If dry winter lips are driving you up the wall, I think you will love this rich and creamy Candlelight Lip Butter with Hyaluronic Acid. It stars a base of luxurious and deeply moisturizing ingredients while also boasting lip-plumping and anti-ageing effects. Let’s dive in!
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The bulk of this decadent homemade lip butter is jojoba butter (gifted by Voyageur Soap & Candle). Jojoba butter is a pseudo butter, meaning it’s made from blending jojoba oil with a hydrogenated vegetable oil (in this case, soybean oil). I choose a pseudo butter because wanted this formulation to be rich and creamy and buttery, but I didn’t want it to go grainy on you (or your giftees!) throughout use. One of the reasons butters can go grainy over time is temperature fluctuations, and lip products are often exposed to more temperature fluctuations than a body butter might be because they get tucked into pockets (next to our nice warm bodies) and carried around for hours, and then removed at the end of the day. Body temperature is around 37°C and room temperature is around 21°C, so that’s a pretty sizeable ~16°C temperature fluctuation—do that day after day and there’s a decent chance the butter in a formulation will eventually go grainy. Pseudo butters aren’t prone to graininess in the same way true butters are, so I chose a pseudo butter for this formulation. I thought jojoba butter was an especially lovely choice as jojoba butter is a gorgeous moisturizer!
In keeping with the decadent, creaminess of this year’s Candlelight theme I’ve complimented the jojoba butter with luxurious argan oil, rich castor oil, and deeply moisturizing lanolin. I’m really excited about the lanolin in this formulation; it’s refined lanolin (USA / Canada)! My patron and long-time reader Zil introduced me to it; it’s sold as nipple cream for breastfeeding, but if you look at the ingredients, it’s entirely ultra-refined lanolin. It’s a bit softer than unrefined lanolin, and it doesn’t smell (or taste!) like much of anything! I immediately started thinking about all the formulations I could make with tons of lanolin if I wasn’t worried about the smell or taste of the unrefined stuff and this is the first one I’m sharing 😄 Thanks, Zil!
For added creamy richness I’ve also included some cera bellina; this neat modified beeswax creates rich and ointment-y formulations, which was just what I wanted for this lip butter. I don’t have a great vegan alternative, I’m afraid—for the lanolin or the cera bellina. Together they comprise 30% of the formulation, so if you are looking for vegan formulations I don’t think this one is for you. I’ve shared several vegan lip balm formulations over the years, but all of the extra creamy ones involve some combination of lanolin and/or beeswax because those two ingredients are so great at bringing creamy richness to formulations.
The final luxurious touch for this formulation is a wee bit of Hilurlip®. Hilurlip® is a blended ingredient made by Lipotec with the INCI: Isohexadecane (and) Ethylene/Propylene/Styrene Copolymer (and) Butylene/Ethylene/Styrene Copolymer (and) Sodium Hyaluronate (and) Xanthan Gum (and) Phenoxyethanol (and) Tripeptide-1. It is designed to plump and moisturize the lips, boasting anti-ageing effects and long-term moisturizing and volumizing. It’s pretty neat! It’s also somewhat pricey and only available to home crafters from Lotion Crafter, so if you don’t have it just use more jojoba butter (more details in the substitutions list at the end of the formulation).
This lovely jar was purchased years ago from New Directions Aromatics; unfortunately, they’ve been discontinued!
Making this is very simple; because the Hilurlip® needs to be incorporated at cooler temperatures this does need to be packaged in a tin or jar rather than a screw-up tube (trying to get a rapidly cooling already semi-viscous liquid into a screw-up lip balm tube is an exercise in frustration and futility). Enjoy!
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Relevant links & further reading
- Argan Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Lanolin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Castor Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Cera Bellina in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Coloured Mica in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
- Simple Creamy Almond Body Butter (discusses pseudo butters)
- Why is my body butter grainy?
- 6 Vegan Waxes for Organic Cosmetic Formulations from Formula Botanica (discusses pseudo waxes, which are similar to psuedo-butters)
- Other Candlelight formulations:
Candlelight Lip Butter with Hyaluronic Acid
9g | 45% jojoba butter
2g | 10% argan oil (USA / Canada)
3g | 15% refined lanolin (USA / Canada)
2.2g | 11% castor oil (USA / Canada)
3g | 15% cera bellina (USA / Canada)
0.2g | 1% warm gold mica0.4g | 2% Hilurlip®
0.2g | 1% 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.
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 dishtowel. Set the measuring cup on a towel or hot pad to insulate it from the counter and stir the mixture with a flexible silicone spatula to combine everything.
Keep stirring until you’ve reached a light trace (watch the video to see what I mean!), and quickly add the cool down phase. Stir to incorporate, and pour the lip butter into its container. Leave it on the counter to set up.
Use as you’d use any lip balm or butter. Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this product does not contain any water, 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.
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 formulation 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 20g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You could try a different pseudo butter as an alternative to jojoba butter; look for something that contains some sort of hydrogenated vegetable oil in the INCI.
- You could also try making your own pseudo butter; hydrogenated vegetable oil is basically vegetable shortening, so you could try blending some unflavoured vegetable shortening with jojoba oil. I’m not sure what the ratios would be, so you would have to experiment with that yourself.
- You could use a different luxurious mid-weight oil instead of argan oil, like Meadowfoam oil, Abyssinian Oil, or Jojoba Oil.
- I DO NOT recommend substituting the refined lanolin, castor oil, or cera bellina. If you replace any of these ingredients you will likely need to re-develop the formulation to some degree.
- Unrefined lanolin has a slightly different consistency than refined lanolin and it also smells and tastes pretty awful in comparison.
- The mica is optional; replace it with more jojoba butter if you don’t want to use it.
- If you can’t get Hilurlip® I’d replace it with more jojoba butter, though this will be a loss to the formulation. I do not recommend replacing it with powdered hyaluronic acid as Hilurlip® contains a blend of lip-beneficial ingredients, 1% of which is Sodium Hyaluronate that has been processed for enhanced efficacy.
- If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.
Gifting Disclosure
The gold mica was gifted by YellowBee.
The jojoba butter was gifted by Voyageur Soap & Candle.
Links to Amazon are affiliate links.
I’m good at looking at something and not seeing it, but where’s the hyaluronic acid from the title?
It’s in the Hilurlip 🙂 Paragraph 5, as Sodium Hyaluronate.
Thank you. I was thinking that must be it but didn’t see that. I have some HA in the fridge and it’s fantastic.
I am going to make this one! Just need a little help with pseudo butter. Would you be kind to let me know which butters are pseudo and could be substituted here please. We cant get it here in NZ.
Also I have found that the name Candlelight Lip Butter with Hyaluronic Acid is misleading for me personaly as there no Hyaluronic Acid there. But I was really exited to see Hyaluronic Acid in the title! There is a difference for us between two ingredients in the way of availability (cant get it in New Zealand) and cant really substitute one for another!
Hilurlip is an oil-soluble form of hyaluronic acid. It’s pretty great stuff, and a very small amount will get you through a lot of projects.
I love this! I used almond pseudo wax instead of jojoba pseudo wax and it turned out wonderful.
I’m thrilled to hear it! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hi,
What’s the difference between lip butter, lip balm and lip mask? My lips and face get dry during the cold season.
Thanks
I would say a lip balm is solid, a lip butter is soft, and a lip mask is very rich and meant to be slathered on at bedtime. I *love* the overnight lip mask recipe. I use it every night and it doesn’t feel like bedtime till I’ve put it on.
This is an excellent breakdown, Clare!
I just made this and the candlelight scrub with coffee butter (Wholesale Supplies Plus) and “Starbucks caramel macchiato type” flavor (Scented Expressions). I used brown sugar and a pinch of coffee grounds in the scrub. They smell fabulous!
Oh YUM!!!
I don’t have Hilurlip, however, I do have Hyalurosome! I will be trying this formula with that and see how it turns out and follow up.
I look forward to hearing how it goes! ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
I have patiently waited for all the ingredients to arrive so I can make this, however, the containers I received are much larger than anticipated. Due to the cost involved with this recipe, what size container would you recommend? I understand that the benefits come with repeated use but I think my 2 ounce jars are better suited for something else!
I used 5mL jars; for reference, 2 oz = 60mL 🙂 5mL is just a bit bigger than a standard lip balm tube. Happy making!
This is AMAZING!! It has the smoothest creamiest consistency, and is so incredibly hydrating. You truly demonstrate formulation brilliance! I am getting sucked into your enthusiasm for all the lip products, and have been working my way through some of your other lip mask and balms. This is my current favourite ❤️ I know you have mentioned you cannot use hyaluronic acid powder. I was fortunate enough to have Hilurlip, but due to cost I’m not sure I will be re-ordering it unless I feel like I can’t live without this formula once my supply runs out. Have you had any success incorporating hyaluronic acid in formulations without water? Or is that a whole other project kind of beyond the scope of home formulating? It’s an ingredient I’m in love with and want to put it in everything!
I just made this lip butter and it IS awesome!!! I like a thicker balm and this is spot on. This is my first time using Hilurlip….what a great product. I do have a question. What if I wanted to add a flavor oil….will it ruin the recipe??? And how much would u recommend?
I used lanolin USP from Lotioncrafter instead of the Lansinoh product and I didn’t use Hilurlip
My butter came out pretty hard and really smelled like a barn 😀
Do you think just switching to the ultra refined lanolin that you used would make my butter softer and also does leaving out the Hilurlip affect the hardness?
Hi Josh! My refined lanolin is a lot runnier than my unrefined lanolin, so that would probably explain the difference. The Hilurlip won’t have much of an effect given its low usage rate. You can see it in action here: https://youtu.be/ZarvkpmAytM?t=205.
Hi Marie,
I love this product but due to the cost of the hilurlip, I would love to make my own in a more natural way. any recommendations?
I have no suggestions for the preparation of a DIY hilurlip, sorry. I think that’s probably beyond us at home.
Just made this and I think I love it! I changed it a little. I have some lauryl laurate that I haven’t figured out what to try it in and figured I’d give this one a go. I just added a gram of LL to the recipe. Now I need to make a batch without it to see how it changed it. It doesn’t have a buttery feel on my lips, it’s very slippy and silky. I had everyone in my house try it on, including my husband and 23-year-old son and they all like the feel.
Thanks, Marie for your website (and book)! Those are the first places I look to when I want to make beauty products.
Josh, I actually have been using the lanolin from TKB Trading and it doesn’t smell at all. It’s more yellow than Lansinoh, but it works great.
Okay, so I just have to add to my previous post, I made a pretty big mistake in recipe. I used ceresiene wax instead of cera bellina. I bought both types of waxes last week and obviously mixed them up even though there isn’t really anything similar about them except they’re both waxes and both start with “cer”. All of that said, I still really like it. It almost has the feeling of melted butter on my lips without the grease feel (it’s really thin) but it doesn’t wear off quickly. I can put it on at night and in the morning my lips are still quite moist. I still don’t know what adding the lauryl laurate did for it. As far as I can tell, LL is quite similar to ceresiene wax except the melt points. It’s been fun branching out and putting my own twist on these recipes. Just the other day I tried to make a copycat of Bio Freeze® gel. I did not figure out the gel part, but I made a very nice whipped menthol cream that I just made up with what I had on hand. I didn’t want an ointment which is what all the recipes out there are, but I was very pleased with the outcome. Some day I might actually start to understand the roles of each ingredient