This pretty, ruddy russet-toned lip tint glides on with a pop of mint and a hint of golden shimmer. Everything comes together quickly and easily, leaving you with a fistful of little gifts for friends and family in no time.
The colour comes from an infusion of powdered hibiscus flowers. “Hibiscus” is a large genus of flowers, and the one I’m using in particular is “Hibiscus sabdariffa“, also known as Roselle (I purchased mine from Saffire Blue). It’s a versatile plant—native to West Africa the green leaves are used in cooking, the fiber can be an alternative to jute in burlap, and many parts of the plant are used for a variety of homeopathic remedies.
The part of the plant we’re using is the flower, dried and powdered. Because the powder is water soluble, I opted for an infusion to avoid a final product full of gritty bits of hibiscus powder (yuck). The infusion is as easy as making a cup of tea—just pop the powder in a wee empty tea bag, tie it off, and pop it in the liquified oils to infuse. Don’t use a mesh tea strainer here—it won’t be fine enough to contain the powder.
When mixed with water, hibiscus is a pretty bright pink, but it isn’t here. As an oil infusion it’s a deeper, ruddy russet tone. Do keep in mind that there are variations in the colours of botanicals, though, so yours may be a bit different.
We add the beeswax after the infusion is complete since the beeswax will solidify the mixture. Once the beeswax has been melted in, all that’s left is the essential oil and mica, and we’re done. Easy peasy!
Royal Hibiscus Lip Tint
2 tsp powdered hibiscus
10g | 0.35oz virgin coconut oil
6g | 0.21oz cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
16g | 0.56oz sweet almond oil (USA / Canada)8g | 0.28oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
1 pinch | 1/32 tsp gold mica (I use these cute measuring spoons to measure tiny amounts like this)
20 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)Measure the hibiscus powder out into an empty disposable paper tea bag or disposable infusion bag. Tie it off and set it aside.
Weigh the coconut oil, cocoa butter (USA / Canada), and sweet almond oil (USA / Canada) out into a glass measuring cup. Place the measuring up in a pot of barely simmering water to melt the oils.
Place the bag of hibiscus powder in the measuring cup with the oils, ensuring the part with the hibiscus powder is in the oils. Let it infuse for a few hours. If you leave the house or go to sleep please turn off your stove and let the oils infuse at room temperature. I popped mine back on the heat in the morning for another 20 minutes or so.
Once you have a nice, deep colour, remove the bag of hibiscus powder root, pressing it firmly with a spoon or spatula to remove as much oil as possible. Discard the hibiscus baggie (makes great compost!).
Remove the oil mixture from the heat and add the beeswax. Melt everything together.
Once the wax has melted into the oils, remove from the heat and stir in the gold mica and essential oil. Decant into lip balm tubes—this recipe should fill about 9.
Let set up before labelling (I use these cute labels!) and capping. Enjoy!
If you have dried hibiscus petals instead of the powder, that will work as well—you’ll just want to use 3 tsp of the petals as they’re not as space efficient as the powder.
I was wondering if acai powder would work too. I put it in my morning smoothie but I thought it would be nice as a colorant too. Have you ever tried it?
I haven’t tried it, but you should definitely give it a go 🙂
Can the hibiscus be tasted in the finished product?
Hi Marie,
how long do I need to soak the hibiscus teabag. I know there is no definite answer, but do you have an approximate time?
A few hours… so… 4–12? 😛
I haven’t noticed it, but that could be because the cocoa and coconut win 🙂
This looks really lovely. I have been following your blog for a long time and love it, thanks so much for all these delicious recipes!
Thanks, Wendy! Enjoy 🙂
Hi Marie!
You are truly an inspiration to me. I have been making soap for three years now, but you have pushed me to a new level. I love your posts and recipes. I never worked with mica powders, clays, or colors before. I have wanted to, but I have just kept the soap “pure”. Forget it!! Your work is art… I am a designer too, and admire your work so much! You are a great teacher and artist. Thank you for your posts, and the research you put into your work. I look forward to reading your blog. I am grateful that I found you. Cheers!!! 🙂 michele
Thanks so much, Michele 🙂 Your super sweet comment has put a great big smile on my face!
Do you have a swatch of the lip tint? Would love to see what it looks like!
I’m sorry, I don’t! I gave them all away before getting a photo. It is quite pale, though.
Hi sweety! how are you?…I hope you are well…very nice recipe…(as always!) and…hmmmm! but… i want to ask you something (again!) may become troublesome with my constant questions….but…I have questions what do the poor? 😆 😆 …..I’m wondering if we can use this as a lip tint blush also…However, the recipe is very good anyway! many greetings from the summer Athens-Greece ! 🙂
Hi Athanasia! I’m doing well 🙂 I find this tint is very gentle, so I don’t think it would make a very good cheek tint as I don’t think you’d be able to see it.
I want to tell you that the avatars you see at the side of my nic is because I sent my comment with the url of a blog that I have in Greek okay ; I say avoid misunderstandings 😆 I am known Athanasia thanks … 🙂
🙂
I have the petals and have tried twice however, the color is not coming out in the oils any tips
Are they fresh or dried?
Dried Petals
Hmm. Can you try crushing them or grinding them up for added surface area? You can also try using more petals, and increasing your steep time. Are your petals quite vibrant in colour? You can see how deeply coloured my powder is—do your petals look like that?
Same here, I try to leave it over night, but color did not come out at all. I used power one from Mystery Moments….
Hmm :/ I’m afraid I really have no idea why this would be 🙁 Have you tried alkanet root? I’ve found it to be a wonderful herb for infusing oils with colours.
These are just lovely! I think I’ll make them now and put away for Christmas gifts. Thanks so much Marie.
Awesome! Thanks so much for DIYing with me, and happy early Christmas 🙂
Hi Marie,
How do you infuse the hibiscus in oil? I’ve tried to use the heat
method in different carrier oils and didn’t get a shred of color in
the oil..I even left it in oil for two weeks and not even a drop of color
came out. I also used whole dried flowers – same results. Did you
ever come across this? Thanks so much!
Sarah
Hmm, that’s really strange! I didn’t get as good of an infusion as I did with alkanet root, but it still infused. I think it might be your hibiscus, but for the life of me I can’t imagine why if you’re following the instructions outlined here, and it sounds like you are. Weird!
Not sure if this could be the reason for the lack of colour, I found the hibiscus flower tea I buy in China, the petals are very dry and brittle. They give a very weak tea colour and don’t infuse in oil very well. However; the hibiscus flowers I bought in Mexico are bendy and not brittle, they colour up oil sitting on the ledge in about four hours.
As I said, not sure if this could be the reason for the lack of colour.
I’d say that’s definitely it—and also the problem with counting on natural sources for colour. It can vary so much from plant to plant, season to season, and with freshness and source! I’m glad you found something that works for you 😀
Be honest hibiscus doesn’t give color
I’m not sure what to tell you; the photos show it does, and the mixture was strained quite finely so there is no particulate matter.
Hihi I bought your book online! It’s amazing! Contains tons of useful recipes! Love it so much!
I am wondering can the Lipstick Colour Blend can be used in the Lip Gloss?
Thanks!
It can, just make sure you adjust the total amount of pigment so it is appropriate for the lip gloss recipe 🙂
With regards to the Royal Hibiscus Lip Tint recipe would it be OK to substitute hibiscus tea in place of the hibiscus powder? I have a whole canister of hibiscus tea and it does produce a pretty deep color that I need to use for something because I do not care for the taste of it.
As long as it’s pure, plain hibiscus that should work 🙂
Can you make any of your lip balms without beeswax? Some people are allergic to beeswax. Is there another product that can be substituted?
I’ve heard promising things about soy wax; you can also check out my experiments with other waxes here 🙂