If you have ever dreamed of living in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, or figure the best superpower ever would be the ability to eat as much chocolate as possible without it having any calories, I think this lip balm is for you. Decadent, super-fragrant cocoa butter is paired with golden liquid nutty goodness macadamia nut oil to create a lip treat that is easily confused for dessert. Yum.

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm

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The two stars of this lip balm are lovely and indispensable (read: no substitutions!). Cocoa butter smells intoxicatingly of chocolate, and also contributes some hardness along with its beautiful melts-at-body-temperature glide. Macadamia nut oil is the only cosmetic grade nut oil I’ve ever worked with that smells like nuts, which is why we’re using it here. Nut oils like almond, hazelnut, and walnut just smell like oil, with none of that “can I make a cheesecake with this?!” mouthwatering scent (isn’t cheesecake everybody’s first thought when they find something decadent? No? Just me?). If you have another lightweight, liquid oil that smells like the most beautiful toasted nuts around you can use that instead as the nutty smell is the characteristic we’re choosing macadamia nut oil for, I just haven’t found such an oil. Tamanu is nutty, but not yummy food nutty, so I wouldn’t really recommend it here.

 

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm

Since we’re getting all the scent from our ingredients, we don’t need any essential oils—just make sure your cocoa butter and macadamia nut oil are top notch 👌🏻 Once you’ve got all that sorted, all that’s left is weighing, melting, pouring, and a bit of waiting. Making your own lip balm is one of the easiest DIYs out there, and one of the biggest money savers if you’re a lip thing junkie like me (or Penny, haha). Alright—let’s make some Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm!

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm

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Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm

4g | 0.14oz candelilla wax
7g | 0.25oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
4g | 0.14oz babassu oil
9g | 0.32oz macadamia nut oil
0.1g | 0.0035oz 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 all the 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 dish towel. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.

Pour the lip balm into tubes or tins (this recipe will fill six standard lip balm tubes), and leave it to solidify (20–30 minutes) before capping. Make sure you wipe down the tubes or tins with some paper towel before applying any labels (I love these labels) so they stick—if there’s any oil on your tubes they’ll peel right off. Enjoy your Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this lip balm 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.

Substitutions

  • Don’t swap out the cocoa butter. If you don’t want it to smell like chocolate, make a different lip balm recipe that’s more to your tastes.
  • You can use a different lightweight, nutty liquid oil if you can find one
  • You can use refined coconut oil instead of babassu oil
  • You can use carnauba wax instead of candelilla wax
  • If you want to add an essential oil that compliments the cocoa/nut combo (something vanilla-y would be good), add that while stirring after removing the liquid lip balm from the heat.

Chocolate Macadamia Nut Vegan Lip Balm