How to make a coloured lip balm

It's simple to make lip balm into a sort of lipstick by adding some micas. It's not a true lipstick as it is still sheer, but you can play around with colours to create something awesome!

We can make a quite opaque colour by adding titanium dioxide and other mineral makeup ingredients. (Visit my blog for a few lengthy posts on this topic!)

The first step is to create a lip balm base you like.

Measure out 30 g beeswax, 26 g butter, and 44 g oil on a scale in a heatproof jug. Heat until melted. You will want to choose your oils based on your preferences and ability to get them.

You will want oils with a six month or longer shelf life, so grapeseed and hemp seed are out. You will want oils that taste good or not bad as you'll be tasting it all day!

Choosing oils is important and I only have so much space, so please visit http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/p/oil-butter-posts.html for loads of information on oils and butters.

If you want your lip balm to be shiny, add about 10 grams castor oil. Don't make it all castor oil, as it doesn't taste great! I like a combination of castor-soy bean-cocoa butter in my products.

I generally suggest using cocoa butter in a lip balm as it's inexpensive and helps stiffen the lip balm. It is an occlusive ingredient, which means it will protect your lips from the elements!

Use coconut oil at up to 15 grams, but be careful in the summer as it will melt at 24C or 76F, and you'll have a tube of lip balm that is turning to liquid oil in your purse or pocket!

How much beeswax you'll use depends on the butter. Use 30 - 35 g for shea butter, 25 - 30 for mango or cocoa butter. The softer the butter, the more beeswax you need.

While your lip balm base melts, prepare your colours!

For the colours, you want lip safe micas. In addition to the lip colours, I suggest getting a white mica (matte) and a black mica. Black will make your colours darker, white makes them lighter.

Invest in a ton of these 0.15 cc or 1/32 tsp scoops. You can get 1/32 tsp at the cooking shop, but once you start making your own colours, you won't want to stop, and they are a pain to wash!

If you want to add colour, measure your micas together in a plastic bag, squish until blended, try with a Q-tip. Add more as you wish. Write everything down! You think you'll remember, but you won't!

The colour on the outside of the bag isn't a reflection of the colour inside!

You can see here that the same colour blend can do different things. Use less for a shimmer, more for shine. Add a scoop of titanium dioxide to make the colour more opaque.

(Sorry for the picture awfulness!) The middle is just the micas. The left is with a scoop of titanium dioxide, the right with two. The more TiO2, the more opaque.

No titanium dioxide on the left. Lots on the right.

You can add iron oxides, but make sure they are lip safe. On the left is one with iron oxide, which will be less shiny and more colourful. On the right, the version without iron oxide (more shiny).

Ultramarine pink, blue, or purple, chromium green, iron oxide blue, and possibly manganese violet are not safe in lipsticks. Check your supplier for information on lip or eye safety.

We want to use 5% to 10% mica colour blend to melted base. So if you make 10 grams of base, you'll add about 0.5 tsp to 1 tsp colour. Use less for more intense colours (the oxides).

You'll have to play with your colour blends to see how you like them. Let some of the coloured balm cool on a stir stick and apply to your lips. Add more colour as you like.

RUBY: 4 scoops red or red mica (1/8 tsp), 1 scoop white satin mica (5% colour to base) Add up to 2 scoops titanium dioxide for a more opaque balm. Squish very very well so you see no white streaks.

My favourites (clockwise from top left): Cotton candy, petal pink, romantic rose, merlot. I like 5 scoops merlot, 7 scoops petal pink or 9 scoops cotton candy or rose in 1 tbsp (15 ml) base.

I like to make 100 g or more and keep it in jars. I'll remove 20 or 30 g, melt it, and pour 5 - 10 g into a shot glass. I add my colour at 5% - 0.5 tsp for 10 g - and mix well. Store in the fridge.

Consider your containers. You'll probably want to put it in a tube. Check how much it holds. These are 4.5 ml tubes, so they hold less than a teaspoon. 100 grams will makes more than 20 tubes!

If you want to learn more about making coloured lip products, please visit my blog... http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.ca/2009/09/lipstick-modifying-lip-balm-adding-iron.html

Now give your new lip shimmer a name - mine are all named after Game of Thrones, with this one called Kissed by Fire - and rejoice!

Store your mica blend in a bag and save it for next time. Or make a matching nail polish or blush. Oh...

...did I forget to mention that the supplies you buy for this project - micas, oxides, titanium dioxide - can be used to make eye shadow or eye liner...

...nail polish, glitter powder, bronzer, foundation, blush, and a bunch of other mineral make-up things?

Silly me! Join me for my next SnapGuide on making a finishing powder that you could use as the base of a bronzer, glitter powder, blush, or eye shadow! (Visit my blog if you can't wait!)

And you have all the supplies to make a few of my other SnapGuides - eye shadow primer stick, lotion bar, solid perfume, and whipped body butter!