“Chique” Beauty Tip: Homemade Lip Balm

As a young girl, I was obsessed with Bonnie Bell Lip Smacker. I remember like it was yesterday, the big box of giant colorful tubes of flavored lip balm that had a special place inside my grade school desk. Licking my lips with the taste of bubblegum was my idea of heaven back when I was 10. So now fast forward 30 years and I am blessed with two darling boys who think Lego is their taste of heaven. So how does a mother of two athletic boys deal with her life-long love of beauty products?

I continue to nurture my passion but I also feel the need to pass it on to my boys, mildly. They both swim and play outdoors which naturally dries out their lips. One of my biggest pet peeves is to see children walking around with runny noses. Second to that is to see kids with lips that look like they make crack and bleed at any moment. I casually introduced them to the concept the same way I taught them to brush their teeth and wash their face. It just became a third step; please put Vaseline on your cheeks and lips.

But like anything, if it is fun they are more likely to stick with it. So I decided to see if they too wanted to upgrade from the tasteless jelly to some of their favorite fruits. Well it did not take long, now my children have taken on the same fascination with flavored lip balm; everything from Pirate Peppermint to Chocolate Raspberry to Marshmallow Winter.

I figured if my children are ingesting this stuff on a regular basis I need make sure we are using products that are safe and natural. I have a Burt’s Bees Beeswax lip balm in every pocket but it was too “tingly” for my littlest one. Every time I ask the boys to put on some lotion on their face and lips, I couldn’t help but chuckle as it reminds me of my little sister. She too has a love for yummy lip gloss, but as did I she started with just the basic Vaseline. As do most young children she had a sweet habit of mispronouncing words. One our favorites was when she asked my mom for some Vaseline, “Mama, do you have any gasoline?” Well, little did we know that as we slathered on that yummy goop everyday it might as well have been gasoline. It isn’t called petroleum jelly for nothing.

So I started to do some research. I found an amazing product at Whole Foods called “Un-petroleum” jelly to use on their cheeks and lips. It was a perfect solution but it didn’t taste very good.
That brought me to my most recent discovery.  Let’s make our own lip balm. It can’t be that hard, can it? We can use all organic, natural ingredients and add our flavor of choice!  Not only did it solve our issues with “gasoline” on our lips but it was also a great learning experience for the boys. Measuring out the ingredients and then seeing it melt and transform into a liquid was like our very own science experiment. The most fascinating part of the project was seeing how it cooled. The balm went from a clear molten liquid to an opaque solid in minutes. They loved it! And best of all it tastes great and really works.

The recipe is easy to follow and the ingredients are available at any health food store or Whole Foods. We poured the liquid into old mini recycled cosmetic jars. I will say the boys love this recipe because it called for cocoa butter and then they added chocolate chips to their batch. But even my half, which was mint flavored, had a hint of chocolate because of the cocoa butter. Next time, I may substitute with Shea butter and use peppermint oil instead of fresh mint. I used the mortar and pestle to crush the mint but the mint does not dissolve so my balm has small pieces of leaves in it, which can be cool and very organic but I may try to perfect my blend next time!

Enjoy, experiment and discover new ways to entertain and educate your kids. The perfect winter weekend project or make a batch for your next party as favors. The kids will love it and so will you, I promise!

Try this Whole Living recipe out for a start, then add your own twists.