I first fell in love with the colour coral when I fell in love with the dinner dress from Titanic. The beautiful silk/taffeta under dress is a fantastic coral colour, and from there on out… love. It’s a fantastically flattering colour clothing and cosmetics. I love it in blushes and lip colour, and it’s great in eyeshadow if you have pinkish undertones (I don’t, so I end up looking like I have an eye infection if I put anything red near my eyes). Anyhow, this beautiful coral lipstick is fantastic. Great coverage, wonderfully smooth, and with a great pop of peppermint for freshness.
The colour comes form a blend of iron oxides—mostly red, with just a hint of yellow to get coral without going full orange (which is far less flattering, to be sure). It packs a serious moisture punch with unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) and avocado oil, and the peppermint is very refreshing. A hint of titanium dioxide provides some brightening opacity.
Coral Lipstick
4g | 0.14oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
7g | 0.25oz refined shea butter (USA / Canada)
4g | 0.14oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
9g | 0.3oz avocado oil
1g | 0.03oz magnesium stearate2 tsp red iron oxide
¼ tsp yellow iron oxide
1/8 tsp oil-soluble titanium dioxide (I use these tiny measuring spoons for tiny measurements like this)6–8 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)
Melt the beeswax, unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada), cocoa butter (USA / Canada), avocado oil, and magnesium stearate together in a small saucepan over very low heat, whisking to get the magnesium stearate to melt (it will be the last thing to melt). This will take 15–20 minutes. Keep a close eye on it to ensure that the magnesium stearate melts, but don’t scorch the rest of the oils.
Mix the oxides and titanium dioxide together in a small dish and pour in the melted oils. Stir and mash with a flexible silicone spatula to combine. Quickly stir in the peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada) and decant into four 4.5g lip balm tubes.
Let cool and enjoy! I find this lipstick is best applied with a small lip brush.
Lovely color, beautiful recipe!
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading, Natalia!
I have recently made a iron oxide lipstick.
This was my recipe
Half tea spoon iron oxide
4-5 drops of lavender oil
Bees wax table spoon 1 tsp sesame oil
It made a good lipstick
But I want to make sure is iron oxide safe to use
You can learn more about the safety of iron oxides here 🙂
How do I make my lipstick creamy and less matte.
Wonderful recipe ~ I love the color! I featured it over at http://herbsandoilshub.com/how-to-make-a-homemade-natural-coral-lipstick/ 🙂
San
Thanks so much for the support, San!
You’re welcome Marie. I just love your recipes. Thanks again 🙂
San
🙂
YES! CORAL! I think I actually have all these ingredients… it’s a miracle! Maybe this recipe will make me like/wear lipstick?
Yeah, do it! I lurve it 🙂 I wore it to a party the other day, it’s a fantastically versatile colour.
I made this today! It’s really moisturizing. I am sad mine came out so much darker than yours. Wish I could figure out why. Thank you for this recipe.
I’m thrilled to hear you made this, Heather! Let’s see if we can figure out why yours is darker. Did you use the titanium dioxide? That’s part of what lightens the colour. Are you darker than I am? That would effect how it wears. Do your oxides look to be the same color as mine in the photos? Does the lipstick look to be the same colour as mine does once it’s in the tube? Let’s solve this mystery!
I did add the titanium dioxide but I think my red iron oxide is darker. I will have to try again with more titanium dioxide and maybe a bit more yellow oxide. My lipstick turned out more like the red lipstick you made with the reef clay. I have been thinking about this since I made it.
Hmmm… how interesting/perplexing. I suppose there is bound to be some variation between the colours of red oxides as they aren’t regulated like Pantone colours or anything, so that does sound like the most likely reason. As you said, more titanium dioxide should help lighten up the colour so you can get the shade you want. You might also consider adding a lighter clay into the mix, like kaolin…?
what is magnesium stearate? I can’t find it in my country. :((
can I change it by some thing else?
this is the first time I make a lipstick. so I don’t understand how many grams do 1 tsp equal?
thx you so much <3
Magnesium stearate is a creamy white powder that is used to improve slip in cosmetics—in the recipe I believe you could likely leave it out without any ill effects 🙂 The only thing is the lipstick might not be quite as smooth/slippery, but if you live somewhere that is warmer than Canada, the higher temperature will likely take care of that for you!
Hi!! I decided to give your coral lipstick recipe a go! But my color also didn’t turn out like yours 🙁 it turned into a darker more brownish red. I brlieve its because my yellow and red iron oxides arent as bright colored as yours! Could you be so kind to point me to the place you purchased your? Or where online i could get that same shade of iron oxide?
Thanks so much!!!
Hey Anna! You could definitely be right about the shades of the oxides—you can buy many different shades of most iron oxides, though they’re often all called “red” or “yellow”. Something else I’ve noticed about my natural lipsticks is that the colour is more affected by the temperature of the ambient light than store bought ones. These photos were taken in natural daylight—have you checked your lipstick in plain sunlight?
I got my oxides from New Directions Aromatics 🙂
You can also brighten up colours by adding some titanium dioxide to provide a bright white base for the oxides. Have fun & good luck!
How many lip balm tubes will this recipe fill?
Assuming they’re 5g tubes, about 6.
Thanks! I made your fall leaves color and I love it for a cheek stain as well. It made about 10 tubes though, so I have quite a surplus! Thank you for all our awesome recipes! Happy holidays!
Oh! Well, if that’s the case, this one will fill 10 of the tubes you’re using as well. It makes ~30g of final product. What I do when I’m making lipstick is mix up a larger batch of the oils, and then do several smaller batches of the colours, and then pour a bit of the melted oils into the powders, so I get maybe 5 different colours from one batch of oils 🙂 Try that! Marginally more more for far more lipstick variety.
Excellent idea about splitting the colors! I am new to the lipcolours, and have been so concerned with following the recipes exactly, but it is time to start branching out! I just bought some more grapeseed oil and I can’t wait to try it out!! I am going to create my own colors. My mom has been saying all her favourite product are being discontinued, and I can’t wait to surprise her with some great knockoffs!!
Fantastic, those sound like great Christmas gifts 🙂 And as far as experimenting goes, if you stick to roughly the same amount of colourant, you’ll be just fine (I’m sure you can imagine what more or less would do, though, haha).
I’m looking at New Direction Aromatics and I can only seem to find a ‘reddish-brown oxide’ and it does not look close to the bright red oxide in the picture, is this still the right oxide? If not, can you tell me which one it is. I recently bought a red iron oxide but it’s very dark and not bright and pretty like yours.
I believe that is the same one (I swear the photo on their site is the same) and they’ve just renamed it, likely because of complaints from customers who didn’t get the bright red product they expected (red oxide gets its colour from rust [that’s been purified, of course] so the russet tone is to be expected). The bright red tone of the oxide in this photo isn’t quite an accurate representation of the oxide itself thanks to the bright summer light in my kitchen—I’d say it looks more like their photo. All that said, Saffire Blue has a red oxide that looks a little deeper (I haven’t tried it) and it also looks to be a bit cheaper 🙂
Hi Marie,
I’m interested in making the coral lipstick as well as the one you make with red reef clay. I’m having a difficult time finding this particular clay. Could I use a Moroccan Red Clay instead?
Also, for some of your followers having a hard time with their red oxides turning too brown, I found a “Fire-Red Oxide” that appears to be more of an orangey-red and quite pretty. It is available at the New Directions Aromatics website.
Thank you for your website, I look forward to reading about your new creations.
Madelyn
Hi Madelyn! I’ve never worked with Moroccan red clay before, but from the photos I found of it, it looks to be a very brown clay. Because the colour of the lipstick comes entirely from the clay, I think you would find that using the Moroccan clay would give you a stick of mostly brown lipstick. If that works for your skin tone, awesome! If not, I’d probably stay away from it and stick to the oxides.
The “Fire-Red Oxide” you found on NDA is actually a mica, not an oxide, which means it will contribute large amounts of shimmer/glitter along with the colour. No worries if that’s what you’re looking for, of course, but definitely something to be aware of. I’ve never had my red oxides turn brown on me at any rate, but the Australian red reef clay can appear brownish under certain lights.
Thanks for reading!
Hi Marie,
Thank you for you’re response. I’m glad you told me about the Fire Red Oxide, I do not want a mica.
In other news, I did manage to find the Australian Red Reef Clay on Etsy. I’m so excited! I found that the minimum orders required at other sources are more product then I really need.
Thanks!
No worries! And I’m thrilled you were able to find another source of the Aussie Red Reef Clay—I’ve been finding it super useful for cosmetics & soaps 🙂
Hi, I use the red reef clay mixed with a lighter clay and some arrowroot powder for blush.. looks really nice 🙂
Nice! I love how versatile clays are for cosmetics 🙂
Hey Marie,what can I sub the avocado oil for? I have castor, olive, grapeseed coconut and cocoa on hand. Thank you in advance! I love your website!
Hi Andrea! I’d try using half castor, half olive to replace the avocado oil 🙂 Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
Hi Marie!
I just made your lipstick today (well I used a different recipe for the base, but I used your colour blend. I really like it. Mine came out more orange-y than yours (I think it’s because my red oxide looks more orange and my lips seem to always bring out the orange – I have a pinkish berry lipstick and it looks like a coral pink of my lips). My extra that I left in a glass container looks really red. I just wanted to let you know that I LOVE all your makeup recipes. Especially the lipsticks. So far I’ve only tied the red velvet lipstick and this one but I can’t wait to try more!
Thanks for your blog,
Rose
Wonderful! I’m so thrilled you’re loving the lipstick, Rose 🙂
Will carmine powder (or the liquid version) work in this recipe to get the red color? Or do I have to worry about solubility?
Hi Liz! You could use the oil soluble liquid here (the powder is water soluble), but I do find it does not have the same colour punch as oxides and clays do in lipsticks—it gives more of a tint than a solid pigment does.
Hiya Marie. Please forgive me if this question has been asked before. How can I achieve a more pink/mauve tone in a homemade tin lipstick?
Also, please can you advise me on natural flavourings for lipsticks and lip balms; for instance, is vanilla extract an acceptable way to flavour lip products?
Thanks in advance,
John.
P.S. Thanks so much for your blog. I really have lost many hours poring through the many recipes and anecdotes on these pages. Truly, I’m always inspired by reading of your inspiration for your cosmetic recipes. I’ve only ventured into making two of them so far, but your concise and clear recipes really are so easy to follow, I just know that I’ll have to try more of them as my next new favourite sticks out with me.
Hi John! Check out this article on colourants for some ideas on colouring (try adding titanium dioxide for a pinker tone with red oxide), and this article on vanilla extract. In general, you aren’t going to find many “flavours” to add to anything that are natural—just essential oils. Some herbs and spices can be infused into oils for flavouring, but colour often comes with those.
Thanks for reading and DIYing with me!
Did I calculated it wrong or there is about 16.67% pigment in this recipe. And I think most pigments are recomended to be used at the rate of 10%. I use lipstick daily so is it ok for me to use that much pigments?
A recommended use rate isn’t the same thing as a maximum safe use rate, and you’ll find iron oxides and clays often make up the majority (50%+) of highly pigmented cosmetics like eyeshadow. You are welcome to reduce the amount of pigment if you like (though this will obviously impact the vibrancy of the colour).
There’re limited info about diy cosmetic in my language and they are not always right. Thank you. Love your website a lot. It’s like diy recipe that REALLY WORKS
Thanks so much! I work really hard to make sure all of my recipes as tested and work 🙂
I tried making this, but I didn’t have yellow oxide, so it’s not quite the same colour. Love it though! My problem is that it’s not matte… and also doesn’t last very long. Is there any fix for this problem?
Hey Rebecca! Thanks for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 I don’t know if you saw, but I just finished writing an entire book of makeup recipes! It contains some mucho better lipstick recipes with much better wear (my testers said 9+ hours!). I obviously can’t share those recipes since they’re going to be in the book, but I’d recommend signing up for the pre-order list if you haven’t already 🙂
Thank you! I can’t wait for your book, it looks amazing 🙂 I’m not really a lipstick wearer, but my sister is, and I’m always making different recipes for her. I have tried mixing zinc oxide with red iron oxide, but doesn’t make a nice pink, would mixing red reef clay with zinc work? And is zinc okay to put on your lips if it is wetted down?
If you want a proper, classic pink you’re going to need carmine (or D&C Red #7)—sadly there’s really no way around that. I’ve written more about it here 🙂 And non-nano zinc is fine in any topical application I can think of—just don’t snort lines of it 😉
Hi Maria,
Can’t wait till we could get your book on Amazon.
May I know why some recipes you would use just slow oils like Avocado, but some recipes you would use a combination of fast and slow such as grapeseed and avocado?
I am finding my lip balm skid in the winter, perhaps because of the shea butter. Is there anything besides magnesium stearate to help makes it glide?
Also how is Mica different from Clay – shimmer vs Matt?
many thanks
Diane
Hey Diane! I usually use different oils for different feels, and just to experiment. I might use avocado oil in a lotion I want to be heavier and richer, and blend it with grapeseed oil to get the benefits of avocado oil without it being as heavy. If you’re having skidding issues, try lowering the amount of wax in the formula; if there’s no pigments magnesium stearate is unnecessary, re-formulation should solve the problem 🙂
Micas and clays are totally different things, it’s not really just a simple shimmer vs matte thing. Clays are generally more useful as they’re good for both cosmetics and skin care, whereas micas are generally restricted to cosmetics and soap colourants. There’s a bit of an overview here 🙂
Thank you for the recipe! I live in Texas and when I saw your comment about not needing magnesium stearate (which I haven’t found in-store yet, but will order soon) in warmer climates, I was stoked to know I have all of the ingredients to make my first lipstick! I have made a few balms over the past few days, but really wanted to make a lipstick- despite not wearing makeup in about 5-6 years. I have really enjoyed your videos and have been using your website a lot for research and reference. In my rendition I used yellow beeswax and unrefined shea butter, so I omitted the yellow oxide. I also used half of the red oxide and half Moroccan red clay because I didn’t have enough of the red oxide alone. I altered the ratio of of avocado oil slightly lower to allow room for a few drops of sea buckthorn oil and CBD, and then altered the essential oil ratio to allow a few drops of rose hip seed oil and vitiman e. I love how it turned out! It is very pigmented, dries matte and doesn’t transfer. I have been enjoying wearing it, which is so strange because I always hated lipstick on myself. I may have altered it, but I couldn’t have gotten to this blissful point in my DIY beginnings without you and all the information you and others have put out to help those like me. 🙂 Thank you for sharing, Marie!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying your lipstick! Thank you so much for sharing your success and joy of creation with me!
Hello Marie!
I tried this recipe, omiting the yellow iron oxide (so the lipstick is more on the red side) and titanium dioxide (because I don’t currently have it). The final product, however, turned out too orange and dark. Seems like my red oxide is too orangey… 🙁 Is there any other colour/mica I can add to reduce the orangeness?
Red iron oxide is, unfortunately, very brickish/ruddy, and it will never give you a truly red anything. For true reds you’ll need something like carmine or an FD&C red. You can check out some of the different colour blends in my more recent lip makeup recipes to see the sorts of results you’ll get from different red pigments and different pigment blends 🙂
Hi Marie, I’m looking for alternatives to Titanium Dioxide, Red, Yellow and Brown Iron Oxides for use in lipsticks. To give you some context: I’ve worn commercial lipsticks for years but 2 years ago I used a good quality, fragrance-free, commercial lipstick and didn’t notice that it was damaging to my skin until it was too late. Since then I haven’t been able to wear commercial lipsticks at all. But the good news is that this problem resulted in me finding your site. I’ve had several attempts at making lipsticks and soon found out that I cannot now use castor oil or candelilla wax on my lips. I found this recipe but have swopped the avocado oil for oat oil which is more soothing for me. However any lipstick I’ve made has never been entirely comfortable so I’ve recently done some patch testing by making up 6 pots of lipstick base with one colourant per pot. The results are that I’m fine with Carmine and Red Lake 7 which is good except I’m better with orange-red rather than blue-red colours. However, the other pigments (Titanium Dioxide, Red, Yellow and Brown Iron Oxides) are irritating to me hence the search for alternatives – but I only need them for lipsticks as I can use the original pigments successfully in mineral makeup.
Oh, I’ve just found this post https://www.humblebeeandme.com/?s=red+velvet+lipstick which could be the answer to my prayers 🙂
On second thoughts Red Reef Clay appears to be discontinued and Red Ultra Ventilated French Clay (which I thought might be a suitable alternative) contains ferric oxides. So I’m still looking for alternative colourants for lipstick 🙁
Yeah, the INCI for Red Reef Clay is straight “Iron Oxide”, so it’s probably not a good alternative :/
I’m afraid I don’t have any alternatives for you—the synthetic pigments are all much brighter colours, so if you’re looking for those shades… I’ve got nothing, sorry. There are tons of synthetic yellows, reds, oranges, blues, etc. to choose from, though—hopefully, you can create what you are looking for with those 🙂 Good luck!
Beautiful color! Is this long-wear?
I honestly don’t remember, I haven’t made this lipstick in at least… 6 years? There are some lovely, long-wearing lipstick formulations in my book, though!
Thanks! I love your book so much and have made many recipes from it.
Hi! I tried to do this lipstick and I’m having some troubles… It looks absolute amazing in the stick but when I put it in my lips and drink water it turns orange! I think it’s an oxide reaction to water. Do you know how could I fix it? It’s driving me crazy. Thank you