to a base that is too hot, all your flavor/scent will fade away. So give it about 3 or 4 minutes. You want the base to be liquid but not scalding hot. Measure out 1/2 oz. of your selected flavor oil usinf your medicine cup. (I use only presweetened flavors so I don’t have to mess with adding Stevia). Some people may like a stronger balm (up to 1 oz. of flavor per 16 oz. tub of base) but I have found that using Kiss Kwenchers Flavors at 1/2 oz. per tub of base gives an excellent scent and taste, comparable to that of store bought balms. They are sweetened wonderfully!

Stir your flavoring in and then carefully transfer your hot balm into your chapstick tubes/pots using either a pipette or my favorite method, the Dixie cup. I pour only a small amount of hot base into a dixie cup, pinch one side to form a spout, and very slowly our my base in. Pipettes will eventually clog and be almost impossible to reuse. Dixie cups are a great dispoable alternative.

After your balm has set up a bit, go back and top each one off with a few more drops as that will give the well-rounded look of the store bought balms.

I like to buy my chapstick tubes and shrink wraps on Ebay from a couple named Gene and Angie. I get 100 tubes and wraps at a time, which is great as my base makes about 100 balms. It can also be used for solid perfume, cuticle creams, whipped body butters, pet paw balms, under eye stick and so much more!

I have a complete DIY lip balm kit perfect for the beginner or as a supervised slumber party/spa party activity:
http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmV0c3kuY29tL3ZpZXdfbGlzdGluZy5waHA/bGlzdGluZ19pZD0xMDYyMjAxMg==