When it comes to makeup I actually wear on a regular basis I find I tend towards subtle, easy-to-apply stuff (read: stuff that goes on easily and lightly enough that it disguises my amateurish makeup application skills). These lip tints were born of my initial experiments with TKB Trading’s new lipstick mold, and I was swept off my feet from the first application. A bright, punchy tube of pigment that blends in with my natural lip colour to create a fantastic, wearable, and easily applied hit of colour? Colour me sold.
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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 that titanium dioxide is also white, and 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.
That is not what we are doing here. For a lip tint we want enough pigment to visibly colour the skin, but not enough to obscure its natural tone completely. This is brilliant for three key reasons. 1) Most colours end up looking good on most people as they are able to morph with the wearer—added bonus, the tints take on a unique you-specific hue. 2) The lower colour level means you don’t have to be as precise with application. High pigment lipsticks require high precision application lest your lips look lopsided. Not so here! 3) They wear much better, and more easily. I find the fade is much less noticeable (no bare inner lips + bright outer lips) so you don’t have to fuss over checking your lipstick throughout the day—you can just swipe some more on as you go.
The base for these lip tints is my recently released Creamy Lip Balm, which was borne out of experiments I undertook as I developed my Basic Moldable Lipstick Base. I was trying to make a creamier base for lipsticks, and I made it… but it would not unmold at all. Boo. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t awesome for lippies! I loved the creamy feel, so I tried adding some pre-dispersed liquid pigments at the same level I did when I created the lip tint-ish lipsticks I’d made earlier and swoon. The creamy feel gives the lip tint just enough grab that you can intentionally apply it, the colour level is perfect (and customizable!), they wear beautifully, and they feel great.
For these bad boys, packaging is important. I knew right from the get-go they wouldn’t work in a hard lipstick mold, and I knew with the pigment level that a standard lip balm tube wouldn’t be a great choice. There’s enough pigment in these that you want to be able to apply somewhat precisely, and I find the standard lip balm tubes are a bit too clumsy for that. So, I’ve got two recommendations for you: a slimline lip balm tube (what I used), or a beveled/slim lipstick tube (what I really wanted to use, but I don’t have any, ha). Both will give you a beautiful, sleek lippy that’s easy to apply.
Once you have the Creamy Lip Balm base made, these are really simple to make. Just like many of the recipes in my book, it’s base + colours of your choice. I developed this to use pre-dispersed liquid dyes (make sure you are getting the ones in castor oil, not the ones in glycerin!) as they’re much easier to work with, and I did find I preferred lake dyes over oxides as they give a much better stain and a more sheer finish. I tried including some titanium dioxide in a couple of these, but I really wasn’t a huge fan of that, either. It both muted the colours and negated the tint effect. Unfortunately, not being able to use titanium dioxide makes pinks and corals hard to blend up, so if you want to make a colour like that you’d want to buy a pink dye rather than trying to create pink by blending red and white (titanium dioxide).
Now, if you don’t have any liquid dyes, you’ll need to make some adjustments. I don’t know the concentrations of the dyes in the castor oil base, but if we guess around 50%, you’ll need to use half the weight of powdered pigments, and make up the rest of the weight with more castor oil. You will have to do significantly more blending, like this, to get an even product.
All that said, those experiences are just what I did, and what I liked. I think you should combine this awesome base + some colour to make some great lip tints. Exactly what you do is up to you!
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Creamy Stick Lip Tints
For one slimline lip balm tube
2.38g | 74.47% creamy lip balm base
0.27g | 8.51% sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.5–0.6g | ~17% pre-dispersed liquid dyesPrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the lip balm base, sericite mica, and liquid dyes into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
Once melted, stir with a flexible silicone spatula to thoroughly combine. When the mixture is uniform, pour it into a slimline lip balm tube or a beveled/slim lipstick tube. Let set up and you’re done! Now all you have to do is resist the urge to make dozens of them 😄
My colour blends
Popping Pink
0.27g | 0.0095oz sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.4g | 0.014oz red #21 liquid colour
0.15g | 0.0053oz titanium dioxide (white) liquid colourCool/Berry Red
0.27g | 0.0095oz sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.0035oz red #33 liquid colour
0.49g | 0.017oz red #21 liquid colourOrangey Red
0.27g | 0.0095oz sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.31g | 0.011oz red #21 liquid colour
0.32g | 0.011oz red #6 liquid colour
0.09g | 0.0032oz yellow #5 liquid colourOrange
0.27g | 0.0095oz sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.43g | 0.015oz yellow #5 liquid colour
0.1g | 0.0035oz red #21 liquid colour
0.08g | 0.0028oz titanium dioxide (white) liquid colourOrange-Coral
0.27g | 0.0095oz sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.32g | 0.011oz yellow #5 liquid colour
0.25g | 0.0088oz red #6 liquid colourThe Most Corally Orange One
0.27g | 0.0095oz sericite mica (USA / Canada)
0.25g | 0.0088oz red #6 liquid colour
0.21g | 0.0074oz titanium dioxide (white) liquid colour
0.18g | 0.0063oz yellow #5 liquid colourBecause these lip tints are 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, they should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice they start to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck them 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 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 each batch will fill one slimline lip balm tube.
- I don’t recommend making any substitutions to the base. It likely won’t be wretched, but this base is really nice and that’s what I’ve tested.
- You could incorporate a bit of shimmery mica if you want; I’d keep it to 5% or less.
- Please read the blog for my thoughts on using dry pigments
“the most corally orange one” haha! i love it, marie! i’ll definitely try this recipe if i get the appropriate pigments.
I’m so glad! I hope you love it when you get around to making 😀
Hi Marie… I love your blog and youtube channel so much… I learn alot from them. Thank you for making it.
BTW, I seems couldnt find sericite mica here in Indonesia, and it would be much to pricey to buy it from amazon (because of the shipping fee) what would be the best substitute for it?
Thank you
You could try a coloured mica, but that will add shimmer. Thanks for watching!
Nice work, these look awesome! So…since I have only powdered oxides to work with…I am looking at the Cool Berry red (understandably, I’m not going to attain that color with oxides) but am I right in my math?:
0.295g oxide(s)
0.295g castor oil
0.27g sericite mica
Would I have to make further adjustments if I wanted to add some colored mica? Thanks!
That looks to be about where I’d start! I would reduce the sericite mica to make room for coloured mica 🙂
Excited to try this! Just wondering, what exactly does the sericite mica bring to the table? I’m bummed to say that over the course of working my way through the Make it Up book I discovered that sericite mica gives me a weird allergic burning feeling on my skin. Fortunately, Talc is a good substitute in most powdered makeup applications, but I’m not sure it would do here. What do you think? Or can I maybe leave it out?
The mica helps with adhesion & colour transfer. You could try talc—I’ve never used it, but I have read that it has lots in common with sericite mica. You could also look at Nylon 12 (TKB has it). Best of luck!
Hello Marie!
I created the creamy lip balm base and it really stays on amazingly! Love it! I want to play with colors but I have tons of oxides, carmine, micas in powder form and as much as I would like to buy every single thing I watch in your amazing videos every time I watch one I just can’t. I am happy to play with the powders I have bought as per your recommendations, can you give some directions on quantities to use with oxides, carmine, etc. Thank you!
Best, Venus
P.S: You are an amazing teacher! Thank you for all you do!
Have you read paragraph seven? That’s about all the guidance I can give 🙂 Have fun experimenting, though—you can’t really mess this up too much haha. Happy making!
Hi ,
After searching a lot through your website and articles, I still couldnt find out one easy solution to understand how to work out percentages for making mineral makeup? I formulate a lot of shampoos etc for which I know i have to work out the 100% of receipe and then divide it to half if m making a 50g product. However, for makeup m soo soo confused- can u please help?
I did go to the batch calculator on making cosmetics but that has 3 phases to work out the % whereas, I only have dry ingrediants so im again v confused lol- ♀️♀️ Need help plz .
If u cud also explain whether we start with 100% receipes first same as shampoos and divide them on number based on required batch size?
Many thanks in advance 🙂
I think you’ll find this post very helpful 🙂
Hello Marie;
I made this up today, the base was made two weeks ago, but the colouring was added this morning. The colour is gorgeous and the slimline container is perfect for it. Thank you for creating another lovely recipe!
I am so glad you’re enjoying these lip tints! I’ve got them in every purse, every travel bag, and many pockets 😀
Hii Marie;
Thank you so much for this recipe and it was posted a while ago so hope it maybe possible to get an answer to my comment.
It seems the recipe is really in two parts. The first being the creamy lip balm base followed by addition of actual tints and sericite mica phase. But I was wondering is it not possible to do all the ingredients at once in one singular formulation? How do suggest I do that ?
Also if one re-heats the base, if previously made, and given that it contains Vit E, will that not affect its the balms stability and effectiveness of Vit E as an antioxidant?
A million thank you’s Marie, I got your book for xmas and it was the BEST gift ever…feel like I could get lost in it for agezzz
Hi Marie,
I love, love, love the texture of this balm. The tints I’ve made so far are also great, but I want the color to last a little longer. I was wondering if I added some Mg stearate and/or Mg myristate (like the long-wear lipstick from your book), will that make it a little longer lasting without compromising the texture too much? Thanks so much.
It’s certainly worth a try! I’d probably start in the 3–5% range. I’m sure it will impact the texture to some degree, but it’s hard to say if it’s too much without having tried it. Happy making!
Hi Shaliz,
I was thinking about the same. Have you tried it yet?
my mica always sunk at the bottom of the lip balm tube. what should i do?
Hello Warisha!
When I first began making tinted lip balms and lip glosses I noticed that too! It is because you are pouring while all the oils and butters are “molten”, meaning hot and liquidy. You’ll probably notice in a month or so your lip products usually get a wee bit grainy too? Here’s the answer to your question and the answer to grainy balms! Happy making!
Hi! Would magnesium stearate be better for adhesion and longevity instead of sericite mica? And at what percentages?
You can certainly try it 🙂 You’ll find usage rate ranges/suggestions in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/). Happy making!
Hi Marie, if I tweaked this formula a bit, more liquid oil, would it work in lipgloss squeeze tubes? Thanks
Possibly, eventually? That would be pretty full-on redevelopment territory, so I’m not really sure you’d be in “tweak” territory 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie,
could i use the vegan lip balm base for this recipe? The one i saw in your lavender vegan lipbalm post…Thank you 🙂
You could certainly try it! Let me know if you do 🙂 Happy making!
Hey Marie 🙂 would it be ok to substitute Cetearyl alcohol with Cetyl alcohol? Thanks!
Please see the note on substituting ingredients in the base on this page 🙂
Thanks so much for this! I just tried it for the first time, and it came out great.
I made it as written with TKB Lotus Pink, but it didn’t seem as pigmented as I wanted, so I doubled the amount, and that was definitely overkill. (I think it goes on more heavily in the stick than when I tried it semi-cooled and applied with my finger.) I love the consistency, though – it really does feel creamy and expensive.
Even better, I used this formula to thin out a ready-made lipstick. My all-time favorite color (MAC Relentlessly Red – a super bright warm hot pink) comes in my least favorite formulation (very matte, totally opaque, and goes very patchy and dry). Trying dupes has not panned out, so I usually apply it over a thick layer of balm and try to mix it on my lips, which never works as well as I want.
My holy grail lipstick would be this color in a creamy sheer formulation. I mixed up 2/3 lipstick and 1/3 of this recipe, and it’s really close! I’m going to try it with some lower concentrations of the lipstick, and maybe experiment with adding mica to try to counteract the matte ingredients. But this is already a huge improvement.
Once I get that down, I’m going to see if I can formulate my own version of the color so I can fully DIY it. (MAC keeps bringing it in and out of production…) I’m assuming I’ll need to use lake colors to get the super bright effect I’m looking for.