I thought I’d mark Valentine’s Day with this popping pink lip gloss. It gets its bright colour from carmine (just like my lip stain), and though it’s almost shockingly pink in the tube, it goes on with just a slight pinkish tint and a bit of shine. A wee hint of peppermint adds a tingly pop as well.
As with most lip glosses, this one is almost entirely oil. I chose castor oil (USA / Canada) for its shine, and the rest for their great moisturizing properties. You’ll notice this recipe has far less beeswax than a lip balm recipe, which makes sense when you remember that lip gloss isn’t a solid (not if you’re applying it with a wand, at least).
I’ve also included some vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada) for two reasons—because carmine is water soluble (giving it something to dissolve in so you don’t end up with gritty bits of pink in your lip gloss), and for extra shine. This way I’m able to dissolve the carmine into the vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada), which is an emulsifier, and then emulsify the glycerin/carmine mixture into the oils. The glycerin also lends some extra shine and softness to the final product.
I chose to add a bit of peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada) to my lip gloss, but this is totally up to you. Feel free to use something different, or use nothing at all.
The final lip gloss is nicely moisturizing, smooth, and just pink enough for a bit of colour. It’s also not sticky or sickly sweet and fake tasting like so many lip glosses from the store. Score!
Snow White Lip Gloss
3g | 0.1oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
6g | 0.21oz virgin coconut oil
16g | 0.56oz castor oil (USA / Canada)
10g | 0.35oz jojoba oil (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.03oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)4g | 0.14oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
1/16 tsp carmine (I use these tiny measuring spoons for tiny measurements like this)8 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada) (optional)
Measure the beeswax and oils out into a small dish or measuring cup and melt over boiling water. Remove from the heat and let cool.
As the oils are melting, measure out the vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada) and carmine into another small dish and stir together until there are no clumps of carmine.
Once the oils have cooled to room temperature, add the carmine mixture and whisk everything together until emulsified (this should happen quickly and easily).
Decant into squeezy tubes or hard tubes with a wand lid (a syringe or funnel helps greatly here).
This recipe will fill four 10mL tubes or jars.
Your lip gloss is very pretty. Where does a person find the container?
Thanks, Mary 🙂 I got this lip gloss container from a local shop called Soap & More. I haven’t had any luck finding another Canadian source, sadly.
I found another one that ships worldwide if you’re interested and it’s pretty similar to yours except it is the silver part is more shiny rather than matte. Here’s the link:
https://www.elementsbathandbody.com/1-3-oz-Lip-Gloss-Bottle-w-Silver-Wand-pr-1182.html
Awesome, thanks!
Have you tried Voyageur Soap & Candle Co? https://www.voyageursoapandcandle.com/
They have really great containers for everything!
I haven’t, but I’ve heard good things. I know they’re local-ish, so I likely will at some point 🙂
wow ! thats very helpful !! thanks
Dear,I will definitely become a patron,and will donate amount if I sell something.
Love ur recipe.
God bless u dear
That color pink is too cute. I love peppermint oil in my lip products too !
Thanks, Jen! Let me know if you decide to give this recipe a go 🙂
I had saved your cranberry lipstick recipe for making when I could get the liquid carmine, but now knowing that the powdered carmine can be used with glycerine to dissolve it, I may try that in the other recipe. Any tips on tweaking amounts of other ingredients to accommodate?
Thanks, love your blog. I just did the whole eggshell boiling/drying/grinding to powder for your clogged pore cleaner. I intend to try it tomorrow.
Thanks,
Desba
Hi Debsa! Because this method requires an emulsion, the final result ends up being far too soft to put in a tube (you have to wait until the mixture is at room temperature to make the emulsion, so the mixture cannot be solid at room temp or you can’t stir it). So, basically, this is the tweaked recipe—I have not been able to create an emulsified lip balm/gloss that can be dispensed from a push lip balm tube. You could just swap the essential oils, but it’s not really going to be the same thing. I’ll let you know if I find a workaround, though. Thanks so much for reading, and enjoy the silver powder—I love it!
Where do you buy carmine? I can’t find it anywhere!!
I got mine from Saffire Blue 🙂
Isn’t carmine from ground beetles?
Yup, it’s ground up bugs. It’s a very classic/standard “natural” colourant and is supposedly squirreled away in a lot of food under the “natural colourings” ingredient label. I much prefer it to something derived from petroleum products, and it is far stronger than red/pink botanical extracts (I’ve tried many—rosehip, beetroot, hyacinth, etc.). If it makes you squeamish, I’d recommend checking out my rosehip lip gloss, though it is far weaker in the colour department. Thanks for reading!
Dear Marie,
What a wonderful site you have here!!! I love to make homemade cosmetics! I have three daughters and we are going to have fun making some of your recipes for make up.
Will let you know how it goes.
Best regards,
Shelly
P.S. I am also stubbornly DIY and it’s fun! 🙂
Hi Shelley! I’m so glad you’ve found my wee corner of the web 🙂 Enjoy all your awesome mother-daughter DIY days, that sounds like tons of fun! I love to have days like that with my girlfriends. I can’t wait to hear what you try and how it turns out. Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
Hi Marie, I made the Snow White lip gloss from the recipe in your book. It suggests liquid germall which I used but then after I made it, I found some web sites that say that it should not be used on the lips and other suppliers that do not comment. I noticed that the recipe in this blog does not suggest using Germall Plus. Have you changed you thinking on using it? Do you think it is safe for the lips? I was planning to give the gloss as a gift.
Hey Mary,
Thanks for the comment! Further on down in the comments on this post, Marie states,
“I’ve gone back and forth on this, but at this point, I think it is fine without a preservative; I’ve had versions of this lip gloss for upwards of 3 years with no sign of any kind of spoilage. I included a preservative in Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care out of an abundance of caution, but after watching product samples for a loooooong time I think it is ok without Happy making!”
Hope this helps!
Barb
Hi Marie, I know this might sound silly, but what is a nip? Sorry I am a Yankee from the USA
Hugs from Suzy W.
Hi Suzy! A nip is actually an Imperial measurement, generally indicating 1/64th of a teaspoon. I got a great little set of measuring spoons that measure out nips, pinches, dashes, and smidgens off Amazon, and it’s what I use to measure those teensy measurements. Thanks for reading!
Hello, another Yankee here. I was looking on Amazon and could only find one measuring set that mentioned anything about imperial measurement but then in the description it uses cups and teaspoons. Do you happen to remember what company through Amazon you were able to purchase it?
After finding your site I have had a renewed interest in homemade products. I love your recipes and am excited to give them a try (just want to make sure that I get the measuring correct). I have 3 daughters and would love to get them interested as well since it is so much healthier for them than store products. Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes!
I think these are the ones I got, but on Amazon.com not .ca.
Enjoy all your homemade products 🙂 It sounds like you’ll have some great activities to do with your daughters!
Ok, thanks Marie. I love trying all different DIY projects, but hate having to toss stuff when it doesn’t work out. Like this mascara thing I tried. I still have it, thinking I may find a way to salvage it. Not likely.
Anyway, yes the silver powder is great. It worked! LOL
I’m still a beginner at the makeup and a bit nervous about getting things right.
I avidly read and save your posts, to try at some point.
Tossing out the failures does stink, but at least they are learning experiences. I’ve learned to work in very small amounts so I never have to throw out too much at once, and that’s helped. You could try and apply the mascara as a face mask, or a spot treatment, since it’s basically just clay and water.
I’m glad to hear the silver powder worked for you! I am so in love with it (and my new, clean pores) these days.
Thanks so much for reading & getting your hands dirty with me 🙂
Unfortunately my mascara attempt wasn’t your recipe, which I am going to try as soon as I get some Australian black clay, it sounds amazing. My mess is an activated charcoal/beeswax/aloe disaster, lol.
Anyway, so it’s the temperature issue, if I understand correctly. Is it not possible to mix the carmine & glycerine first, and add it to the rest of the recipe before it cools to room temp.? Would it not mix in well, is that the issue?
I want to get down the understanding as best I can before making my first try.
Yes, it’s a temperature/consistency/solubility issue. Glycerin is water soluble and has to be emulsified into oils, otherwise you will end up with weird little solid beads of glycerin in your lip balm (which I have definitely done before—not pleasant). If you add the glycerin to the mixture before it is cooled to room temperature you will end up with gritty beads, and if you add it to a lip balm at room temperature, the lip balm will be solid, and you won’t be able to incorporate the glycerin and achieve an emulsion. It’s not that it won’t mix well, it won’t mix at all—it’ll be like you added a teaspoon of sand to the lip balm, or you’ll just have a blob of glycerin sitting on top of a pan of solid lip balm. So, you have to tweak the recipe to something like this, that isn’t solid at room temperature, so you can emulsify the two parts (additionally, because the glycerin is quite soft, it further softens the balm, so it really cannot be used in push tubes).
Ah. Got it. Thank you, Marie, for taking the time to explain so clearly!
No worries 🙂 Let me know how your carmine adventures go!
I was thinking of mixing the carmine with a tiny bit of glycerin, then adding it to a lipstick recipe where I would add a little bit of emulsifying wax. Do you think that would work? Your carmine lipstain recipes convinced me to order some. I’m hoping to receive it soon!
The glycerin will emulsify with the oils on its own with some room-temperature whipping (that’s why this recipe doesn’t have an emulsifying wax in it). Just watch for the balancing point of enough wax to be a lipstick, but not so much that the whole thing solidifies before you can beat in the glycerin solution 🙂
Hi!
So I made some gloss using this recipe the other day, just used a different color 🙂
I am fairly happy with how it turned out. The only thing I wish is that it wasn’t quite so….(trying to think of the right word) maybe thin? Its almost like it wants to run off my lips. I don’t know if that makes any sense lol.
Do you think using a little bit more beeswax would help?
Thanks for all you share!
Awesome! And yes, you can definitely thicken it up by adding a bit more beeswax—just be sure to start with small additions, as it’s quite a strong thickener 🙂 Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
Hi Marie, do you think it would be possible to use the premixed liquid Carmine colorant from saffireblue instead of the powdered carmine, or would adjustments need to be made? Thanks!
Hi Jan! I finally got around to trying this so I could give you an answer. You can use the straight dye as a sort of lip tint/stain, but it’s not quite the same. The colour is darker, and since it’s oil based, it doesn’t sink into the lips and go matte the same way as the original does. It’s still quite lovely, though, and if you only want to invest in one type of carmine, it totally works!
Hi Marie! 🙂 I’ve been wanting to make my own cosmetics for a while now, but I think seeing your projects and recipes is the final push to get me started. 🙂 Anywho, would I be able to make this with red oxide instead of carmine? Thanks for all the tutorials!
Hi Anastasia—sorry, but definitely not 🙁 You seriously cannot use anything other than carmine—I’ve tried everything.
And do you think the liquid carmine can be used?
Hi Jan! I finally got around to trying this so I could give you an answer. You can use the straight dye as a sort of lip tint/stain, but it’s not quite the same. The colour is darker, and since it’s oil based, it doesn’t sink into the lips and go matte the same way as the original does. It’s still quite lovely, though, and if you only want to invest in one type of carmine, it totally works!
Thanks Marie! I did invest in the Carmine – I’m sure it’ll last forever so keep on formulating your genius concoctions including Carmine 🙂
It worked perfectly, and yes, it’s “fun” to fill those lip tubes but what a great alternative to the conventional balms!
I’m glad to hear it 🙂 Carmine is just such an amazing colourant, I can see why it’s been used for so long!
I want to make one my own but I would really like to know how long will the shelf life be?
Because I don’t want ever get to know when my balms go bad :/ (on that note when does a balm you make go bad?)
Hi Sidhikka! Just like with food, you should be able to tell when your products go bad. Look for signs like colour change, smell change, texture change, and mould. Oil based products will last longer than anything with water. I cover this topic more in the FAQ.
This specific lip gloss has lasted over 6 months for me so far, but I do live in Canada, where it’s relatively cool most of the time.
Where can I get the lip balm tube with wands?
I bought these ones locally at a shop called Soap & More.
can i use sweet almond oil instead of castor oil?
You can, but the gloss will be significantly less shiny as castor oil is a really thick, shiny oil.
Can I omit the carmine powder? If so, will I omit glycerin as well?
You could, but why would you? The entire point of this lip gloss is the pretty pink colour that it gets from the carmine. I’d recommend a different recipe if you want to drop the carmine.
Good morning Marie,
I recently was given carmine. Mine are grainy and I have to crush them and boil them to get the color out of them. I have not a clue what I’m doing or how much to use or what sort of pot to use to cook them. I told a friend I want to experiment with the colorant in soap, so he got me some, but they still need to be processed. Any idea if this can be used in this recipe? If it can be done, do you know how to do it? OR – where I can go to find out? I did find ONE place to tell me how to use it in soap (all others were for dying wool or fabric), but my soap turned brown, so I obviously missed something.
Hi Mary! How interesting! I have never heard of getting lumpy/chunky carmine. Can you try blending it in a coffee grinder, sifting, and then dissolving it in water? You may also find that simmering the carmine is enough to make a great lip stain base, and all you have to do is add some glycerine to round it out.
Excellent ideas, thank you. The directions for getting the color said it changes with the different types of cooking pot (aluminum, stainless steel, glass, etc). It was a bit pricy for me, so I hate to do to much experimentation, but wonder if it would give up it’s color infused in oils? (they’re a dead gray as they come)
Hmmm, how interesting! I know the powder I have is only water soluble, so I’d be a bit scared of wasting them by infusing them in oil :/
Hi Marie,
I was wondering on this recipe if after emulsifying the glycerin with the oils at room temperature, if the lip gloss could be re-heated in order to make it easy to pour into squeeze tubes without affecting the formula and causing the grainy chunks as you mentioned if incorporating the glycerin in the initial heat phase? Thanks so much!
Hi again Marie,
I also ordered carmine from Saffire Blue but alas, they were out of the powdered kind so I got the liquid. In the last two days I have tried this recipe as well as the Cranberry lip balm. I have never used lip gloss so all the shiny takes getting used to. And that’s with a reduced amount of castor oil! LOL But I know some family members will like it in their Christmas stocking. 😉
Just so I don’t spam your blog and because your Captcha hates me, I’ll add my comment about the Cranberry lip balm here- I wish my liquid carmine came with a tip like yours. It would make dispensing loads easier. My bottle had a flat top (like the kind that comes with the dram vials) that was a bit too small for the bottle’s mouth so when I squeezed the bottle even slightly the top started to pop out.
Other than that little issue the lip balm turned out great! I live in the desert so I modified your recipe slightly… using 6g of Candelilla Wax and 12g Cupuacu Butter instead of Coconut Oil. I now see why you said Cupuacu Butter smells like chocolate and cheese. The first time I bought unrefined Cupuacu Butter was from a US company and it had no chocolate smell whatsoever. The second time I bought it was from NDA. Theirs is the refined version so no chocolate smell either. So when I smelled Saffire Blue’s I wondered if they had sent me the wrong butter. Then I remembered you mentioning chocolate and cheese. Thanks for the indirect reassurance that I have the correct butter! 😛
Hi Ev! Good call getting the liquid stuff, it’s definitely a great alternative (and a fraction of the price—my powdered carmine definitely was not $50!). The package yours came in sounds super annoying, though :/ Mine needs quite a bit of squeezing to come out of the dropper, but at least the dropper stays in the bottle, so I can imagine how irksome that must be.
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the cranberry lip balm! It’s definitely a favourite of mine 🙂 And yes… cupuacu butter does smell really weird haha. Did yours come in tiny bead form? If it hasn’t been melted & re-melted the butter itself looks like a bunch of little beads (or perhaps cooked couscous) all glomped together.
Maybe because I ordered when it was still pretty hot where I live, so the cupuacu butter looked more like a soft butter. I could just about make out the about-to-melt shape of the tiny beads. The softness of the product, plus the chocolate smell and the light yellowish green tinge, are so different from my first two purchases- they had more of a funky cheese smell, white-ish colour, and firm. If not for the telltale beads and your chocolate & cheese remark I would’ve emailed Saffire Blue. lol
Have you had a chance to try the refined version from NDA yet? If so, what do you think? I notice they are no longer offering their butters in a sample 3.5 oz size. Good thing I thought to include Tucuma and Ucuuba butters with my order last winter. With the minimum being 1.1 or 2.2 pounds it turns a hobbyist like myself off of trying out interesting sounding stuff. After all who wants to be stuck with a boatload of pricey ingredients? 🙁 Bad move on NDA’s part…
I do have the refined one from NDA—just a wee sample, since I bought a big tub of the unrefined stuff when they still sold it. The refined stuff is everything you’d like cupuacu butter to be, minus the weird smell. As much as I prefer unrefined butters wherever possible, I can’t say I’m heartbroken over the loss of my chocolate cheese, haha 😛
It seems like NDA is trying to drive away their hobbyist business between the large sizes and their minimum order size penalty 🙁 What a shame, not all of us want to quit our day jobs for this! I’ve found Saffire Blue to be great for smaller sizes, but if you’re in the USA you should take a look at my “Where to Buy Ingredients” page—it has a huge list of places to buy ingredients around the world, with loads in the States.
Thanks for the resource link, Marie. You have some of my faves on there. Love Brambleberry and Mountain Rose Herbs! 🙂
That NDA order I placed was my first after a long hiatus…over 3 years. I don’t know if it’s their shift in customer base or what, but it was kind of a disappointing experience. Their customer service department was dismissive when I brought up my concerns. Guess I’m just a small fry in their grand scheme of things. Shame, as I used to like that they are a one-stop-shop. Ah well.
Yeah… I’ve noticed they’re bragging about supplying companies like LUSH and large hotels on their homepage, so I think we’re both pretty small potatoes. I may re-consider my rather overwhelming support of them.
Hi Marie,
I have a question about cochineal. The one I have is tiny little grayish grains. Any ideas how I can prepare it for use in gloss or lip balm?
Hmm. The first thing I’d try is grinding them up in a coffee grinder and then perhaps infusing them in some vegetable glycerin or high proof alcohol. Carmine is not oil soluble, which is why I use a liquid version of it that’s been prepared to be oil dispersable (from Saffire Blue) instead of the powdered stuff for lip balm. You could try infusing the resulting powder in a small amount of oil and see if that works for oil only applications.
Do you have any lip glosses without coconut oil?! I am allergic. It’s OK if you don’t
With how common coconut oil is in DIY recipes you’d probably find it easier to buy some babassu oil—it’s a fantastic alternative for coconut oil!
Well….. finally made this after many friends comments about how they thought that the “pumpkin shimmer” http://www.humblebeeandme.com/pumpkin-shimmer-lip-gloss/ reaked and turned their noses up at it. I love the scent of sea buckthorn but since I was hoping to give it away as stocking stuffers for the girls at work, kind of have to make sure it would be something they’d wear.
Anyways, made a double batch of this, 1/4 with just the carmine, 1/4 with a burgundy+blue oxide, 1/4 with carmine+silver mica and 1/4 with various amounts of brown for nude colourings. They all turned out lovely!
Huh, weird! I love the nutty smell of sea buckthorn, and I bet it was great with the pumpkin spice EOs, too. People 😛 I’m glad you’re loving this one, though! 🙂
I made thirty-two tubes of gloss the other day, seven different shades. I hope to goodness that i don’t need to make more for Christmas! I use a 100mL beaker to pour my glosses and lip chaps but with the temps here now on the chilly side, I spend more time reheating that ruddy beaker!
Hi Marie! I just tried this recipe and my beeswax partially solidified in the mixture once it was off the heat. (It was a cold day!) Can I leave it out? I don’t really want white lumps in the final product.
Hmm. You really don’t want to leave it out or you are just going to have a drooly pigmented mixture that will run off your lips and bleed a lot (I experimented with wax-free formulations for the book, and unfortunately this recipe minus wax is a recipe for drooling and bleeding). Were you stirring the mixture consistently as it cooled? That’s pretty important. There definitely shouldn’t be any white lumps, but if you let it sit to cool without stirring I can see how you might’ve got a harder waxy layer on top rather than an even blend.
I’ll try more stirring. I also used fractionated coconut oil instead of normal – that may have disrupted things too.
Hmm, yes, that would’ve impacted things (an overall lower melting point), but I don’t think that was the reason you ended up with chunks. Good luck!
Hi Marie,
Would this formula need a preservative? I understand that its not listed in the formula here. But a similar formula in ‘Make it up’ calls for preservative. I am trying to compare notes.
Its a wax + oil + glycerine formula too. Does adding glycerine call for adding preservative?
Thank you
I’ve gone back and forth on this, but at this point, I think it is fine without a preservative; I’ve had versions of this lip gloss for upwards of 3 years with no sign of any kind of spoilage. I included a preservative in Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care out of an abundance of caution, but after watching product samples for a loooooong time I think it is ok without 🙂 Happy making!
Marie, somewhere on your site you mention which D&C is the closest match to carmine but for the life of me I can’t find it. Can you refresh my memory?
I’d say D&C 7 is the closest—I think you’re thinking of my book for that mention 🙂