When I got my awesome little TKB Trading Lipstick Mold one of the first things I wanted to investigate was the compatibility of the lipstick recipes in my book with the mold. The compatibility was resoundingly… not. Efforts to use the lipstick bases from my book resulted in lipsticks that looked like they’d been torn in half. They wouldn’t come out of the mold in one piece (or even three) to save they lives—I had to dig them out with the handle of a spoon and many, many cotton buds. Boo. Oh well, at least we know. Anyhow, with my learnings from working with TKB’s lovely moldable lipstick base I set off to create my own. As you can probably guess I’ve got a lot of cosmetic type ingredients so I’m thinking I’ll create at least two different bases; this one will be a more basic one, featuring easier-to-purchase ingredients.
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
A moldable lipstick base needs to be solid, but also slick enough to unmold easily. Experiments where all the thickening came from beeswax, which is rather tacky, were typically only ever borderline successful; with lots and lots of freezing and patience it might come out of the mold nice-ish-ly. To add to that, lots of beeswax in a formula tends to make it quite draggy in the application arena. Not ideal.
If you look at TKB’s base you’ll notice multiple thickeners. There’s not only three types of wax (beeswax, candelilla wax, and carnauba wax), but you’ll also find cetearyl alcohol and lauryl laurate. Candelilla and carnauba wax are the last two ingredients, but they are both quite strong, glossy hardeners. Cetaryl alcohol is the second ingredient after castor oil, and it helps contribute creamy, yet non-tacky hardening. Lauryl laureate is a plant derived “mono-ester” wax that brings both hardening and non-greasy slip to the formula. Beeswax is hanging out somewhere in the middle of the ingredient list, contributing its characteristic creamy, slightly tacky hardening.
My base recipe features three hardeners; cetearyl alcohol, beeswax, and candelilla wax. I like the balanced silky/creamy feel of cetearyl alcohol, beeswax brings some great substance and tooth to the blend, and candelilla wax helps kick up the hardness factor. I experimented with including some stearic acid, but found that created something too tacky to unmold (boo, it was otherwise lovely!)
Our liquid oils are simple: castor and fractionated coconut oil. A bit of sericite mica helps with adhesion, and vitamin E helps extend the shelf life of the base. There’s also a wee bit of soy lecithin, which really helps the lipstick feel creamier.
Before I settled on this formula I made quite a few. The first formula I tried worked like a charm, but I wanted a creamier feel. The adjustments I made to get that richer feel led to failure after failure when it came to unmolding. They either wouldn’t come out of the mold, would only come out after very extended freezing (and even then it felt dubious), or they’d break when I tried to separate the two parts of the mold. Booo. I ended up having to dial back my creamy-enhancing ingredients (soy lecithin, stearic acid, and more beeswax) until I was left with just 3% soy lecithin, but even that makes a big difference, and I’m definitely happier with the feel of this formula than the first one.
I opted not to include the adhesion boosting powders I usually include in lipstick bases because I found they made the base crumbly, and that is detrimental for unmolding. Boo. Instead I aimed to get adhesion from the creamier consistency, sericite mica, and the pigment potency. This lipstick doesn’t wear as well as the long wear lipstick in my book, but it does wear well, and it’s very easy to re-apply!
Making the base is very easy—measure, melt, pour. From there you can make lipsticks just like I do in this post! Whee!
Want to watch this project instead of read it?
Basic Moldable Lipstick Base
Heated phase
12.15g | 40.50% castor oil (USA / Canada)
0.9g | 3% soy lecithin
6g | 20% cetearyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
3g | 10% fractionated coconut oil
4.5g | 15% Beeswax, refined
0.9g | 3% candelilla wax
2.4g | 8% sericite mica (USA / Canada)Cool down phase
0.15g | 0.50% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.
Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through. Stir while the base is in the water bath to ensure the sericite mica is thoroughly incorporated.
After about 20–30 minutes everything should be completely melted through. Remove the water bath from the heat, remove the measuring cup from the water bath, and dry it off with a dish towel. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to thoroughly incorporate, and then pour into a 30mL/1 ounce tin or jar for storage and let it set up for at least an hour before using.
To use, follow the instructions in this post.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this lipstick base is 100% oil based, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
The colour blends
The bright one
3.5g | 0.12oz lipstick base
0.48g red #21 liquid colour
0.25g red #6 liquid colourThe dark one
3.5g | 0.12oz lipstick base
0.44g red #21 liquid colour
0.18g blue shade red iron oxide powder
0.15g red #7 powderThe one in the video
3.5g | 0.12oz lipstick base
0.3g Tibetan ochre mica
0.6g red #6 liquid colour
0.11g red #33 liquid colourNotes & Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 30g, which is enough for about eight tubes of lipstick.
- This recipe is very carefully balanced to ensure it will unmold. There are only three substitutions you could likely make that would be successful:
- You can use unrefined beeswax in place of refined
- You could try a different lightweight liquid oil in place of fractionated coconut oil
- You could try carnauba wax in place of candelilla wax
- I recommend keeping the liquid dye amount on the lower side (≤0.7g/3.5g base); I made a version that used 0.7g pre-dispersed liquid dyes and that felt like it was on the edge of being too soft to unmold.
- If you live somewhere very hot be sure you’re freezing the lipstick for a good long time—at least three hours. If this base gives you trouble, try replacing the soy lecithin with more castor oil.
How to make vegan?
Given that the line between success and failure for this base was often just a few percentage points of different ingredients, and beeswax is used at 15%, I am not able to recommend anything I am certain will succeed. You a would have to replace the beeswax with a different and approximately equivalent hardener (I’ve heard good things about soy wax) and do the leg work of experimenting yourself.
wow..the formulation is mind blowing..you are such a genius dear..:))..give me one lipstick please..:P
Thanks for reading! Happy making 🙂
Hi Marie,
Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
I made a base following this recipe. I did not add the sericite mica and the color. After cooling, i could see two layers. Where did i go wrong?
Also if i want to make a lipstick that can be stored in a container and used with a lip brush what changes can I make in this recipe?
I could not purchase sericite mica. Can I do away with this?
Waiting for your feedback.
PS: I really appreciate your genuineness and I have learnt a lot form your videos.
It’s hard for me to say, but I’d probably start with the eliminated sericite mica when it comes to troubleshooting.
Check out the recipes in my book for awesome pot lipstick formulations!
Oooh, it looks so professional… You are a one-man show of an entire cosmetic laboratory! I am wondering, though: How comes you do not need titanium dioxide, for the colour not to be transparent? And what to do if I do not have any liquid colours: if I’m using powdered iron oxides instead of the liquid, would that make the lipstick too hard, or should I try adding a wee bit of oil in the powder first? Thank you very much.
Thanks! Here’s an excerpt from an upcoming post:
“In lipstick, opacity comes from the sheer volume of solid pigment. Technically this is true for all cosmetics, but I find people often add titanium dioxide to lipsticks for opacity without realizing adding white to the blend will drastically alter it. This isn’t necessarily good or bad, but you will find you keep getting pink instead of red if you insist on adding white to all your red lipstick blends! You don’t need titanium dioxide for opacity in lipstick; a solid whack of pigment will do the trick.”
Please visit the link at the end of the recipe for guidance on pigment usage, this post is all about the base (I just included the colour blends I did make because I knew people would ask if I didn’t!).
If I wanted to use all mica and no liquid color, how much could I use?
This post is all about this specific base, not the colour blends. Please visit the original post (linked in the recipe) on colour blends & ratio experiments for more guidance on those 🙂
That said—mica is not pigmented enough to make a proper lipstick without throwing the entire recipe out of whack and risking unmolding failure. You’d have to use WAY more mica than I can verify will work. If you look at the swatches in the original post you’ll see some that are coloured with just mica and liquid dyes and those are very pale, with almost all the colour coming from the liquid dye. You certainly don’t have to use liquid colour, but you won’t get lipstick level colour payoff if you only use mica at the recommended/tested amounts.
So if I don’t use mica, how can I get a frosted look?
You do use mica, you just don’t use ONLY mica. It’s like baking—get the sweetness from the sugar and the flavour from the cocoa 🙂 Get the shimmer/frosted look from the mica, the colour from the pigments.
how can I make this vegan? Thanks
Given that the line between success and failure for this base was often just a few percentage points of different ingredients, and beeswax is used at 15%, I am not able to recommend anything I am certain will succeed. You a would have to replace the beeswax with a different and approximately equivalent hardener (I’ve heard good things about soy wax) and do the leg work of experimenting yourself.
Would it be possible to use all natural colourants like carmine and iron oxides in making this? (Those are the colourants I already have at home). Did you try that at all? If so, how did it turn out? Thanks!
For sure; this post is all about this specific base, not the colour blends. Please visit the original post on colour blends & ratio experiments for more guidance on those. Carmine is typically a good replacement for the brighter red dyes, though obviously there will be some colour variation 🙂
Thanks for the reply! 🙂 I definitely have lots of carmine to use up!
Hi Marie,
I know you have added soy lecithin for added creaminess, but if I were to leave it out, would I need to replace the volume with something else, or could I just omit it completely?
Wendy
You’d want to replace it with more castor oil.
i bought your book and i have to say i love it! not ready to make lipstick. i made foundation and a bronzer..i love it! better than anything i have ever worn.I am not young like you. i am 60 and have been reading your blog for a while. First thing was tallow balm. i have been making soap for yrs now. i also make laundry soap, dishwasher, bath cleaner, dryer sheets…and of course, fabulous face serum and body butters. But was hesitant on making makeup. Wow Marie!
I’m about to make eye shadows and some of your lip colors. Do you have any ideas about making it matte? i like the sephora one, but if i could make up one myself.
Hey Val,
I know Making Cosmetics sells a premade matte base. There’s also a kit on TKB but I’ve not tried it myself. The reviews are mixed on both pre made products.
The ‘Lip Paint’ in Make It Up is very much like a matte liquid lip, IMHO. Not quite as much staying power VS my store bought, but still remarkable for a super easy DIY.
-Nichole
Thanks, Nichole!
Thanks so much, Val! I’m so glad you are loving my book and enjoying the things you’re making! You can try adding some additional silica microspheres to make things matte 🙂 Happy making!
Hey hey Marie,
I was playing around with my mold supplies that came today, and after crafting a few ‘frankenlippies’ I played around a bit with the TKB base and made a plain batch of yours.
Now it’s time for Merlot and research.
Do you think one could reduce the amount of castor oil in the base if using all castor oil dispersed pigments? The math would have to be adjusted, of course, but I’m thinking of trying it. I kinda got excited and forgot to plan so I’m low on iron oxides but HEAVY on liquid pigments and liquid carmine with the order I got today.
Thanks as always.
-Nichole
Yes, that’s exactly what you’d want to do to avoid things getting too soft 🙂 Too soft = not coming out of the mold. Boo. Have so much fun! 😀
Hi Marie,
Hello from India. I bought your book and i am truly amazed at the precision of your work. I am beginner in DIY and i am very inspired by your work.I am gathering my supplies to try out the lipstick base.
Cetearly alcohol is not available with the suppliers that i know of. They do have CetoStearyl Alcohol.
Are Cetearyl Alcohol and Cetostearyl Alcohol the same thing? I tried checking http://www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9923362
However,i thought i will double check given i have zero experience in this. Please advice.
Can you suggest any substitution for sericite mica?
Thanks.
Yes, they are the same thing—read the “synonym” section of the link you provided 🙂 That variety looks to be the 50-50 type.
Thank you for buying my book and for your support!
I read somewhere that d&c pigments are harmful 🙁 May I know your take on that?
D&C pigments are highly regulated cosmetic ingredients that are very carefully produced and safety checked, unlike more natural ingredients like clays (here’s an FDA recall notice for a brand of bentonite clay with unsafe lead levels). I have no safety concerns about D&C dyes. They are synthetic, but synthetic doesn’t mean dangerous 🙂
I made this (and followed the recipe exactly) but mine came out terribly! They were pitted and full of holes and impossible to clean up. Why did this happen?
Oh no! If there were holes in the finished lipsticks it sounds like you poured them with quite a lot of froth/bubbles in the mixture—it may’ve been too thick as well. I’m not sure what you mean by “impossible to clean up”—lipstick is super messy by nature (oil + wax + a ton of pigment), so clean up challenges are par for the course.
Hi Marie! Since cetearyl alcohol is not easily accessible at where I’m living, i’m wondering if i could replace it with cetyl alcohol or ceteareth-20 instead?
Thanks,
Tiffany
Hey Tiffany! As noted in the substitutions list, I really can’t suggest either of those swaps with any confidence. You are certainly welcome to try them, but I created quite a few versions of this recipe in attempts to create something that would unmould well, and many did not work.
The link for the beeswax says it’s white, but your base looks more yellow than mine. Did you use white or yellow beeswax?
It’s white beeswax—the lecithin is very orangey 🙂
Hello, I made several times this recipe, the first time it worked very good and come out a gorgeaus lipstick. The rest of recipes dind’t worked, the lipsticks were cracking in the mold and I can’t figure why. I followed the recipe and used all the ingredients exactly, for pigments I used the pre-dispersed ones from TKB. Do you have any ideea why is not working ? Thank you
If the results are not identical, then something in the ingredients or process isn’t, either—but it’s impossible for me to say what. A new batch of a certain ingredient? A broken scale? Different ambient temperature? You are the only one who can figure out what has changed. Good luck + happy making!
Hello Marie, Sericite Mica is not available in my area. Substitutions say i replace it with kaolin clay and SiO2. Please suggest a ratio for these ingredients or any other substitution of sericite mica.
Hey! So I made the lipstick in your book and I made the blushing taupe and the nude. Both ended up way too peachy orange on me. Is there a way to make it more pinky beige?
I think you’d want to dial back the yellow amounts and increase the TD, but you will have to do your own experiments 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie,
You made some lipsticks using TKB base. With lipstick #5 you used all powder pigments. Did you add these straight into the base (after it’d been melted) and kept mixing in the water bath?
I’ve just read from a supplier’s website in Vietnam that all the lake pigments (they purchase their pigments from TKB trading) were heat sensitive and we shouldn’t add them directly to the melted base and they’d from clumps. This has confused me a lot as how could we mix the pigments properly? And I’ve tried but couldn’t find such information (if the lake pigments are heat sensitive). Could you please let me know from your experience if this is correct? I’ve always added the pigments straight in and my lipsticks aren’t very smooth but I always thought it was because i didn’t grind the pigments as you recommend (I only make 10g of base each time so it’s not much of pigments to grind).
Thanks so much and look forward to your reply,
Huong
Hey Huong! I haven’t had any issues with heat stability with any powdered pigments I’ve worked with. I’m sure I would’ve had to kept the base in the water bath to get everything to blend in well as those bases set up pretty quickly + powders typically need quite a lot of blending. You might consider directing this question to the customer service at TKB Trading as well—they sure know a lot about these sorts of things!
Thank you Marie
Hi Marie, because of the un-moulding process, would you not recommend even 1-2% magnesium stearate? I don’t want to question you or the hard work, frustration and money you have put into this formula, I’m just wondering/curious about how magnesium stearate affects the base, I’m so excited to try lipsticks with a mould! I am in Australia and the cheapest one i can find like yours comes apart in halves vertically, $25, but it does say you have to be careful with the temperature of the lipstick as it can leak… I have found some one piece silicone ones, but I am hesitant to use them as I am not sure about how to un-mould them… anyway, thank you so much!
You can certainly try it! I didn’t, so let me know if you do 🙂 I know I’ve had some readers use the silicone moulds and report good success with them—if it’s anything like the other silicone moulds I have you’d probably just freeze everything super solid and then gently peel it back. Happy making!
Yes, the silicone molds are AWESOME and VERY CHEAP on Amazon.
Hi,
The recipe works well but gave wax bloom after around 3 months. Is it because of soy lecithin?
I’m afraid I haven’t done an elimination test to narrow down why that might happen in this formula, but you could 🙂
Why do you think your original lipstick formulations did not come out of the mold? I want to formulate matte lipsticks, so I am wondering this mold would work well or not. Would I be better off getting a metal mold?
Love your blog, thank you! 🙂
The moldable vs. not thing is all about the formulation rather than the mould—what won’t work in this plastic mould is not likely to work in a metal one as it just doesn’t have the right structural integrity. I’ve heard silicone moulds are much more forgiving, though 🙂
Hi, after I made and stored this base, and I decide to make one lipstick, may I heat it in the microwave?
I don’t recommend it as it’s easy to overheat in a microwave + you cannot stir while the mixture is heating.
But does it affect the mixture and the end result? Thanks
Burning it will definitely impact the end result, yes.
Hi Marie! I made this recipe and got some GREAT color & texture. Alas, I evidently STINK at taking the sticks out of my TKB mold. So, they ended up in pots…but I wanted to share the lovely colors I blended:
Top one: TKB Roasted Chestnut liquid pigment + TKB Fantasia mica/glitter (2:1 ratio) Perfect nude with just the right amount of sparkle!
Middle one: TKB Princess Merida + TKB Copper Highlight + TKB Carmine (2:1.5: .5 ratio) Such a pretty, sparkly something! Looks great on!
Bottom one: TKB Smokey XXX + TKB Carmine + TKB Copper Highlight (2:1:1 ratio) deep plum shimmer YUMMY! (OH…this one is the long wear from your book…whoops!)
Thank you so much for sharing, these look AMAZING! The long wear base would explain why you had unmoulding issues, too, so you can blame the formula 🙂
Hi Marie,
I have not added pigments to the lipstick base, but essential oils. That way I have a lipstick format solid perfume.
That works great.
No more messing around with fingers in a jar.
I’ve added a mix of
80% gardenia essential oil and 20% litsea cubeba.
Delicious!
OOooh, I love this idea! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
I have tried both lipstick bases, this one and the one from your book.
Both are deliciously creamy.
But: the one from your book does indeed last a very long time. Therefore:
a lipstick mold of this type does not cause any problem with the recipe from your book.
https://www.joom.com/en/products/5d70ef881436d401016230db
(I have no commercial interests in this company)
Thanks, Greet! I will have to pick up one of those at some point in time and play with it 🙂
Greet, that’s the style of mold I use. It’s terrific!
Yes, it is great, and not even expensive. I’m glad to hear that it works so well for you too.
I wish to replace cetaryl alcohol and bees wax and wish to make something pure herbal.Can you throw some recommendations for substitute and quantity.
In the past I tried, but spreadibility is an issue. Either it is too hard or soft but doesn’t spread
I’m afraid you are firmly in re-development territory here; keep experimenting, take lots of notes, and have fun 🙂
Marie, is the lipstick in the MAIN pic the dark one? I love that shade. It’s like a mocha mauve. You claim you used a few shades of red for the dark one but this shade looks more burgundy/brownish than red. Is that one the dark one?
I have no idea; these photos and this post are nearly 3 years old and if it’s not labelled, I definitely don’t remember. What you see written here is all the info I’ve got, sorry.
hi, can I put this in a lip balm tube
I would like to know when do you add in the vitamin e oil?