Organic Lip Balm: Recipe made with Shea Butter

I’m one of those people who can never have enough lip balms. I am completely addicted to them, especially during the winter, when lips need to be hydrated so that they don’t get chapped and irritated. Lip balms also make a quick and easy DIY holiday gift idea, and once you start to make your own, you will never stop!

There are different recipes to create your homemade organic lip balm, but my favourite is the one of the Italian youtuber Carlitadolce. This recipe contains Shea butter as main ingredient which makes the DIY Lip Balmeven more emollient.

You can apply this lip balm not only on the lips, but also in your nails.

DIY shea butter lip balm

Lip balm Ingredients:

  • 36g of Shea Butter
  • 1 teaspoon of tocopherol (vitamin E)
  • 1 teaspoon of Argan oil
  • 2 teaspoons of Agave Nectar
  • 20+ drops of lemon essential oil or orange essential oil

Method:

  1. Melt shea butter and Agave Nectar in a double boiler or small glass bowl over a small pot of boiling water, stirring constantly. Leave it just for few seconds as the sheabutter it should only become softer, as it may deteriorate.
  2. Remove pan from heat and stir until it turns into a liquid consistency
  3. Add the 1 teaspoon of tocopherol (vitamin E), 1 teaspoon of Argain oil and 20+ drops of lemon or orange essential oils. These essential oils make your organic lip balm scented and nourishing. I recommend adding a few drops at a time and testing a tiny amount on your arm to make sure the scent is to your liking.
  4. Keep stirring for a long until the balm starts to thicken
  5. Once it reaches medium-thick consistency, you can carefully pour into pots or tubes and allow to cool before using.

Don’t forget that you can use an extra teaspoon or two of shea butter if you prefer a thicker and longer-lasting lip balm or slightly less if you prefer a smoother and softer lip balm.

Modifications and additions

There are so many ways that you can play around with this recipe to make it your own. 

Although the shea butter is the key ingredient of this organic lip balm and it can’t be replaced, you can mix the shea butter with the cocoa butter. However, you need to be careful to add a larger amount of shea butter than cocoa butter. Furthermore, you can replace Argan Oil by Macadamia oil, Rice Oil or Jojoba Oil. The Tocopherol is the Vitamin E. It represents a functional ingredient for the lips as it hydrates and repairs them. However, if you do not have it, you can substitute it with an oil rich in Vitamin E, such as the Avocado oil, wheat-germ oil, castor oil that have a similar density.

To conclude, I strongly recommend you use the orange and lemon essential oils. The first one combined with the Agave Nectar has an amazing smell. The Lemon oil instead is most widely used for nails because it reinforces and nourishes them, if you want to use it only for the lips you could also omit it. These two essential oils are optional, if you don’t use them, your organic lip balm will have the fragrance of the Agave Nectar.

Have you ever tried to create some homemade products? I hope you have as much fun creating your homemade organic lip balm as I do! Attitude Organic cannot wait to hear your opinion!

If you like DIY beauty products, you should definitely read our 3 recipes of DIY Face Mask

Written by Sabrina Licata