‘Tis the season for horrible lizard lips, and this lip balm is my lizard lip savior. This super simple, wonderfully effective Sticky Coconut Lip Balm came about thanks to Susan, who commented on my Quick Guide to Coconut Oil & Beeswax Ratios back in 2014 to tell me that she uses a blend of equal parts coconut oil and beeswax for a sticky lip balm that was brilliant for long, dry winters.
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I started using the 1:1 blend from my experiments as a lip balm, and I’ve frequently found myself mixing up a single tube of the stuff to have on hand when it’s fiercely dry out. I knew it was worth sharing with you guys when I found myself hunting through the pockets of all my jackets and hoodies looking for that one tube as it was the only thing that would do the trick on particularly dry days. It’s definitely a bit tacky, so I find I’ll apply it liberally at night before turning in, letting it work its lip softening magic while I’m asleep and won’t be bothered by the tackiness of it.
Want to buy this lip balm instead of make it?
If you’re familiar with using beeswax to thicken oils, you’ll know a 1:1 blend is usually worthless. Far too hard, far too sticky, and generally unenjoyable. Coconut oil is a weird one, though. It’s thin and oily as soon as it touches the skin, making it a poor moisturizer on its own in very dry climates, but when blended with equal amounts of beeswax, it ends up being an awesome pairing. Add a wee bit of healing Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) and some fresh peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada) and that’s it. There’s just enough slip to apply it, and then you’ve got this fantastic sticks-around-for-hours lip balm on that seals in moisture and helps your lips soften up and stop feeling like lizard skin (ugh).
And, best of all, it’s so easy to make that it’s barely a recipe. Four simple ingredients (two of which are optional, honestly) come together in a flash to make a fistful of Sticky Coconut Lip Balm that you and your reptilian winter lips will love. Bam!
Sticky Coconut Lip Balm
11g | 0.38oz virgin coconut oil
11g | 0.38oz golden, honey-scented beeswax
10 drops Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) (optional—helps boost healing and extend the shelf life of the lip balm)10–15 drops peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada) (optional/replaceable)
Weight the coconut oil, beeswax, and Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada) into a heat resistant glass measuring cup and place the measuring cup in a small saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat through until everything melts.
Remove the measuring cup from the heat and stir everything to combine with a flexible silicone spatula. Add the peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada), stir again, and pour the lip balm into lip balm tubes (I find this one is so sticky that I really don’t enjoy applying it with my finger from a tin). This recipe will fill 5 tubes pretty much perfectly. For labelling, I love these funky kraft labels. Enjoy!
If you decide to use a different essential oil be sure to choose one that’s not orally toxic (tea tree and wintergreen, for example) and one that’s not photosensitizing (the citrus essential oils). Spearmint, cocoa, and coffee would all be great!
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I make this exact recipe! It’s not what I reach for when I just want a “normal” balm, but when I’ve got crazy sandpaper lips that I could probably use to finish a woodworking project, nothing beats this recipe! Highly recommend it!!
Thanks, Abby!
Where does one get the tubes to put it in?
I’ve got a giant list of places to shop here 🙂
Can I use lavender essential oil for this recipe?
Yup—just give this a read 🙂
love love love all your recipes!
Your directions are easy to follow and always have a personal touch.
I also love your labeling, would you tell us what you use for your brown sticky labels? They are so functional and inviting 🙂
Thanks,
Katie
Thanks, Katie! I’ve got an FAQ on my labels here 🙂
I just made this and put some in a tin. I have been ripping dead skin off my lips for weeks-gross, I know-and I’m excited to try this. I “know” I need to also drink more water…maybe I’ll park my water bottle on top of the tin, it will remind me to hydrate every time I put more on!
Enjoy! My lips have been so much happier with tubes of this standing on guard 🙂
Hi Marie, this sounds great!! My vitamin e is thick and comes out in blobs not drops. I typically use 3 grams for a 10 tube recipe. So this recipe would use 1.5 grams. Would that be about the right amount?
Hey Frann! That would probably be a bit more than I used—I think 10 drops is closer to 1 gram with the stuff I have and my drop size 🙂
Will try this…..btw..?what font is used for coconut?
Meddon 🙂
Would it work to use tallow instead of beeswax? Same proportion? Thank you!
No, they’re completely different. One’s a fairly hard wax with a relatively high melting point, and the other is a soft fat with quite a low melting point.
This is not only perfect for “winter lips”, it will be awesome for the next cold virus my family catches.
DIY solve all the problems!
I use a similar recipe but with candelilla wax in the ratio of 1:5. Its crazily hot and humid here in Bombay all through the year. But I find this to work super well in this weather too. Great work Marie and I look forward to read your posts every week. You have inspired me to DIY! Thank you.
Thanks, Atiya! 🙂
I’m so grateful that you shared this recipe! I don’t know what’s worse than lizard lips but that’s where I am at..is it Spring yet!? I whipped up a couple times this morning and my impatient self tried it as soon as it began to set, it was still warm! I can already tell it’s gonna be great for my super chapped lips. I made mine “naked” and really like the subtle coconut scent/flavor. This is gonna be a keeper for sure 🙂
I’m so glad you’re loving ’em! I have these specific lip balms in my purse, my bed side table, and my desk, and then just generally following me around. Common’ spring humidity!
I once made a lip balm with tea tree essential oil for a gift – I didn’t know it’s orally toxic. Is it that bad? 🙁
Yes, it doesn’t stop being toxic because you didn’t know it was toxic. I’d recommend getting in touch with whoever you gave them to and advising them to throw them out.
I can’t believe I found you on this itchy sleepless night. OMG thank you so much
Enjoy the relief from the infuriating itch!
Thank you for your informative website. I am a rookie beekeeper and want to make lip balm. Noticed your review disappointed in NDA tubes. Saffire Blue, a short drive,has a fair number of negstive customer service posts. We have an organic CSA and quality is important. Have you come across a satisfactory source for lip balm tubes? Thank you in advance.
Hey Bev! I don’t remember ever being unhappy with the lip balm tubes from NDA (I still use them) and I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Saffire Blue (I’ve also used lip balm tubes from there and they’re also great). Hope that helps!
Hello , i stay in India and here the climate is generally hot and humid , so my question is , should i be using equal ratio of beeswax and coconut oil (since its in liquid state here at room temp) ? Kindly guide
Thank you
Try it and find out! I suspect it will be fine—I’ve taken this to Australia and it was ok 🙂
Its me again!!! Just wanted to let you know last night I made my fist batch of this incredible balm for my horrible lips burns from cheap lip glosses…. YAY ME!!! I LUV ALL THINGS HONEY AND THE BEESWAX IS NO EXCEPTION!!! OMG it is so devine right in the bag!! I used the 1:1 ratio this time and IM looking forward to more experimentation on the ratios with the beeswax and the various oils. Thank you thank you thank you for being such a blessing
.
Woohoo! I think we are both just as excited about this lip balm; I have soooo many lip balms on the go (not surprisingly LOL) and this is the one I am going for ALL the time now. I get a wee panic when I can’t find it haha! Thanks for DIYing with me 😀
I can’t the honey-scented bees wax. did you get that at new directions? if so, they don’t have it anymore
roberta
Hey Roberta! “Honey-scented beeswax” isn’t ever going to be labelled as such, that’s just my way to let you know that you should be trying to source good stuff from an apiary that will still smell like honey, like all good, unbleached beeswax will (sort of like coconut-scented coconut oil or chocolate-scented cocoa better ;)). On New Directions this would be the stuff, but that’s obviously an absurd amount of beeswax for one person! I’d recommend checking local farmers markets for beekeepers and buying from them (that’s what I do). The bleached stuff will work if that’s all you can get, but that’s sort of like using wonder bread when a recipe calls for a lovely seeded hand-baked loaf 🙂
Roberta, if you buy organic beeswax it still has that sweet honey smell. I bought mine at Mountain Rose Herbs.
thank you so much. . .that’s what i thought.
Hi,
I have a query. I made a lip balm sing Bees Wax and Coconut oil as the base. I referred to your Wax to Oil ratio guide. It turned out Good. But i added the honey as well to get the honey flavor. But once my lip balm cooled. The honey is set on the bottom and the rest of the lip balm over it. Can you help me with where I went wrong?
Regards,
Divya
Hey! That’s a pretty basic solubility issue—read this for a basic understanding/explanation 🙂
I loooove this recipe and made some for my family. They love it as well! I have a couple more ididnt use and when I went to open one there were small bubbles formed at the top? Any idea why. Im baffled! Is it going bad?
You should get at least a year or two of shelf life out of this recipe without spoilage, and in any case, that would just be smell, not appearance (check the FAQ for more articles on how different types of projects spoil). I’m guessing you just worked up a bit of froth as you poured them, and they set with bubbles in them 🙂
Marie,
I made a few of your recipe yesterday including this sticky lip balm. They all turned great but this one didn’t want to get solid. It was totally liquid so i put it in the fridge and it did finally solidified. But this morning, it’s more on the liquid side. House temp is around 20. Is it normal? With 50% beewax, it should stay pretty hard.
I might have managed to put the wrong oil, it actually smells cocoa . But even with cocoa it should stay even harder? Maybe i did olive oil and cocoa ahah I’m confused…How to screw up a 2 ingredients recipe guys…trying to do 5 different lip balm and 5 body butter at the same time!
Thanks
Hey Sarah! It sounds like you definitely did not use beeswax in this recipe if it’s liquid, and if it smells like cocoa, chances are you didn’t use coconut oil, either. So… I’d guess you did manage to mess up a 2 ingredient recipe haha. Hopefully you didn’t make much!
When you say “sticky” and “tacky” does that mean when you close and open your mouth it almost feels like honey between your lips?
No… it’s not a sugary stickiness, it’s a waxy stickiness, which is really hard to describe. A big part of the difference is that the waxy stickiness doesn’t spread and drool around like honey does, but beyond that I can’t really describe the difference very well.
Hi Marie,
So I made this a while ago, and it set great and leaves a nice tingly feeling from the peppermint, i also added cinnamon but it doesn’t have a very good spread. As in, it drags on the lips rather than spreads on easily. Did I do something wrong or is this what its meant to feel like?
Hey! I named it “sticky coconut lip balm” because it is sticky—that’s the point 🙂 That’s why it works so well in super dry weather!
I love it! This is going to be my new favorite lip balm! Thank you for a great recipe!
Woohoo! Enjoy and happy making 🙂
I wonder how this would turn out with some cera bellina??
Hmm… let me know if you try it 😉
So the first time I made it, I didn’t care for how sticky it was but I liked the moisturizing effects, it just needed to be a skoosh more glidy. I still wanted it very firm and rich, though. So I tried making 9g beeswax, 9g coconut oil, and 5g cocoa butter. After all, cocoa butter neat makes a good hard body bar that you can also use on your lips. And Eureka! It worked! It’s a three ingredient lip balm that I love! (Four if you count the essential oil, lol)
Very cool! I love how you worked through the problem and fixed it and made it your own 😀 Awesomesauce!
Just made my first lip balm ever about a week ago and I’m thrilled with the results!
I was worried about finding this original recipe a little too hard and sticky, so I went with Perstephanie’s suggestion of adding cocoa butter to the mix (9g beeswax, 9g coconut oil and 5g cocoa butter – as suggested) and it came out beauuuutifully. As a bonus, the cocoa butter adds JUST a hint of sweet cocoa scent. I didn’t add any oils or fragrance because I want a no-scent-added product.
One thing I did notice is that the mixture wanted to harden up in my glass mixing dish really quickly! I actually had to reheat it a couple times in order to be able to pour it out.
Luckily, it’s a small enough batch (about 6-7 tubes) that I could handle it, yet that amount of lip balm will last me plenty of time! 🙂
Thank you both, ladies!
Beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing and enjoy that lip balm 😀
Hi 🙂
may I know how long will it last if I don’t use vitamin E?
I’d like to give to some people,, coz its really good and moisturize my lizard lips so well. thank you for this simple magnificent recipe. love it so much!
Probably a year, but it’s hard to say for sure as so much depends on the freshness of the ingredients and how it’s stored. Read this for more info 🙂
Thank you :),may be I’ll put 9 months. Coz I only have vit e capsule. Will that be ok to use that vit e capsule instead of the one in amazone?
No, you’ll need cosmetic grade vitamin E, not what they put in supplements. Remember that the type of spoilage here is rancidity, not microbial, so it isn’t dangerous, it just smells “off” 🙂
thanks god I didnt but any yet >_<. thank you for the advice 🙂
Happy making!
When compared to the imitation Burt’s Bees recipe, which of of these chapsticks stands up better to hot weather? I’ve found that the imi-Burt’s tends to soften up too much for my liking when in my pants pocket (were it resides) for long periods of time, even in the winter (and I go through a single tube in less than 1 month because it’s so soft), so I’m trying to figure out a way to make a chapstick that still does its job beautifully but at the same time isn’t going to soften up too much after just a couple hours. I’m making it as gifts for family that live in the Midwest, and it gets very hot and humid in the summer, so I want to make something for them that will stay solid in that kind of weather (more than once I’ve gone to put some on and it has just smooshed over my lips – not fun).
This one is definitely very firm at 50% beeswax! You could also try doing your own version of this experiment to get a feel for how beeswax works in your part of the world 🙂
I’ll try this one, then. Do you find that the peppermint EO covers up the scent of the coconut oil? I ask because one of the people I’m making it for doesn’t like coconut at all.
Since it’s just peppermint, beeswax, and coconut I find the three meld together into a nice sweet, warm, minty blend. I can’t really distinguish the coconut but I might be able to if I hated it 😛 You might consider RBD coconut oil instead 🙂
Also, have you ever had your spatula head snap off on you? Mine did on something that wasn’t even thick, and I duct taped it back on to the handle. I’m debating about whether to get another (or three) or just go with something else from here on out.
Yeah, it happens—I definitely abuse my spatulas a lot, though. I typically buy 20 at a time and that lasts for a few years 😛
Can I use it in a lipstick tube? I’m worried about a wee bit of plastic melting into the lip balm when hot lip balm is poured in a plastic twist tube. I pour mine in a stainless steel container but it’s too difficult to use it while travelling due to hygiene issues. What’s your take on that?
I’m 99% sure this would be far too sticky to work with a lipstick mould. I wouldn’t worry about the plastic lip balm tube melting, though—if those tubes melted around the temperatures lip balm melts at they would melt in hot cars in the summer 🙂 They are explicitly designed to have melted oils, waxes, and butters poured into them.
Hello Marie.You have a great collection of lip balms.Which one you would recommend as non melting at hot environment ,safe to keep in a car for summertime?
I’d probably say this recipe, but I’d recommend giving this a read as well 🙂
I am brandspanking new to DIYing and am super excited to try some recipes. Just waiting for my prder of supplies to arrive! I picked up some beeswax from a local beekeeper and it came in cute little 1oz bars. I have kind of a silly question… I’m wondering if i should shave or grate the bars so that i can measure out quanties called for in recipes?
Welcome! You will have to shave to blocks of beeswax into smaller bits in order to use it 🙂 I use a sturdy chef’s knife to shave bits off as I can’t imagine how unpleasant attempting to clean beeswax off a cheese grater would be!
I just made my second batch of this stuff, my 3rd recipe ever. [#2 was a lotion.] I normally don’t like lip balm, they feel too thick on my lips, but this one spreads nice and thin. It keeps my lips soft, too.
My first batch (1gm each wax and oil) lives in my office, the one I just made (4.8gm each oil and wax, 0.4gm vitamin E) is for home.
Thanks so much for producing this blog and your recipes! I has been thinking about d-i-y skin care for a while, but it was your blog that pushed me over the edge to actually making things.
I’m so thrilled you’re loving your DIY lip balm and having fun creating things with me 😀 This lip balm is definitely one of my favourites for how well it works in these super dry winter days. Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂