Homemade Peppermint Honey Lip Balm

This was my very first homemade undertaking, but one of my favorites because it was so simple and I ended up making a ton that I gave out as Christmas gifts. The measurements don't need to be exact really, just remember that the more beeswax you add, the harder your lip balm will be. You can find all of the ingredients I used online if you don't want to go to the store.

Preparation & Ingredients
Containers: I knew I needed small containers to hold the lip balm, and I'm sure I could have found something online, but then I noticed when I was painting one day that I could use small paint solvent cups instead. You can find these at Michael's or AC Moore if you don't have any hanging around.

Beeswax: The next somewhat obscure ingredient I needed was beeswax. Apparently Whole Foods doesn't sell this, but, again, Michael's and AC Moore do! They both always have 40-50% coupons in their weekly flier, so I printed one of those and ended up with a big block of 100% pure beeswax. Plus, if you're a teacher, you get 15% off if you bring your teacher ID or a pay stub with you to the store. If you know someone who keeps bees, you could also ask them to purchase some. I still have over 3/4 of the block I bought left and I've used it for quite a few projects so far.

Virgin Coconut Oil: This is easy to find. You can get it at pretty much any grocery store. I got mine at Ocean State Job Lot because it's only $5 for a 14 oz. jar.

Grapeseed Oil: Again, easy to find at any grocery store.

Honey: I'm not even going to address the acquisition of this. However, I will say that I think raw honey would have dissolved and blended better, so I'll probably get some for next time. I know Whole Foods sells raw honey, and I'm guessing a lot of other grocery stores do too, but I haven't checked.

Peppermint Oil: Just make sure it's pure extract and not imitation.

Combining the Ingredients
People suggest using a double boiler to heat the ingredients together. But, I'm cheap, so I just filled a pot up with water and put a mason jar in it. It worked fine. Also, I didn't need to worry about ruining any pots because beeswax is next to impossible to wash off of whatever you put it in.

I put the following ingredients into the mason jar and put my stove on medium-low:

• 1 part beeswax (again, the measurements here are approximate)
• 1 part coconut oil
• 1 part grapeseed oil
• A little honey (not really sure how much I put in, I just kind of squirted some out of the bottle)

Stir your concoction frequently and turn the stove off once the mixture is almost completely melted. Continue stirring until all of the ingredients are melted and blended together.

Pour the mixture into your paint solvent cups (or whatever you're using), quickly add a couple drops of peppermint oil to each cup, and stir a bit before the mixture begins to harden. You don't want to add your oils until after you remove the mixture from the stove because it evaporates quickly, but the mixture can also start to look chunky and gross if you don't add the peppermint oil soon enough and the mixture has already started to harden. Just work quickly and you'll be fine though.

And that's it. Now just wait for your lip balm to harden (or put it in the fridge if you're impatient) and you have your own homemade peppermint-honey lip balm.