Holiday Lip Balms

Flavors I went with

 Making Christmas Fun!

2015 Christmas I wanted to do something fun and different for my family. I've already given them just about everything I make...so I started thinking about their favorite flavors. My brother loves coffee and pistachio nuts, my older sister loves chocolate, coconut, and red licorice, my younger sister loves peanut butter, and chocolate. My parents got rum, coffee, chocolate, coconut, caramel, pistachio. My kids like a range of things. I already had chocolate and caramel. So this is the list I came up with: coconut, bubblegum, marshmallow, bourbon, red licorice, sparkling wine, coffee, pralines and cream, pistachio, peanut butter, and butter rum. In the end I had some dribs left of all the flavors so I got creative and mixed them together. Remember making a suicide as a kid? Or a kamikazi, Hurricane or whatever your family called it! Soda machines were brand new to us as kids and when we were allowed to go and get our own drinks we would mix all the flavors together. Why? Because we could and because it was the cool thing. Sometimes it tasted AWFUL!!!! Nowadays the kids take those soda dispensers for granted. They pretty much just get one flavor. Boring! :)

Putting 60 lip balms together....

Normally I would just rubber band the number of balms I was doing but this time I wanted to get them all done so I could get them shipped out. So my husband drilled some plexiglass and put white electrical tape over a tiny portion so the tubes wouldn't fall out.

custom made lip balm holder!

I got out my stainless steel cups as I thought they would work fantastic to do so many flavors!

Sam's Club has these 1 dozen for under $5.00! Stainless steel cups!

They fit just perfect in my crockpot! I added some distilled water to the bottom and turned on the heat to low. Next I put my lip balm together. Once the ingredients were all melted together I began. I dipped out enough balm to fill a cup and added each flavoring to the cups. The crockpot and water kept the balm fluid. I used a different pipette for each flavor and filled up 6 of each flavor. Then at the end I mixed what was left together and made my own "suicide" version of balm.

The custom tray did a very nice job for me! Thank you Marty! <3

Labeling was crazy!

Making a custom label for each of the different kinds was a challenge but I got it done! All in all it was a fun project! My family got them and thought they were really neat!

The only problem I had was my printer kept messing up the labels! I must have cleaned the rollers 10 times!

In the end I figured my family could handle a few blue lines! 

The first 2 batches of balms I did were great! Silky smooth and yummy! The third batch I changed to white chocolate and was a bit grainy for some reason. The balm still worked great and tasted fine but feels a little grainy when applying! Oh well! It was a fun project and not one I do for customers unless specially asked. I would probably forego the chocolate and just use butters and flavoring.

Chocolate Mint Lip Balms:

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Dark Chocolate Wafers, Cocoa Butter, Babassu Oil, T-50 E, Peppermint Oil

25 Lip Balm Recipe:

25 Lip Balm Tubes (Rustic Escentuals has really good deals on lip balm tubes and flavorings.)

47 gr Organic Coconut Oil

26 gr Beeswax

25 gr Dark Chocolate Wafers

23 gr Cocoa Butter

20 gr Babassu Oil (or any butter you like!)

1   ml Peppermint Oil

5 drops T 50 E

Melt the beeswax first then add the remaining ingredients. Some people use the microwave, I am anti-microwave. I used a small crock pot which is easily wiped out afterward. This is something that a porcelain pan would work excellent for too. 

Use a pipette or pour very carefully into your tubes. Leave sit until completely cooled or put it in the refrigerator if you're in a hurry! ;)

These have a very mild peppermint-chocolate taste which disappears fairly quickly but the balm stays on and keeps working for a good long time!

Labeling is your choice. I tried every label online labels recommended. For me I like the 

2.125" x 2.125" OL1102LP ones the best. If you have trouble with labels not sticking and rubbing alcohol doesn't work, denatured alcohol will take off any residue left from the manufacturer. Once I realized my tubes didn't want to take an adhesive, I cleaned each batch of tubes before I started the work of filling them. Hopefully you won't have that problem!

My tubes came from the distributor containerandpackaging.com. A great place to get nearly any kind of bottle or container! My guess is they were made in China just like most things are nowadays...oh well!

As for my white chocolate lip balms, if I do them again I will use Ghirardelli white chocolate and not the wafers. I think that's what made the 3rd batch grainy. The recipe was the same I just switched white wafers for the dark. 

So there you have it! Lip balms for holiday or anytime gifts! Incredibly easy and fun to do! I'm amazed when I see how much they charge for those things in the store! I think I'll stick with my handcrafted ones instead. Less money, and I know what went into it.

God bless you guys! Take care until next time!

Marla Riedling

MJR Soaps

UPDATE: I did make more and used Ghirardelli White Chocolate and it worked fantastic! I think the problem was the white wafers I used the first time. It wasn't real chocolate!