Today we’re fully embracing summer with a rich, sparkly Gold Dust Lip Cream ✨ A creamy base carries a generous helping of shimmery gold things to bring some beautiful 24 karat loveliness to your days. Enjoy!

Want to watch this project instead of reading it?

Watch Now

The bulk of this lip cream is a rich, creamy base (hence the name!). Glossy castor oil, slippy coconut oil, and lightweight apricot kernel oil are thickened with some cera bellina to create a soft, ointment-y base. Cera bellina is a modified beeswax that creates oil gel products that are noticeably different from products thickened by beeswax. I did experiments with both cera bellina and beeswax to look at how they thicken—I highly recommend checking them out!

The golden shimmer in this lip cream comes from two ingredients. The smooth shimmer comes from a gold mica, while the vibrant sparkle comes from a gold biodegradable glitter. Together, they pack quite the golden punch! You could easily customize this lip cream by playing with different colours; a pink or red mica with gold glitter would be stunning! Alternatively, pairing different metallics, like copper or bronze, would also be beautiful. You’re only limited by your imagination… and supply of micas and glitters, ha.

When it comes to wearing this lip cream, my favourite way is to dab it on top of red or pink lipstick to add a golden shimmer that blends beautifully with the base colour. You can also apply it on its own—less for more of a hint of shimmer, or more for a strong golden pop! It also makes a really lovely highlight for browbones and the like if you’re really feeling those gold dust vibes.

Because this lip cream is quite soft, you’ll need to package it in some sort of wide-mouthed packaging like a small jar or tin. You could also try putting it in a squeezy lip gloss tube, but this will not work in a twist-up lip balm tube. From there, you can dab it on with a clean finger or a brush. Enjoy!

Want to watch this project instead of reading it?

Watch Now

Gold Dust Lip Cream

Heated phase
0.75g | 15% cera bellina (USA / Canada)
1.5g | 30% castor oil (USA / Canada)
1.25g | 25% virgin coconut oil
1.075g | 21.5% apricot kernel oil (USA / Canada)
0.3g | 6% gold mica
0.15g | 3% biodegradable gold glitter

Cool down phase
0.025g | 0.5% 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 the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or shallow glass bowl. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

While the mixture melts, set out a wee jar or tin for the lip cream so you can easily transfer it into tins when the time comes. I used one 5mL glass jar for a 5g batch and had some space left for more product (I’d estimate a 5mL jar will hold about 7g). (I used these jars, but it looks like they’ve discontinued the smaller sizes.)

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 dishtowel. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula for a minute or two, giving the mixture a chance to cool a bit before adding the vitamin E and stirring that in as well (how long this takes will vary with what you’ve melted the mixture in—heavier glass will hold heat longer than thin metal, etc.).

Continue stirring until the mixture has gained some viscosity and is looking creamy, and then quickly transfer into your containers. That’s it! Leave to come fully to room temperature and you’re ready to get your gold on. I like to dab a small amount of this lip cream over top of red or pink lipstick, but feel free to experiment to figure out what you love! You could also use this as a cream highlighter if you wanted to.

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this lip cream 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

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 this recipe will make 5g.
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this recipe, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• You can try beeswax instead of cera bellina.
• I don’t recommend swapping out the castor oil.
• You can use refined or virgin coconut oil. Babassu oil will also work as an alternative.
• Any other low scent, fast-absorbing carrier oil will work instead of apricot kernel oil
• You can use different colours for the mica and/or glitter.
• If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.