Bobbie wrote in with a request for this lovely sounding lavender cardamom lip balm—I must admit it was the mention of cardamom that pulled me in. I adore the bright, sweet note the cardamom adds to any scent blend, and I’m always looking for new places to use it. Add some lavender, and I’m sold.
The original lip balm sports a very normal and respectable list of ingredients, almost all of which I already had on hand—major points to them for that. There was a nice blend of liquid oils (including hemp and tamanu, two great healing oils), some unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) (a perennial favourite of mine), and a citrussy blend of blood orange, lavender, and cardamom essential oils.
I kept most of the ingredients, only switching out the blood orange essential oil for some litsea cubeba essential oil. Blood orange essential oil is phototoxic, so I opted to get my citrussy punch from litsea cubeba rather than sunburn my lips.
Lavender Cardamom Lip Balm
10g | 0.35oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
10g | 0.35oz safflower oil
8g | 0.28oz jojoba oil (USA / Canada)7g | 0.25oz unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
6g | 0.21oz hemp seed oil (USA / Canada)
4g | 0.14oz tamanu oil
1g | 0.03oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
3g | 0.1oz soy lecithin (or sunflower lecithin)10 bergapatene free bergamot essential oil or litsea cubeba essential oil
20 drops lavender essential oil
15 drops cardamom essential oilBecause some of the oils in this balm are a bit more delicate than others, we’re going to melt the beeswax (which has a pretty high melting point) into some of the “sturdier” oils, and then add the remaining oils at a lower heat to protect them. Unrefined hemp seed oil (USA / Canada) in particular can get really nasty and fishy when exposed to heat for extended periods of time (sadly, I know this from experience).
Combine the beeswax, safflower oil, and jojoba oil (USA / Canada) in a small heat resistant glass measuring cup and melt in a water bath. Once everything has melted together, remove from the heat. Dry off the cup, and weigh the remaining oils and lecithin (not the essential oils, though) into the measuring cup. Stir to combine using a flexible silicone spatula, returning to gentle heat to melt everything together.
Once all the ingredients are melted together, remove the cup from the water bath, dry it off, and count the essential oil drops into the liquid mixture, stirring to combine.
Pour the mixture into lip balm tubes and let it set up. This recipe will fill about fifteen 4.5g (0.16oz) lip balm tubes. I use these labels on my projects.
Why did you choose tamanu oil in this recipe? I am not familiar with it personally and was curious what special properties it has? Btw does it have a scent?
Thanks.
http://plainandpure.blogspot.be
Hi Anna! Tamanu oil is a great healing oil with a bit of a dusty/nutty scent 🙂
What could you substitute for the soy lecithin? Not my favorite item to use so I don’t keep it on hand.
You can just swap it out for more of one of the liquid carrier oils, by weight 🙂
I recently bought tamanu oil to try and hadn’t decided what to do with it. This looks perfect! I’ve never tried lavender in a lip balm, so this one will be an adventure!
Enjoy & thanks for reading (as always!) 🙂
YAY!!! You are awesome. I cant wait to try this!! I did not know that about Blood Orange, nice to know 🙂
Thanks so much for all you do, you are an inspiration
Enjoy! And the photosensitive thing is true about all citrus EOs unless otherwise stated by the manufacturer 🙂
I really hate to change your recipe but I don’t have a couple of the oils. Is there any substitute for the hemp oil and the tamanu oil? I’ve made lip balms…YOUR lip balms, in fact, and loved them. I’m wondering if I can use the cardamom and lavender in another recipe with other oils. I hate to stray and budget is tight for a while (major home reconstruction)… so I’ve gotta use what’s on hand. Another question – are you familiar with Neem oil? It smells TERRIBLE, BUT it has amazing healing properties. I was wondering if you’ve used it before and in what, if you have. Thanks again, Marie, for another awesome recipe! Hugs from America!
Hi Kim! If you’re missing those two ingredients I’d probably just add the EOs to this recipe 🙂
I have a great big bottle of neem oil, but I’ve yet to do anything with it. I’m thinking a soap might be a good place to start… stay tuned 😉
I love your ideas and recipes. I’m a total novice and I too was wondering if there is a substitution for the hemp oil and the tamanu oil?
Hi Reiven! Check out this article for more information on substitutions 🙂
I have never used hemp oil in any recipe so dont know what it smells like, will it give any cannabis like fragrance?
Also I have been following your recipes and have seen great results, but cant get the stiffness and smoothness of a professional lip balm, can you advise on how i can achieve a professional smoothness (stiffness is something i can discount)
Hi Hitesh! Hemp oil smells green, but not at all like weed. More like salad.
I’m not really sure what you mean by “stiffness and smoothness”… that is, I’m not sure how the recipe isn’t working for you if you’re fully melting everything and then letting it set up. Do you live in a very hot climate? Keep in mind that all my recipes are developed in Canada, and they tend to be at “home” at about 20°C.
Hi Mary
Thanks for sharing this information, i do live in warmer temperature conditions, i believe i will need to raise the wax ratio a bit.
Also i have been using food flavoring oils to add fruity flavors to my lip balms, and my supplier says that these can be used in cosmetics, however one more thing i am concerned about while using food grade ingredients is preservation, i do add vitamin E oil into my formulations, however a bit of research tells me Optiphen plus is a good paraben free preservative, have you worked with it, please share your experience on preservatives.
Have you read all my FAQ articles on preservatives? There’s lots of good info in there 🙂
Please put your recipes into an ebook and/or book I realize that I don’t have the time to do the recipes at this time, but I’m saving the ones I’d like to do in the future in my emails, but how much more they would be welcomed as a spiral book.
Hi Jan! How much would you pay for something like this? With well over 700 recipes up here creating an ebook would take me… at least 350 hours? Maybe more?
I just bookmark my favorites. (Which is a good 2/3 of this site) Quick and easy peasy.
🙂 Pinterest is also great for bookmarking if you’re more visual (like me).
OH YEAH! Marie – do a book!!!! Upload everything to that site… omgosh I forget the name… You can upload and then sell the books from what you uploaded. I would TOTALLY buy a book of recipes. You don’t have to do anything else if you don’t want – just compile all your recipes!!!! I’d easily pay $20-40 for a recipe book with all that!!!
Honestly, for that amount of effort I’d much prefer to do something more curated and take the time to make it look really lovely 🙂 “Just” doing anything x750 is still a lot! I wouldn’t be able to reply to a single blog comment or email (or produce any new blogs) until next summer, haha.
Just FYI – and I have no affiliation with the original Pangaea Organics brand – but Citrus sinensis (Sweet Orange) oil which is in the Pangea version is actually not photo-toxic! That along with only a handful of others such as Tangerine and Mandarin. Happy DIYing 🙂
Thanks, AA! There are a few citrus EOs out there that aren’t, but they do have to be treated/edited that get that way (I’ve definitely been burnt by tangerine EO before!). Bergapatene free Bergamot is sun safe, and some suppliers state that their 5 fold citrus EOs are as well 🙂
Citrus sinensis essential oils are naturally bergapten-free, so it’s actually never photo-toxic! Not all citrus essential oils contain bergapten, but when they do, often they are also offered steam distilled which removes the photo-toxic-causing constituent. And those that are photo-toxic, are only photo-toxic after reaching a specific dilution. For instance, bergamot (Citrus bergamia) can be used safely up to 0.4% dilution (2 drops/fl ounce of carrier) and lemon (Citrus limon) is safely used up to 2% (about 10 drops/fl ounce of carrier)! So, you can breathe a little sigh of relief and enjoy some of these citrus essential oils without the worry. A tad more info: https://blog.aromahead.com/2017/07/27/phototoxic-essential-oils-safe
Hi Marie,
Is there a substitute for soy lecithin? I’m allergic to soy products and am scared to use it in a lip balm.
I’ve used hemp and avocado together for incredible results for a cuticle balm, rough hands salve, and in a lovely, moisturizing soap. I’ve also used neem oil in men’s soaps–the smell evaporates but the properties remain.
I’m gearing up for the holidays and have been soaping. I started using your cold process method and ramped it up to CPOP. I’ve always done hot processing before and liked the results. Now I have different methods to choose from. Thank you again for your incredible recipes!
Hi Cathryn! You can just swap the soy lecithin out for more of one of the liquid carrier oils, by weight 🙂
Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me, I’m so thrilled you’re having fun!
Hi Marie.
I am a beginner at DIY but my ( limited!)understanding is that essential oils should be used at a rate of about 2% of the carrier oils yet I notice that some of your recipes have a much higher rate than this. Is that because you have a different view on their strength/effect? I have done a bit of research but would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks for weekly emails!
Hi Jo! I’ve written an FAQ on this 🙂
Hi Marie,
I cannot wait to try this! Magically I have the soy lecithin, but I am curious as to what it does in lip balm? Thanks!
Hi Jade! Soy lecithin is an emollient, so it boosts the moisturizing properties of the lip balm 🙂
Helo Marie, I have been following your blog maybe for a month now and wow I have learned so much thank you for that, so I make butters and want to start to make lotion and looking for a natural emulsify I came across to sunflower lecithin, I was wonder if you are familiar with this ingredient in skin care products. I will keep my search on the internet world but if you can tell me a little about it I will appreciate it. Thanks
Pardon English is not my first language
hugs and kiss
Hi Jennyfer! Sunflower lecithin is going to be fairly similar to soy lecithin, just from another source. You could likely use it in recipes that call for soy lecithin, but as an emulsifier it’s not hugely useful. It won’t do much of anything on its own, and I’m afraid my chemistry knowledge isn’t good enough to suggest something to pair it with for a complete emulsifier. Thanks for reading!
I made this lip balm to show friends how easy and fantastic homemade lip balm is. It is fantastic and loved by all. I also make and love your Rose Spearmint lip balm, almost like Turkish Delight!!! Thank you for all the great recipes.
Wonderful! I’m so glad everybody is loving it 🙂 The Rose Spearmint is one of my all-time favourites as well, I love the slight rose scent.
Hi Marie,
Is the soy lecithin in the recipe a solid or a liquid? I am only familiar with lecithin granules that are eaten, but I am guessing that the lecithin in your recipe is not the same?
Thankyou!
Hi Michele! The two are going to be chemically identical, but from my reading the liquid is easier to work with as getting the granules to dissolve is a pain in the butt 😛 You should be able to use the granules instead, just ensure you give them plenty of time to dissolve in the oils.