Honey itself doesn’t go bad because it’s such a high concentration of sugar. But if you add a bit of honey to lip balm then you’ve diluted those sugars and made a mixture that bacteria can feed off of.

Any time you mix oil and something waterbased (which honey is) you should have a specific preservative ingredient (or keep it in the fridge and use it up fast). Honey has no preservative properties when it’s added to other things.

Also, do you need to buy special essential oils to use as a lip balm? or are they all ok to use as a lip balm?

Also, where do you get essential oils?]

Hi Shannon

To make vanilla bean infused coconut massage oil:

• Warm up one jar of coconut oil to make it liquid. A lot of grocery stores carry coconut oil in the cooking oil section. Virgin coconut oil will smell more like coconut that the more refined coconut oil.
• Split a whole vanilla bean and scrape its seeds into the coconut oil. Add the vanilla bean pod in there too. The vanilla seeds will sink to the bottom of the oil. Using vanilla extract in its typical alcohol form won’t work as the alcohol and oil don’t mix (it will look like a lava lamp if you try).
• Gently heat the oil over low heat with the vanilla to help infuse the scent.
• Pour the scented coconut oil into a storage container that can be microwaved or submerged in hot water (for when you want to make the oil liquid).

Essential Oils
- not all essential oils are safe for body applications. I would only stay with ones labeled as food safe to avoid those that use a phenol extraction.
- fancy grocery stores sell essential oils these days.
- search online for food safe ones.
- if you can’t find any: use the actual plant itself. Example: steep lavender flowers or peppermint leaves in what it is you want to scent. Crush up the plant matter to help extract the oils.

Hope this helps

–McAuliflower

Cuticle Treatment

4 T castor oil
4 T cocoa butter

Warm cocoa butter first until melted then add castor oil. Let cool until comfortable temp the soak fingers for 10-15 minutes.

Hand Butter (one of the best I have tried)

1/4 c cocoa butter
1/4 c beeswax
2 T safflower oil
4-6 drops essential oil (optional)

Grate beeswax and cocoa butter….warm in pan until melted. Add safflower oil and remove from heat. Add essential oil if desired and whisk until cool. Put in container while still soft.

Lip Balm

Heat 2 teaspoons of beeswax and 7 teaspoons of Sweet Almond Oil until beeswax is just melted. Remove from heat, add 1 teaspoon of honey and whisk together. Let cool slightly, then stir in 5-6 drops of Peppermint Essential Oil. Pour into lip gloss pot.

Hint: if you like firmer lip balms, add a little more beeswax.

You can use the above lip balm with sweet almond or jojoba oil and no mint if you prefer. My husband loves this recipe.

I will add the Vitamin E lip and eye cream when I find the recipe. It is my very very favorite!!!!

Adding a drop or 2 of Vitamin E to any of the above is very nice.

Here’s how I did it:

At home, I melted together 1 part bee’s wax and 1 part vegetable oil and poured 2 tablespoons into the little candy cups. Then I melt coconut oil and poured it into another set of the cups.

By diluting the bee’s wax with the veggie oil, it will now melt with some pressure and the heat of the girl’s hands. Mixing the 2 Tablespoons of oil and bee’s wax with about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil with the contents of 1 vitamin E capsule and a squirt of honey makes an outstanding lip balm that won’t melt in your pocket. (The vitamin E and honey act as preservatives.)

It is essentially flavor free. You can use almond oil instead of canola or flavor it up with the essential oils or candy flavorings, or cocoa or vanilla, or, or, or…

Hi Lindsey,

I think this would work well as a cuticle cream (and moisturizer, and shaving lotion…). Adding oils that are liquid at room temperature will contribute to its liquid state even more. However, adding melted beeswax to this solution will aid in keeping it solid- even in the warm summer months. I don’t have that formulation on hand, but it’s referenced here in the comments.

cheer
–McAuliflower