Today we’re blending up a simple, all-natural, Nourishing Lip Mask. I’ve called it a lip mask, but honestly, it’s a super versatile salve for all kinds of dry, irritated skin. It stars a short and sweet list of rich, soothing emollients to create a gorgeous ointment that’s brilliant for all kinds of things. Enjoy!
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The bulk of this lip mask is lanolin; a thick, ointment-y substance pressed from sheep’s wool. It is a rich skin protectant, moisturizer, softener, and occlusive—brilliant for dry lips and irritated skin anywhere on the body. It’s a favourite amongst breastfeeding women, featuring heavily in many nipple creams. I’d say the one less-than-awesome thing about lanolin is its smell, which is often described as “characteristic”—sort of oily and musty, and overall not super delicious. So, while there’s quite a lot of lanolin in here, I did cut it with some liquid oils and other things that don’t smell like, well… lanolin.
My initial daydreams for this formulation included quite a lot more lecithin because I love it, and brainstorm brain was all “more is better!”. But, alas, a quick check reminded me that lecithin is limited to 15% in formulations, so that’s what we’re using. Like lanolin, lecithin is a wonderful emollient and occlusive, and is great for barrier repair. I love how rich it makes concoctions feel—you’ll find it in several lip-thing formulations here on Humblebee & Me.
I’ve also included two lovely liquid oils: rich and glossy castor oil, and golden jojoba oil. They help make this mask a bit lighter and dilute the lanolin-y smell while bringing their awesome-ness to the party. Awwww yeah!
For thickening: we’ve already got a pretty viscous base thanks to the high concentrations of lanolin and lecithin, but I still wanted to include some wax for added staying power, richness, and thickness. I tried both beeswax and cera bellina, and while I like them both, I like the extra-ointmenty feel the cera bellina adds, so I’m listing that as my first choice.
The finished Nourishing Lip Mask is a rich, soft, ointment-y salve with a lovely sunny colour. I love it not only for my lips, but for dry knuckles and cuticles, and other rough patches, like on my feet and elbows. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
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Nourishing Lip Mask
Heated phase
4.55g | 45.5% lanolin
1.5g | 15% soy lecithin (liquid)
1.5g | 15% castor oil (USA / Canada)
1.4g | 14% jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
1g | 10% cera bellina (USA / Canada) or beeswax (USA / Canada)Cool down phase
0.05g | 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. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
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 to incorporate.
Stir the mixture occasionally as it cools. I chose not to use an ice bath here as the batch is small enough that it cools fairly quickly on its own, but if you scale it up / want things to move faster, you might want to use an ice bath to speed up the cooling.
Once the mixture has thickened and appears translucent, stir in the vitamin E, and transfer the lip mask to a small tin or jar. And that’s it!
To use, apply generously to the lips before going to bed. You can also apply this mask anywhere, really—this is very versatile! You can definitely think of it as more of a salve than a lip mask if lip masks aren’t your jam 😊 Enjoy!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this lip mask 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 10g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, 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 (soy lecithin) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- This formulation is not vegan. Given it is comprised of 55.5% non-vegan ingredients (lanolin + beeswax/cera bellina), you’ll be in re-development territory if you want to substitute out the non-vegan ingredients.
- I don’t recommend swapping out the castor oil.
- You could choose a different midweight to heavyweight liquid carrier oil instead of jojoba oil.
- If you’d like to include an essential oil, I’d go with 0.5%, taking that out of the lanolin. Be sure you choose something lip safe!
Hi marie! I’m interested to try this, however my sister is vegan and I found lanolin is unpleasant.
Few months ago, when I was shopping for beeswax, I found vegetable lanolin, it’s called lipidsof, or Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2.
It said, it works as alternative of lanolin. Less smelly and vegetable based.
I didn’t curious enough to buy it that time
I wonder if you ever try it before ?
I haven’t tried it or even heard of it. Let me know if you give it a try, it sounds interesting!
Marie, it turned out good!
I tried Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2 with this recipe, I can’t say if it’s better than lanolin, since I haven’t try this recipe with lanolin, but it turned out as a good lip mask and salve. Maybe it has consistency like this too, because it’s thick and absorbed really slow but the color is lighter.
(anyway I used beeswax, since cera bellina is very expensive here. And I use sunflower oil instead of soy lecitin)
Hello, Marie;
I simply adore this lip mask. I am wondering, if I substitute an amount of wax with mimosa wax…would that loose a smell of lanolin a little bit?
Thank you, you are great,
Best regards, Nataša
It’s possible, but the mimosa wax I’ve worked with in the past doesn’t smell like much of anything and would be totally drowned out by the lanolin 🙂 Give it a try and see. Happy making!
Hi Izzy –
I have been looking for Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2 in Canada or the USA with no luck. Could you share where you found it?
I have tried looking through the posts and encyclopedia. This calls for soy lecithin, I have sunflower, would that work?
Yes, as long as it’s liquid 🙂
Hey Marie,
Just made up this recipe but didn’t have any soy lecithin. So i did a bit of digging around and found veg glycerine to be the closet replacement i could use. I tried it out and it worked extremely well with no issues, aside from its colour you wouldn’t have even missed it or known it wasn’t used. It’s as you’ve said if you’re not sure if something will work or not try out, you’ll never know until you do!
Can I use sunflower lecithin instead of soy?
Yes, as long as it’s liquid 🙂
Hi Marie. I would love to try this recipe out but Lanolin dries out my skin. Can you tell me a substitution for Lanolin.
Hey! You’ll find the answers you’re looking for in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia at https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia. Simply look up lanolin to learn about substitutions and more. Happy making!
hey there marie !! so ive been your huge fan for a while now and im in love with all the work you do ! honestly, truly awesome .
so i wanted to make a recipe but i had just one question . well more like a confusion .
That is, sometime ago i refrigerated my block of beeswax, olive oil and coconut oil , shea and cocoa butter and i was just wondering if taking it out of the fridge is going to ruin/spoil it due to condensation or not and can i store it outside from now do i have to keep it refrigerated all the time ? and whatever the answer is , does the same apply to lanolin and lecithin ?
Marie I don’t have Soy Lecithin, I have Sunflower Lecithin. Am I able to substitute the Sunflower for the Soy?
Yes; please read the encyclopedia entry for more info!
Thank you! I did read on lecithin, but didn’t see anything specifically on sunflower, so I wanted to double check! I’m super excited to make this!
Hi! I would like to know if I can replace the liquid lecithin for powder lecithin and, in case not, do you know how to make liquid lecithin from the powder?
thanks!!
I’m afraid I don’t; I believe the processing process is fairly different so it’s not as if the powdered version is simply a dehydrated version of the liquid one. From my encyclopedia: “Make sure you get the liquid version; the granules are a slightly different composition and are much harder to work with. If it’s a choice of granules or nothing, go with nothing.”
Absolutely want to try this recipe. Love it and desperately need a lanolin lip product. I was hoping to use peach kernel or apricot kernel oil. What should I swap out for that? Thank you, you’re awesome!
Hi Alice! That would fall under the second last substitution suggestion 🙂 happy making!
Hi Marie! I absolutely love this recipe but a lot of people said soy lecithin is highly estrogenic :((( Do you agree with that? I tried sunflower lecithin but it just doesn’t work the same.
I don’t have any concerns about soy lecithin in the amounts I use in cosmetics 🙂
Hi Marie,
Can I put this in a lip gloss squeezy tube? Would love to make this soon for winter!
Kelly
I think it’s probably too thick, but why not make a batch and see what you think? 🙂
I made it and it works fine in the squeeze tube! It is a lil hard to squeeze out but not too bad
Thank you so much for trying it and letting me know 🙂
I’ve been using this for a few days and it’s perfect! I thought it would be more tacky because of the lanolin but it wasn’t which is a plus. My lips won’t be chapped for awhile woohoo
Hooray! I am so glad you’re enjoying it ❤️ Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
I just Loooooove this recepy! Made it a couple of weeks ago, but my friends stole it all. I’m making a new batch as we speak, 10 times as the recepy calls for, so more friends can enjoy it!
because of the smell of lanoline ans the lecithine i put in a drop of lavender and peppermint, delicious!
thanks so much,
Natasja
I am so thrilled you and your friends are loving it! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
Hello!
I’m trying to make this lip mask and it leaves a white cast on lips. I formulated it with “vegetal lanolin” (INCI: Polyglyceryl-3 ricinoleate (and) polyglyceryl-3 oleate (and) glyceryl rosinate (and) candelilla cera (and) phytosterols (and) tocopherol) and no lecithin. Even red mica didn’t work. Do you know what could causing this?
Thank you,
Natalia
I’d suspect the “vegetal lanolin” since that’s a pretty large swap and I didn’t experience anything similar.
How can I add color to it? Or what type of coloring can I use for this lip mask?
1% coloured mica would do the trick 🙂 Happy making!
Hi Marie!
If I were to swap out the lanolin for hydrogenated castor oil instead, would I still need to use castor oil or can that be swapped for a different oil?
I used sunflower lecithin and it separated from the batch. I know it was the lecithin because the color of the separated grainy material. Even though it has a grainy texture it immediately melts when put on skin. Does anyone have experience with this? Did I overheat the lecithin? Can I save it? I really love it!
Hello there! I actually had this same problem awhile back when I made Marie’s pumpkin shimmer lip gloss. The lecithin did NOT dissolve. I looked up ways to dissolve it, and one method involved letting it sit in the castor oil overnight and it would dissolve. That did not work. Nothing seemed to work…so I shelved my sunflower lecithin and haven’t touched it until last week, when I decided to use it again to try making this lip mask. And it worked! But something happened to my sunflower lecithin. It separated into 2 parts. A hard brown outer shell and a liquid in the middle. When I squeezed my bottle, the brown part broke and the oil/liquid stuff in the middle came out. It actually looked more like the soy lecithin that Marie uses at that point, instead of molasses. So while making this lip mask, I used the liquidy stuff that came out from the separation, and this mask turned out really well. It seems the only way to use sunflower lecithin is when it separates…I honestly don’t know how (unseparated) sunflower lecithin is supposed to mix with any oil….it just doesn’t dissolve. 😛
Hi Marie! I’ve been wanting to try this lip mask. Is it possible to use petroleum jelly instead of lanolin? Thank you so much!