This soft and creamy Monoi de Tahiti and Meadowfoam Lip & Body Balm comes together in a flash, and leaves you smelling of Tahitian gardenias and citrus. It sinks in quickly, and feels wonderful on the skin. The ingredient list is short, and you can use the balm on your skin and your lips. And, if you’ve been dreaming of the tropics, this beautiful balm just might soothe your wanderlust.
Monoi de Tahiti is a beautiful oil, made by macerating virgin coconut oil with Tahitian gardenias. The resulting oil feels just like coconut oil, but is heavy with the exotic scent of gardenias. This oil is what gives the balm the majority of its scent, so if you don’t like the scent of Monoi, I’d recommend replacing it with virgin coconut oil.
Kukuinut oil has been used by Hawaiians for centuries, so I thought it would get along well with the Monoi. Kukuinut is a favourite for protecting skin from salt water, sun, and wind, and it’s great for dry, irritated skin.
Lastly, meadowfoam seed oil. It’s high in Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada), and is popular in lots of skincare products for its healing and rejuvenating properties. It also absorbs quickly, helping to balance the slower absorption speed of the kukuinut oil.
This blend of oils is thickened with some beeswax, and then finished with a few drops of litsea cubeba essential oil. Litsea cubeba smells very lemony, but has none of the photosensitizing properties of the real thing. It’s brightness counters the rich sweetness of the Monoi for a balanced, bright balm. Mmm. Lovely.
Monoi de Tahiti and Meadowfoam Lip & Body Balm
6g | 0.21oz Monoi de Tahiti oil
10g | 0.35oz kukuinut oil or jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
10g | 0.35oz meadowfoam seed oil or jojoba oil
6g | 0.21oz beeswax (USA / Canada)3 drops litsea cubeba essential oil or lemongrass essential oil (optional)
Combine the oils and beeswax in a small saucepan or double boiler. Heat through until melted.
Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the essential oil, if using. Decant into a 30mL/1oz tin.
To use, smooth over dry lips and massage into dry skin.
I can only imagine how great this will smell and how soft your lips and skin will feel!
I gifted this tin to a friend and she just loves it 🙂
Where did you get dried Tahitian gardenias? Thank you.
I imagine you could get them in Tahiti 😛 I’d recommend doing what I did, and buying the oil as a finished product—I got this one. It’s much easier!
Could I use something else in place of the Tahiti oil? I have LOTS of other oils, but not this one!
Virgin coconut oil is a perfect replacement 🙂
I found several options for monoi de Tahiti oil on Amazon and one Tahiti oil on New Directions, but unsure which would work best in this recipe.
Could you give some pointers on which to use as, like an earlier post, I don’t know where to source the flowers.
Hi Jess! You’ll want this stuff, or something similar—the real thing. Make sure there’s no mention of “fragrance oil” or any of that nonsense! That means they’ve faked it by just adding fake fragrance to coconut oil.
Have sourced the ingredients from around Australia so now will see how good I am on my first project
Good luck & have fun 🙂
Marie what is the ration of oils to beeswax that you use in this recipe?
Darn now I wish that I would have ordered monoi oil in my recent Saffire Blue purchase!
Hi Kristen! It’s (6+10+10=26) to 6, or 13:3, or roughly 1:4.3 (just a wee bit of elementary fractions 😉 ).
If you don’t have monoi straight-up virgin coconut oil is a great alternative!
Marie,
I noticed you melt everything down on the stove using a water bath and in other recipes you basically do the same. Is there a reason you don’t melt in the microwave? I found if I do short blasts of 20 sec at a time I can control the melting process without overdoing it. I’m just curious.
Hi Cindy! I like melting things together on the stove top as I can see what’s happening at all times and I have more control over things that way. I can also use all my burners at the same time and have a bunch of things on the go at once 😉
Meadowfoam oil is my favorite because it soaks right into the skin and is very light. Thank you for this great recipe. Tamara 🙂
Hi Tamara! This is (I think) my first recipe using it, and it is just lovely 🙂 I can’t wait to find a home for it in more concoctions! Thanks for reading & DIYing with me 🙂
cannot find where to buy monoi de Tahiti oil here in Australia … any ideas?
I’m sorry—I checked the only two Aussie suppliers I know of, and neither carry it 🙁 Perhaps a trip to Tahiti is in order? It’s not thaaaaat far for you 😛
Hi Sarah
I live in Oz as well, there is a website called Tahiti at home based in Melbourne, can’t wait to try this one too
Thanks so much, Kim!
My first batch, while very good, lacked a bit of aroma punch in my opinion. I was after a summery lip gloss with summer images of coconut drinks with umbrellas in them. So I was wondering about adding some ‘Pineapple Lip Balm Flavor’ from NDA? If you think this would work how much of the flavor would you suggest I add so as not to hurt the foundation of your original recipe.
Hi Jess! I never really recommend adding fragrance oils. Because they’re synthetic I find them to be overwhelming, plus you really have no idea what’s in them. If you do want to add some, be sure to go slowly—they’re much stronger than essential oils!
Synthetic huh! Darn…it smells so good too. But I like keeping things I make organic soo….Wonder what I should do with the 125 ml bottle of the Pineapple? Any thoughts or should I just pour it down the drain?
Yeah :/ Anything that smells like fruit is usually fake, along with anything with names that sound like cocktails 😛 In my attempts to use up the few fragrance oils I’ve bought I usually resort to soaping with them as soap requires so much fragrance. Do be careful with it, though—the fake stuff is so strong that you’ve got to be careful with what you do with the containers it’s been in. I once tried to clean out a measuring cup in the dishwasher and all my food tasted like gross fragrance for a month! Iiiiick. I’d be worried about something similar happening if you pour it down the drain—getting whiffs of pineapple whenever you do dishes, lol.
Haha…maybe I’ll dump in the compost pile!
Thanks for the advice.
I’m honestly not sure if I’d do that either… it’s likely not biodegradable and I’d be worried about the health of your compost.
Just kidding…we have been organic farming for 15 years. It will be disposed of the proper way.
😉 Good to know!
I would like to make this for gifts can you tell me the recipe to make this for 24 1oz tins???
Well, this recipe makes 1oz, so just multiply everything by 24. That would be 144g monoi, etc. I’d definitely recommend trying a small batch first to make sure you like it, though, 24oz is a lot if you don’t love it!
Would this work as a decent hair balm? I’m a new diyer and all this mixing and melting seems very overwhelming since I’ve never done it. I want to stick to beeswax and two to three types of oils for now.
So, i was wondering whether I could use this recipe or your coconut body butter as a hair balm
That’ll depend a lot on your hair and how tolerant it is (or isn’t) of oils. Regarding things being overwhelming—have you signed up for my free DIY for Beginners e-course yet? It’s designed to get you familiar with weighing, mixing, melting, and more 🙂
thank you so much for your reply! what about the coconut body butter, though? would that work as a hair balm? the formula seems to have more oil than this one so i’m just wondering
It’s the same answer—it depends. Seriously, just make something simple and try it! That is the only way you’re going to get good answers that are specifically for you and your hair 🙂