It's fall-time in Alberta, and that means it's time to pull out the old chap stick tubes and lip balm containers to prepare for the bitterly dry and cold winter. Many of us use these products to help protect and moisturize our lips. There are countless number of different options available, from various flavours, medicated balms, options of moisturizing ingredients, and different types of wax.
But how do you feel about eating petroleum products? And what about taking in artificial colours and flavours? And are you happy about the possibility of ingesting a long list of other chemicals? If you aren't interested in eating any of these things, it's probably not the best idea to be putting them on your lips.
And then there's lip balm addiction. Some people use lip balm so much and have their lips so moisturized that the lips stop moisturizing themselves. Then they're stuck using more and more lip balm. Also, there are so many chemicals in lip balms that your skin may become irritated by any of those chemicals, causing them to feel dry, once again leading you to think that you need more lip balm.
So in the land of winter, what can you do to keep your lips moisturized? Well, avoid most commercial chap sticks and lip balms - they may be bad for your lips and bad for your health in general. You may be able to find some healthier options online or in some health stores. But the best option is to make your own lip balm. There are dozens of recipes to be found online. You'll need to find your petroleum wax substitute such as beeswax, cocoa butter, or shea butter, and then some carrier oil like sunflower, canola, or grapeseed oil. You can add some essential oils to make them smell fabulous (you can make it your own personalized aromatherapy lip balm), and some honey or other flavour to make it taste good (a little bit is bound to make it into your mouth).
True, it will take some time to make your own lip balm. But you can make enough at one time to last for ages and maybe even make enough to give as stocking stuffers. And this little bit of time will not be for nothing - it will be an investment into your health.
Whether you choose to buy your lip balm or make it yourself, try to limit how much you use it. If you feel the need to apply more as soon as it has worn off, you are probably using too much. Try a different brand of lip balm in case you are reacting to some ingredient in the lip balm. Or better yet, try fulfilling your need for moisture from the inside out - drink more water!
Nice! Do you have any recipes you like?
ReplyDeleteGive me a couple of days and I will let you know. I'm trying a recipe soon!
ReplyDeleteSounds good!
ReplyDeleteOK, so after searching through dozens of recipes and being somewhat unsatisfied with each of them, I made my own.
ReplyDeleteLip Balm
Ingredients
1 oz beeswax
1/2 oz mango butter
2 oz grapeseed oil
6+ drops D-Alpha Tocopherol (1000 IU/gram)
3 drops Peppermint essential oil
Directions
- Double-boil mango butter until melted
- Add grapeseed oil
- If beeswax is in block form, double-boil it until melted or shave it all into small pieces. If beeswax is in chips, leave as is.
- Add beeswax a little bit at a time until melted and mixed in.
- Allow to cool briefly. If you wish to test the texture of the lip balm before you put it into containers, take a small amount into a spoon and freeze it for 5 minutes. When you pull it out, that will be the final texture.
- Add the tocophorol and essential oil. (Tocophorol is another name for Vitamin E. It is used for its antioxidant properties.)
- Use syringe to fill tubes. If mixture starts to solidify, reheat gently in double-boiler.
Notes
- I used grapeseed oil because that's what I had in the house.
- I would add more essential oil than I did. It didn't turn out minty enough!
- Use a double-boiler, or better yet, for easier cleaning purposes, use glass bowls over a pot of boiling water. The glass is easier to clean.
- Buy disposable syringes/pipettes. It would be horrible to have to try to wash the wax out of a regular one.
- To clean the bowl, I heated it back up in the double boiler and added soap and water in the bowl. I scraped as much mixture out of the bowl then took it off the heat and cleaned it up in the sink.
- Leave yourself two hours of uninterrupted time to do this, including clean-up time. It shouldn't take quite that long, but you need to be focused on the task for the whole time.
Oh and the recipe made 21 standard size lip balm tubes (long and skinny) for me.
ReplyDelete