Out of all the things I’ve made that I have to frequently remind myself not to eat, this Chocolate Lip Butter is pretty high up that list. It smells downright delicious, and leaves my lips oh-so wonderfully soft and hydrated. And did I mention that it smells exactly like high end chocolate and is pretty much irresistible? This stuff is great.
I’ve made a lot of lip balms, but this time I wanted a lip butter. I’m more or less inventing the distinction between the two categories, but I was imagining something a bit softer, but also tacky and super hydrating. Softer blends of oils and waxes melt faster than harder, higher-wax formulas, and while that’s great for body butters (it means they absorb into your skin quickly rather than leaving you oily), on lips you end up with something that melts off too fast to stick around and hydrate your lips. Sad.
So, in order to get something soft but also a bit tacky and hydrating, I added some lecithin. Lecithin is found in egg yolks, soy, and the human brain, to name a few places. It’s a fatty, viscous brown substance that’s really sticky and an amazing moisturizer—its unique consistency is key to the performance of the lip balm, so if you don’t want to use lecithin, you really can’t make this recipe. Lecithin has emulsifying properties, and is an antioxidant (so it’ll help prolong the life of this lip butter). The easiest version to find is soy lecithin, but you can also purchase sunflower lecithin, and they are functionally identical. The “soy” part tends to give people pause, but that’s really just the source and doesn’t say much about lecithin itself, which is safe to use (and in your brain right this very moment). If you’re looking to avoid GMOs or soy, grab the sunflower version instead.
Other than the lecithin, this lip butter is a decadent blend of chocolatey cocoa butter (USA / Canada), honey scented beeswax, and creamy mango butter (USA / Canada). I’ve added some cocoa absolute to really amp up the super awesome chocolate smell, and some brown liquid dye (which is just iron oxides dispersed in castor oil (USA / Canada); see the note at the bottom of the recipe for suppliers) to get a nice chocolately colour. I also added a few drops of carmine to warm up the brown, but that’s totally optional.
And that’s it! I love these tubes of chocolate lip butter, and I think you will, too. Seriously. Just try not to eat ’em!
Chocolate Lip Butter
10g | 0.35oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada) (the more fragrant, the better!)
9g | 0.32oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
6g | 0.21oz mango butter (USA / Canada) or refined shea butter (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz soy lecithin or sunflower lecithin7 drops cocoa absolute
10 drops chocolate brown liquid dye or 1/32 tsp brown iron oxide (I use these tiny measuring spoons for tiny measurements like this)
3 drops carmine liquid dye (optional)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer (aim for steaming rather than bubbling) in a small saucepan.
Weigh the cocoa butter (USA / Canada), beeswax, mango butter (USA / Canada), and lecithin into a small heat resistant glass measuring cup. Place that measuring cup in the water bath and leave for at least ten minutes to melt through.
Once everything has melted, remove the measuring cup from the water bath and dry it off (to avoid accidentally getting water into the chocolate lip butter, which can shorten its shelf life). Use a flexible silicone spatula to stir in the cocoa absolute and dyes, and then pour the liquid lip butter into six lip balm tubes.
Leave the lip butter to set up for at least twenty minutes before capping and labelling (I love these labels). Store unopened tubes in the fridge to prolong their shelf life. Enjoy!
If you have dark cocoa butter (USA / Canada), this is a great recipe to use it in! You likely won’t need the brown dye if you do use the dark cocoa butter (USA / Canada), or you’ll need less of it.
This lip balm won’t tint your lips at all, so the dyes in the amounts I’ve listed are really just to make the lip balm look chocolatey. If you want a tint you’ll need to use quite a bit more dye, and if you don’t want a tint and don’t want to fuss with the dyes you can totally eliminate them.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this recipe has so few ingredients I don’t really recommend making any substitutions. You could use unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) or capuacu butter instead of the mango butter (USA / Canada), but I did choose the mango butter (USA / Canada) because I think it’s a better fit for this recipe. For more information about carrier oil substitutions, read this.
You can buy the chocolate brown liquid dye, which is just iron oxides dispersed in castor oil (USA / Canada), from Saffire Blue (in Canada) and TKB Trading (in the USA). If you don’t have the dye you can just use some brown iron oxide instead, which you’ll need to blend in thoroughly to avoid clumps (a flexible silicone spatula is really useful for smearing the pigment across the bottom of your dish to break it up).
Yum! Can’t wait to try! I really like the idea of more moisturizer and less ‘balm’. Do you have a favourite cocoa absolute? And what about vanilla? I’m trying to find both, but can’t seem to decide on a brand. Most companies seem to have one or the other, both both…
Hey Anne! I LOVE the cocoa absolute from Saffire Blue; it’s pure heaven. For vanilla notes I usually use benzoin or peru balsam; I’ve never found a from-vanilla thing that is oil soluble, actually made from vanilla, and awesome 🙁
Hey Marie, I’ve been comparing a few suppliers for cocoa absolute, and most descriptions say that cocoa absolute is not oil soluble. Looking at your recipes and delicious descriptions, it doesn’t sound like you’ve had any problems. Any thoughts or tips? Thank you
Hey Anne! Here’s the MSDS for the variety I have; it’s alcohol based, but also listed as being insoluble in water. In any event, it incorporates well into lip balms and the like. It obviously doesn’t behave quite like an essential oil because there’s a bunch of alcohol in it, but with a bit of stirring it disperses and incorporates well 🙂
Hi Marie, I absolutely love this recipe! I wanted something more tinted, so after making this I went to your tinted lip balm recipe for colouring instructions. I added some extra oxide and/or mica along with every tube, so I ended up with six shades of chocolate lip butter. Love it!
Woohoo! I’m so glad 😀 Enjoy all that beautiful lip butter and thanks for DIYing with me 🙂
I found soy lecithin but it is a powder not a liquid. Is this useable?
Hey Zil! Powdered lecithin is a pretty big pain in the arse to use/dissolve from everything I’ve read—I’d get the liquid stuff if you don’t already own the powdered version.
I finally got around to making this! My colours didn’t quite come out like yours as I’m still trying to figure out the brown situation. I also added in some silver sparkles as my niece requested sparkles.
I think this is one of those recipes that need a bulk amount made in advanced as a just in case I need more quick! This will make a fantastic Christmas present!
Yum! And I tend to agree about the bulk thing 😉
Who would have thought that the lecithin would give such an awesome feel to lippies (should have stuck with the autocorrect- lip pies). The only source I could find sells it for 30mL and the price is crazy! I’m actually ok with the price, I’m just angry at the amount of plastic I have to go through!
I was telling my family and some friends about this one, and they have all made wish lists. I really need to keep quiet about the things I make. Or start asking them for better gifts. Or start asking them to supply some oil!
Although funny story about that one. I was dating this Chinese guy (think language barrier here). Really nice guy. He wanted a little present made up for his mother for Mother’s Day. So I whipped up some foot soaks, body stuff and some pretty soaps into a nice package and sent him on his merry way. His mama loved the soaps so much that the boyfriend was taking lots of my soaps to give to his mama for his mom to sell! When I told him that I didn’t mind if his mom needed a bar for her, but her friends? Soaping is expensive. Pass over some money or start supplying me some oil. That night he came home from work with a 50mL bottle of olive oil and proud as punch that he contributated. Little did I know at the time the translated words I used actually told him “small amount” not “this hobby of mine is wicked expensive! Pass over some moohlah or 5kg of olive oil!”.
I learnt my lesson. Now I can say my hobby is expensive in Chinese. I really should just learn how to say no!
Oh my goodness, I love that story! 50mL—I didn’t even know they sold bottles of olive oil that small! Did you ever get your 5kg? 😛
Yup! For 287rmb for 5L.
He went to the “beauty store” (if I remember correctly they are called Ardenes or something? A bulk cheap store for tiny girls wanting some sparklies?) where everything is wicked cheap and horrible products, knock offs of knocks offs sort of thing all jammed packed together and were selling neon yellow small bottles of olive oil.
This recipe is on my list of bulk stuff this week! After making ginger bread cookies that is!
Ahahahahhaha! How funny! Lucky for him that he didn’t end up with a pierced ear while he was there as well 😛
Can I sub lanolin for the lecithin?
I wouldn’t recommend it, but you’re welcome to try it 🙂
Hi Marie,
What would I sub for the lecithin? I can’t seem to get any in India at all 🙁
Would squalene work? Can’t seem to find any info on that any where. I really want to make this lip butter!
Nothing, honestly. Using squalene instead would be like using water instead of peanut butter—they are crazy different. The lecithin is such a large part of this recipe that I would recommend choosing a different lip balm recipe rather than trying to make this one work.
I made this, using my oxides and oh yeah, I’m a happy chocoholic. This actually went well considering I was worried about not having carmine. However, a small dash of red iron oxide brightened it enough for me. I might not share these. Seriously. Lol
Ooooh, yay! Enjoy the deliciousness 😀
Made this chocolate lipbalm to go with the chocolate soap. It turned out great!! Nice and creamy deliciousness, I added extra cocoa absolute though because I like to really smell it. I used the brown oxide and added just a wee bit of red oxide.
Just to experiment I also made a batch with unsweetened baking chocolate for half the cocoa butter and added some vanilla oil. The color is more like dark chocolate but it isn’t as creamy. I suppose that’s because there isn’t as much cocoa butter in it. Maybe I could try making it again and only use a small amount of the real chocolate to get that color and leave out the oxides. But that’s another day:) Thanks Marie, I just love your recipes!
Oooh, beauty! You are definitely on a chocoalte-y roll 😀 Thanks for sharing your baking chocolate experiment results, that’s really interesting!
How do lecithin granules (not powdered) compare to liquid lecithin? Can it still be used for this recipe? Thank you!
From what readers have told me, you have to add water to the granules to use them, and then you’re adding water to the formula, which means you need a preservative, which I like to avoid in lip products. I haven’t used them myself as the liquid stuff is so much simpler to work with!
Thank you! I will try and find the liquid version somewhere…
Good luck!
Ok, I know you shouldn’t mix your beauty products with food, but do you think it would be a horrible horrible idea adding some cocoa powder to the recipe? xx
Some readers have reported good results with that—just make sure your cocoa powder is nice and fine so you don’t get a gritty lip balm!
Thank you Marie! You’re a star! I will probably follow your recipe as it is, and add a little bit of cocoa powder to the last tube, just for fun 😉 Love your blog and your youtube channel, too xx
Have fun and let me know how it turns out!
Hey Marie,
Another great recipe. I was thinking about adding Benzoid as you suggested for a bit of vanilla richness and also thought of adding some coffee to make this more like mocha coffee. So I am not sure now what % of each you would suggest for the two different EO’s?
I’d probably keep the total around 2–3%, but definitely let your nose be the guide for the balance of each 🙂
Hi Marie,
A lovely recipe you have here. What is the shelf life and how do you go about determining these things? Since there is castor oil in the recipe I assume it is good for at least a year?
Hey! I’ve got a whole FAQ on exactly this topic 🙂
I made a small batch of this chocolate lip butter and it is amazing! It is so different from any other lip balms I have ever used, I love the consistency! And the smell is divine. My husband is now addicted to it 😉
I didn’t add any dye because I don’t have any but the cocoa absolute did tint the lip butter brown, just not as intense as yours.
Thanks for such a great recipe!!!
I’m so thrilled you’re enjoying it! I should riff on this idea again—it’s been a while 😀