Lip Balms and Lotion Bars

I guess it was inevitable that I would try to make my own bath products. It's a little like baking, and, really, for me lip balm is a basic food group. My friend, S, made two kinds of sugar scrubs and a solid lotion bar as Christmas gifts for everyone, which inspired me to scan Pinterest for recipes.

I made two kinds of lip balm and a solid lotion bar. I made the Minty Chocolatey and a variation of the Coco-Rosey lip balms from Crunchy Betty. They were both really easy to make, honestly. Just some melting in a saucepan and pouring into tins. I got the butters and oils at Whole Foods, in the beauty section, and the tins are 2" round wedding favor tins/boxes from Michaels.

I made a Sweet Orange Hibiscus balm instead of the rose version. I steeped hibiscus tea, instead of rosebus, and used sweet orange essential oil. It smells divine, but doesn't have a lot of color from the flowers. I don't know if there's a difference between petals for tea and just dried petals, but I'll definitely try it again to find out.

The lotion bar recipe is from SoapNuts.com.

Basic Lotion Bar

3 oz. beeswax

3 oz. cocoa butter

3 oz. sunflower oil (may substitute sweet almond, jojoba, etc.)

essential oil or fragrance oil

Melt beeswax and cocoa butter together in top of double boiler.

When melted, add sunflower oil and stir until completely mixed.

Stir until mixture cools slightly before adding essential oils, about 1 teaspoon. Pour into molds and let harden.

I added Chamomile and Geranium essential oils and a little bit of Vit. E oil, to make it a little less hard. I just used a mini muffin tin, this recipe filled up about 9 molds. I popped them out and put them in the round tins.

For the lip balms, I got all fancy and made labels with my Silhouette machine and vinyl, bit I ran out of steam for the lotion bars. I may just use the labels that come with the tins and, gasp, actually write the description on them.

I've handed them out to friends and The Bean's teachers, who were very appreciative. In Colorado, especially during the winter, keeping hands and lips moisturized and crack-free is a big chore.