I’ve had quite a few requests for a new lip scrub formulation recently, and I thought our White Chocolate Peppermint theme was perfectly suited to a lip scrub—so here we are! This DIY is quite crunchy, with just five simple ingredients. It’s pretty easy to whip up (literally—it’s whipped!) and can be gifted in cute little tins or jars. Pair it with one (or both) of the holiday lip balms I’ve already shared this season for a decadent lip treat!

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Our base is a simple blend of fragrant, chocolate-y cocoa butter and a liquid oil of your choice. I’ve used fractionated coconut oil here, but it would also work with any other average-ish absorption speed liquid oil that’s fairly unassuming in the colour and scent departments—think sweet almond, apricot kernel, sunflower, safflower, or soybean oil. For a delicious nutty note, you could blend in some macadamia nut oil! Macadamia nut oil smells amazeballs when blended with cocoa butter, but it’s pretty light, so I’d do a 50/50 blend with something a bit slower absorbing.

The cocoa butter and liquid oil come together to create a soft, squishy base that’s perfect for whipping up with a hefty dose of white granulated sugar—yup, just the stuff in your kitchen. If this was a body scrub I’d say go ahead and use salt instead of sugar if you want, but this is a lip scrub, and you will get a taste of it when you use it. I’m making a pretty disgusted face as I type this and imagine scrubbing a heavily salty cocoa-mint mixture onto my lips… yeah, not recommended. Stick to sugar for this one 😉

Rounding out the scrub is a bit of tingly peppermint essential oil and some vitamin E to help delay the onset of rancidity, extending the shelf life. The finished scrub is soft, squishy, and scrubby—simply buff a small amount into your lips, rinse, and enjoy your refreshed and softened smoocher. Voila!

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White Chocolate Peppermint Lip Scrub

Heated phase
5.4g | 18% cocoa butter (USA / Canada)
9.15g | 30.5% fractionated coconut oil
15g | 50% white sugar (USA / Canada)

Cool down phase
0.3g | 1% peppermint (Mentha Piperita) essential oil
0.15g | 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 bowl that’s deep and large enough for whipping in. Place the bowl in the water bath to melt the butter through.

While the heated phase melts, prepare an ice bath. Take a bowl that is large enough to accommodate the container the heated phase is melting in, and fill it about halfway with ice cubes and cold water.

Once the heated phase has melted (the sugar won’t melt, so that’ll just be sitting at the bottom of the bowl), remove it from the heat and stir for a minute, giving the container a chance to cool a bit. Then place the bowl in the ice bath and stir constantly for about one minute, until the mixture has cooled a bit and you’ve reached a light trace—when you drizzle a few drops of the mixture across the surface they should leave a light “trace” behind on the surface of the mixture, but it should still be liquid. Weigh in the cool down phase ingredients. Stir to combine, and then (if needed) continue stirring the mixture in the ice bath until the mixture thickens. If you’re making the same batch size as I did (as written—30g) the mixture will probably set up while you’re adding the cool down phase and you won’t need to use the ice bath again.

Now it’s time to whip the scrub! Grab your electric beaters and blend/whip away until the scrub is all light and fluffy. At this point I like to leave the scrub to fully settle at room temperature—overnight might be convenient, otherwise, a few hours will do the trick (this will change with your batch size). Once the scrub has fully settled at room temperature whip it again, and then you’re ready to package it.

I used two 15g (0.5oz) slide-top tins from YellowBee for my scrub. To use, massage a small amount of the scrub into your lips and rinse off the extra with a bit of water. Resist the urge to eat 😝Enjoy!

Shelf Life & Storage

Because this lip scrub 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, this scrub 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 the product 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 30g, which is enough for two good-sized lip scrubs.
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this recipe, 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 please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• Don’t substitute the cocoa butter—it’s integral to both the theme and the structure of the formula.
• Read the pre-amble for alternatives for the fractionated coconut oil.
• Don’t use salt instead of sugar… unless you are a salt fiend, I suppose, but I cannot imagine that will taste nice!
• I don’t recommend substituting the peppermint essential oil, but if you really want to you could use a flavour oil (not a fragrance oil—those aren’t lip safe), a different essential oil (something minty would be preferable), or just use more fractionated coconut oil.