Saturday, February 1, 2014

Lip Balms and Sugar Scrubs

Now that I have the ingredients to experiment with lotions and creams, I am also stocked up on the ingredients I need to make lip balms and sugar scrubs. My lips have been extra dry this winter, even though we are having a fairly mild winter by Canadian standards. I had been using store-bought lip balm (the horror!), and I've missed my usual long-lasting, buttery lip balm. So this weekend I dug out my faithful recipe and got to work.

To start, I like to wrap an elastic around my lip balm tubes to keep them together while I pouring - less chance of them toppling over that way:


Then I melt together beeswax and cocoa butter:

 

Once those are almost completely melted, I add palm oil, castor oil and avocado oil and gently heat until everything is melted:


Then I add some vitamin E, tea tree and lavender essential oils and pour the balm into the tubes:


Lip balm!


And, I also made something I haven't made for years...brown sugar scrub:


This scrub contains shea butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, turbinado and white sugar, plus some stearic acid and e-wax to make it a lotion-y scrub. Apparently I forgot how much my recipe made, because I literally have a small bucket of scrub left over after filling as many empty containers as I could find. Good thing I have lots of family and friends who don't mind testing these out for me! ;)

Thanks so much for reading and have a great week!
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34 comments:

  1. Store-bought lip balm! :O How could you?! :D
    I made last week a lip balm with almost the same ingredients. Just that I used olive oil instead of palm and candelilla wax instead of beeswax.
    Could you sometimes write on how to make a sugar scrub like that? I made also last week a salt scrub by my sisters request with Himalayan salt, cocoa butter, coconut oil and peppermint eo. The tingly feeling you get from the peppermint is really nice. I will make some for myself next summer when it´s hot.

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    1. Lol, I know...I felt like such a slacker every time I bought it! ;)

      Oooh, the peppermint sounds so refreshing! I will try to do a picture tutorial on the scrubs once I get some more emulsifying wax :)

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  2. Your scrubs look amazing! Love your lip balm too!

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  3. Thank you for the tutorial! Question: How do you pour your oils into the tubes without making a mess??? I've been struggling with this! Any tips are appreciated!

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    1. Have you tried very small kettle to melt and pour everything? That works quite well. Another option is to put everything to plastic bag after melting and cut off a small piece from the corner and pour through that hole.

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    2. I use a glass measuring cup, which has a little spout, so that makes accurate pouring easier. I have lots of practice pouring too, so I guess that helps ;) I was also wondering if pipettes would work?

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  4. What a sin to use store-bought lip balm! ;D They often make situation even worse - but luckily we can make lip balms of our own, they are just so good...that sugar scrub looks lovely too, and sounds interesting. I do it much simpler way, and result is not as pretty as yours. That looks so creamy, it would be nice to try your recipe too...

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    1. You know, I found that out this year....the store bought lip balms make my lips drier...how is that possible?! I am so happy to have my trusty lip balm back! :) Thanks for your nice comments Signe!

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  5. Your scrub looks delicious, Christine! Maybe you can also come with the recipe( thanks in advance), it looks good enough to eat!
    Your lip balm are so lovely!

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    1. Hi Nat, thanks so much for your nice comments! I will try to do a picture tutorial on how I made this one :)

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  6. Hey, welcome back! Nice products,Cee, all look gorgeous. Isn't it fun that we can make almost all a girl could ever need for her care and indulgence?! I still need to make emulsified scrub, just need to get an appropriate emulsifier. Believe it,or not, I made one of cp soap, after I had to rebatch, but that's another story!
    Looking forward to seeing what next you will come up with.

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    1. Thank you, my dear! I am so happy using all of these handmade products, I sure do appreciate them :) That is such a good idea to use shredded soap in a scrub, I'll have to try that!

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  7. I also sin because I use store-bought lip balm. Gasp! :0 Thank you for the tutorial, Cee. Your lip balm and sugar scrub both look really good.

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    1. You definitely need to make your own lip balm - once you try, you never want to change back! ;)

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    2. Thanks for reminding me, Signe! It's in my to-do list for this year. I am waiting for the tubes to arrive although that's just an excuse because I can still make lip balm without it. :-)

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    3. Yes, it's soooo super easy Silvia, and definitely worth the effort! For some reason, I always put off making it because I think it's going to be complicated, but it is so quick to make and I wonder why I waited so long to make it each time?!

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  8. I got so many requests for lip balms since I started soap making although I hate to make them. There are just no fun comparing to soaps, but here, people will usually give the same amount of money for a lip balm than for a soap. l could never understand this. Body scrubs on the other hand, are really fun and give you more possibilities to play around. That I like!

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    1. I agree with you! I just don't find lip balms as fun as soap, although they are incomparably better than those waxy store-bought kinds. I enjoy scrubs so much more.

      Your creations look delicious, Cee! I love the look of the scrub with the turbinado sugar. And somehow I can make a mess of my lip balms even with a rubber band...I always try to add just a wee bit more and it spills over the side. :)

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    2. Thanks to both of you for your nice comments, and I agree with you, I always put off making the lip balms...but they are so quick and easy to make. I'm so glad they sell so well for you Ksenija, it's definitely worth the extra effort then, and so nice that your customers appreciate them!

      Amy - I did the exact same thing with these lip balms...lol! Good thing they wipe off so easily ;)

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  9. I would love to make my own lip balm, but even better, my sister had given me a bunch of lip balms made by a fellow soaper so I'm covered off for a while. Have you tried colouring your lip balm or are you more of a pure is the only way to go type?

    I'd love to get the recipe for your sugar scrub as well. I think they're fantastic, but I've never tried making it before. Is it easy to do?

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    1. I was tempted to try putting a bit of mica in this batch to color them, but decided not to in case it didn't turn out (I desperately needed lip balm!). I do prefer the pure but would like to try some color too.

      The scrubs are quite easy to make Monica, the only special ingredients I need are the stearic acid and emulsifying wax - everything else I usually have on hand. Your skin really does feel soft and lovely afterwards :)

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  10. Great-looking balms and sugar scrub, Cee! I am totally addicted to lip balm, and I confess that I have been using store-bought balms. I made my own once, but had all kinds of problems with the balm not advancing from the tube when twisted. Could have been the tubes, could have been the balm base I was using. I should give lip balms another go one of these days. And sugar scrubs sound very nice, too.

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    1. Thanks so much Jenny! I definitely couldn't survive without lip balm this time of year too. You should think about giving the lip balms another go, they are so easy and definitely worth the effort :)

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  11. I am sad I live so far away or else I would be knocking at your door to volunteer to try some of your scrub!!! It looks really nice :) The lip balm looks good too...I must also confessed that just today I went to the store and purchased some lip balm and completely ignored the fact that I have all the supplies to make it at home!!!

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    1. Lol, I literally have a small pail of it left over, so would gladly share!!! Silly girl, pull out those lip balm ingredients and get busy! ;)

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  12. I stopped buying store lip balm a couple of years back as I found that although my lips felt moisturised on first application, it seemed like a vicious circle as my lips would soon feel even dryer than they did originally. I never thought about making my own but it's a lovely idea Another thing to add to the to-do list *sigh* :-D That sugar scrub looks awesome too - did you add any fragrance to it?

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    1. That's exactly what I find Vicki...my lips were getting drier instead of moisturized! Once you made your own, you would notice such a huge difference...it's definitely worth it!

      I did fragrance the sugar scrub, but I was thinking for a recipe this big, I should have left it unfragranced and then just added a small amount of fragrance when needed, so that I could customize it. Ah well, live and learn! :)

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  13. How fun! These look great. I hope your lips are feeling better now!

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    1. Much better...I shouldn't have procrastinated!!! :D

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  14. When I filled in tubes with lip balm for a first time I made really big mess! Now, I am more skillful but anyhow thanks for your tip! Both product look gorgeous: I am sure that consumers will enjoy them!

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    1. Practice definitely helps, I made a mess the first time too :) Thanks for your nice comments Gordana!

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