Despite my overflowing ingredients cupboard, and all the wonderful oils and butters that I love, there’s only so much room in my purse (I don’t have one the size of a puppy carrier). So, if something makes it into my purse, that’s pretty special.
Cupuacu butter is the only skin moisturizer I carry in my purse. I might throw a tube of lotion in there on occasion, but capuacu butter has a permanent home there. It’s great stuff.
Unlike some butters that can be quite greasy or sticky on the skin, and stay that way for ages (I’m looking at you, unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)), cupuacu absorbs quickly, leaving a silky smooth finish in very little time. It’s what I want when my hands need a serious dose of moisture.
Related to cocoa butter (USA / Canada), it has a scent that I describe as like a combination between cocoa butter (USA / Canada) and cheese. So, yeah… it doesn’t smell super awesome, but I don’t care. It has saved my hands from painful, awful dryness this winter. And you can’t smell it at all in this lip balm.
So, naturally, as I drove back from a day at the ski hill with a pair of newly sunburnt lips (I always forget about that snow reflection!), I wanted cupuacu for my dry, irritated lips. This lip balm definitely does the trick.
Cupuacu Lip Balm
4g | 0.14oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz cupuacu butter (USA / Canada)
3g | 0.1oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
8g | 0.28oz sweet almond oil (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.01oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
5 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)Weigh the beeswax, capuacu butter, cocoa butter (USA / Canada), sweet almond oil (USA / Canada), and Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) out into a heat resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in a pot of barely simmering water to melt the oils.
Stir in the peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada) using a flexible silicone spatula. Pour the melted lip balm into four lip balm tubes and let cool. I like to use these labels to label my projects.
Don’t have the carrier oils called for in the recipe? Read this for a guide on how to choose appropriate alternatives.
Is capacu butter expensive? I’d like to play around and try a different recipe. I actually have a kindle book on my MacBook called lip balms and salves. And I haven’t read it! Our friend Matty is back from Australia and is very excited about the idea of helping me make some guiness CP soap. I haven’t made soap before, so I asked if he would be my assistant :PI want to make a shampoo bar first though. Do you use a shampoo bar all the time? I’ve never used one.
XX
Ruth
Um… maybe a little? $10.56/100g at New Directions Aromatics. And I definitely use shampoo bars all the time—they’re awesome!
Hello, love all the lip balm recipes but where is the best place to find the containers? Bee Blessed…Sue in CA
I buy mine from New Directions Aromatics!
That sounds amazing! If it’s not the heater drying out the air in my house, it’s the air conditioning. Needless to say, my lips are begging for mercy!
Ha, how difficult our lives are 😛 Ages ago I made a promise to myself to always have lip balm on hand, and that’s made things a lot better, but dang, the air here is so dry!
My problem is weighing out the ingredients, what is the best way to do that? Not familiar with gram measurements. I would love to try this but measuring the ingredients has me stumped.
Hi Sharon—No problem! Grams (and the metric system in general) are super easy to work with! A gram= roughly 1/28 of an ounce, but a gram is also equal to 1 mL of water, so that makes measuring water out by weight super easy. Also, because grams are so small (1 tsp/5mL of water = 5g), it’s easier to work with smaller recipes (it’s super awesome for percentage recipes as well, since everything works in multiples of 10—you can just make 100g of something, and then 1g=1%.)
So, you’ve got two options—you should be able to toggle your scale over to grams (mine has both g/kg and oz/lb), and go from there. Or, you can use an online converter to change the measurements here into fractions of ounces. Google has a nice one.
Thanks for reading 😀
Just found your site – awesome. 🙂
Cupuacu huh? Now I gotta research that!
Thanks for reading, Erin! And definitely check out cupuacu, I just adore it!
wow lLOOKS LIKE GREAT LIB BALM I NEED SOME I REALLY NEED TO TRY THESE RECIPES YOU ARE DOING THIS WOULD BE PERFECT FOR THE COLDER MONTHS
I love this one for after & during ski trips!
Hi Marie,
I just found your website and I am amazed at all the good stuff you have here. Just pinned a whole bunch of them for later, but the Cupuaçu Lip Balm really surprised me. I am from Brazil and have used Cupuaçu Fruit for different things, like ice creams, desserts, cocktails, etc., but I never thought it could be used cosmetically. Well, we do use Cupuaçu Butter but you went a step ahead. Very clever… I will try the Lip Balm, and who knows… it may be my next favorite thing to carry on my purse. Thanks for posting it!
Thanks for reading, Liz! I am loving hearing about Cupuaçu fruit, that is so cool—what does it taste like? That is so cool, I love getting all these awesome ingredients, but I rarely know much about where they come from 🙂
Absolutely love your blog. Cupuaçu makes a delicious drink by the way. One of my favorites.
Thanks for reading, Guilherme! Tell me more about this drink, it sounds really interesting!
Thank you so much for your site/recipes. I have tried many of your lip balms and LOVE them!! I would love to try your Cupuacu Lip Balm, but am having trouble finding a place to purchase the cupuacu butter. New Directions Aromatics carries it however shipping is $ 30.00, can you suggest another place?
Thanks so much, Blanche! I’m thrilled you’ve been DIYing away with me 🙂 Where do you live (country)? That’ll help me recommend a different supplier (if I can).
Hi, I am in Canada, I live in BC
OOh, me too! I’m in Calgary. Are you on one of the Gulf Islands, perhaps? My parents are on Gabriola and they ran into the same thing.
No, I am in Port Edward, which is 15 minutes out of Prince Rupert. We are at the end of the road. Which is the gateway to Alaska, they say.
It sounds very beautiful, but yeah… that’ll do it on the shipping, sadly 🙁 And from pretty much every company, in my experience. I did some research for my parents, and shipping was pretty much always around $30. My advice would be to 1) make your order nice and big so you get your money’s worth out of that shipping and 2) ask around and see if anybody else would like to order with you and split the cost. Here in Calgary the shipping is still ~$20, and I counter that by only ordering a few times a year and trying to split orders up with friends when I can. Damn Canada and it’s hugeness! The online company I work for does free shipping and free returns all across Canada and it’s a big draw for people in remote locations—understandably so (especially since we sell outdoor gear, and in Canada remote=freezing cold lol). Americans don’t know how good they have it with their cheap postage!
Thank you so much for your help! I ju st placed a huge order with Voyageur Soap, they don’t carry those two butters so I guess I will have to wait.
You’re very welcome 🙂 I saw we start to campaign for better shipping rates in this gigantic country of ours!
Having trouble finding capuacu butter. ND and SB don’t seem to carry. Do you know if it ist under a different name?
Thanks
Apparently spelling wasn’t my forte this afternoon. Found it 🙁
No worries, it’s a weird word!
Here you go! Sadly they only sell the refined version now, but the unrefined stuff did smell a bit funny, so maybe it’s for the best 😛
Hi, Marie! I really like this recipe and want to make it, but my question is: do you use, in this recipe or any others you have on your site, beeswax grated or pellets? I’ve heard there is a little bit of a difference.
Thank you!
Hi Cristina! I buy all my beeswax in big blocks from beekeepers at the farmers market, and then shave off bits with a big chopping knife 🙂
this sounds really nice, but it makes me wonder if there is some sort of…. ULTIMATE… lip balm recipe. Do you have one you consider to be the most moisturizing? (the shea butter/olive oil recipe perhaps?) i bought some cupuacu butter because you made it sound so nice, but I also really want to incorporate shea butter, since I love it so much. my only idea for ultimate balm is to use everything– a little bit of every oil, a little bit of every butter, finish with beeswax. what do you think, good idea or crazy? how would i formulate the greatest lip balm of all time (ha)?
Hi Emily! I have tried many different lip balm formulas, including ones where I used just a touch of this and a touch of that to use all my favourite things, and in the end, I generally come back to this one, or one of its derivatives. A lip balm recipe with a dozen ingredients sure sounds fancy, but in the end it’s generally not going to perform all that differently from one with five. It’s sort of like the difference between a milkshake with two flavours and a milkshake with 10 flavours. You’ll notice and appreciate chocolate + coffee, but when you start getting into chocolate + coffee + banana + peanut butter + cookie bits + strawberries + caramel … etc. it might taste nice in the end, but you aren’t really going to be going “oh yes, what a lovely note of caramel just there” as you drink it. A little bit of everything ends up being just that—a little, mostly indistinguishable bit of everything. Those recipes also become really expensive really quickly. That’s not to say you shouldn’t do it, but to me it isn’t really worth the fuss.
To me, the biggest “thing” in lip balm is texture and melting point. A lip balm using lots of liquid oils and coconut oil will glide on beautifully, and will be a bit more glossy than one that uses shea butter, which has a higher melting point and different texture than coconut oil. The more beeswax you use, the tackier the lip balm gets. Some people prefer a tackier lip balm as it stays put longer, making it better for super dry lips. Adding more beeswax is the easiest way to make a lip balm noticeably more moisturizing, but there is a texture trade-off. In general, oils and butters on their own don’t hugely effect how moisturizing a lip balm is—try applying straight shea butter to your lips. It’ll melt so quickly that it’s amazing moisturizing qualities are rather lost as it vanishes away. It’s the beeswax that gives the balm staying power so it can stick around and keep your lips from drying out.
Also, you should check out all my oil and wax experiments—they’re really useful for starting to understand how certain proportions of oil and wax effect the final texture of a balm 🙂
I might be a little biased, but the one I just came up with is literally the best ever.
28% cupuacu
20% beeswax
12% lanolin
40% oil (currently I’m using hemp seed oil and grapeseed oil)
Thanks, Marie, for getting me to this point!!
Thank you so much for sharing this. I was looking to add lanolin to Marie’s recipe and you just saved me all the guess work and experimenting. SO THANK YOU!
Thank you, I did not expect such a long answer. I can tell you come back to that recipe–some of the others are basically, “take the naked balm and put some pigments in it.” (I’m starting to feel like a creepy stalker, I’ve read so many of your posts.) I’ll probably still keep on trying to formulate the ULTIMATE because i’m horribly obstinate, haha. My theory is that I should combine some slow absorbing oils/butters with fast absorbing oils/butters. to start working and then keep working. at least I hope so! 🙂
oops, that was supposed to go underneath your comment, not start a new conv. I’m sure you will figure it out! Side note: i think lotion is actually better for lips than balm. One very humid day my chronically peeling lips felt much better than usual, and i realized water is the answer. I don’t think oil can evaporate like water can, so the dry winter air is more likely to be robbing my skin of its water than its oil. lotion first, balm is a second layer to try to hold the moisture in.
Have you tried any of my lip balms that include water soluble ingredients (usually honey or glycerin)? They are fantastic for super dry skin and have the added benefit of not tasting nasty like lotion does 😛
soon… very soon… to quote Ned Stark, winter is coming.
Sadly yes… it snowed here yesterday 🙁
so, about that molasses balm, and also the pink carmine gloss that is part oil and part glycerin… what is the shelf life of that kind of product? do bacteria like glycerin as much as they like water? Should those recipes include a preservative?
In my experience, those strong humectant water-soluble-but-not-actually-water ingredients don’t effect the shelf life of the product. My gingerbread lip balm shows no signs of spoilage 18 months after making 🙂
Do it! Experiment away 🙂 It’s the best way to learn, and I’d never want to discourage that! Just be sure to take lots of notes on what you do and how it turns out so you can march towards progress instead of staggering around aimlessly 😉
naked balm with argan instead of sweet almond! mmm, sounds indulgent.
Indeed! I’ve made argan lip balm before and I didn’t notice a huge change in performance, but it is lovely 🙂
Do you really need the cocoa butter in this? Cupuacu is so firm… i’m tempted to skip the cocoa entirely and just use more cupuacu…
Cocoa butter is properly brittle, while cupuacu is not (though firm it will never snap at room temperature). That said, the majority of the hardness in this (and most) lip balm recipes comes from the beeswax, so you might be ok 🙂
My first ever attempt at lip balm was a grainy disaster so I’ve stuck to store bought or whatever unscented lotion bar I have on hand ever since. But I had some leftover Cupuacu Butter sample and decided to try this recipe. Actually I sort of combined a couple of your lip balm recipes- I used 4g argan oil and 4g infused calendula instead of 8g sweet almond oil. And went with 2g candelilla wax as I had no beeswax.
The result? Love!!! As I mentioned in a different post, I was afraid the Cupuacu Butter would end up grainy but it didn’t. I can’t wait to see how NDA’s refined version compares when they ship my order!
Thanks for inspiring me to give lip balm another try, Marie. 😉
I’m so glad you’ve had lip balm success, Ev! 🙂
Dear Marie is there a special reason why you added the cocoa butter? I mean why didnt you use just 8g of Cupuacu butter instead the 5g and the 3g of cocoa butter?
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Hi Miriam! Read this to get an idea of how different butters differ and why I might use one over another 🙂
thanks for the fast answer!
do you have any experience with murumuru butter?
maybe a recipe like:
5g cupuacu, 2,5g murumuru/(or maybe kokum butter?) maybe any other suggestions?, 5g beeswax, about 10g apricot kernel oil and 2,5g almond oil?
please tell me your suggestions for improvement, since i honestly have no idea.
I don’t have any experience with murumuru butter, but from my reading it would not be a good alternative to cocoa butter. Kokum butter is often listed as a good cocoa alternative as it’s also brittle.
My imagination for full recipes I’ve never made isn’t magical—just make it and see what you think! It’s the best way to learn 😉
Hi Marie, your blog is awesome. One thing I wanted to ask is anyway you can write the measurements in cups and spoons (tablespoons/teaspoons instead of g and oz). It’s tough to do all the calculations and it’s easier without scale. 🙂
Hey Regina! The short answer is definitely not—and the long answer is in the FAQ 🙂
Hey Marie, thanks for the reply and no worries-figured things out already and doing pretty well 🙂
Glad to hear it! If you want reliable results a scale is really the only way to get them—I can’t recommend it enough 🙂
Hey Marie,
Any tips on pouring the lip balm in the tubes? It solidifies so quickly, it becomes an arduous and lengthy process.
I recommend melting the balm in a water bath in a heavy glass jug with a pouring spout—the high heat capacity will keep the balm pourable for longer 🙂