Basic Medicinal Lip Balm
Lip balms are very easy and inexpensive to make. This recipe, which is a very small batch, makes enough to fill six lip balm tubes. This product is formulated for use in tubes. If you want to use it in pots, you'll have to decrease the amount of beeswax and candelilla wax you use. You can use your favorite oils in place of the sweet almond or shea oils, but this recipe is formulated for use with coconut oil, which is more solid at room temperature than many other oils.
I like this combination of essential oils because the predominant flavor/scent is peppermint, but the other oils add richness of scent and extra healing power for chapped lips.
1.5 tsp. sweet almond oil
1 tsp. shea oil
1/2 tsp. jojoba oil
2 tsp. coconut oil
1 tsp. beeswax
1 tsp. candellila wax
1/4 tsp. lanolin
1/4 tsp. vitamin E
10 - 15 drops essential oil of peppermint
5 - 8 drops essential oil of tea tree
3 - 5 drops essential oil of rosemary
Place the first six ingredients (oils and waxes) in a pyrex measuring cup with a pour spout and heat them either in the microwave or a makeshift double boiler (I place a canning ring in a pot with 1.5" of boiling water, and set my pyrex cup on the ring) until the wax is well melted, stirring frequently. The candellila wax melts slower than the beeswax, and you need to be sure it's melted all the way through. I usually hold my melted mixture up to a light or above a white countertop and look for a darker orange mottling that will tell me the candellila wax is not fully melted. If the mixture is uniform in color, the waxes are fully melted. Remove from heat, and let cool very slightly (less than a minute). Add your lanolin, vitamin E and essential oils and mix well. Pour into tubes and let harden completely.
Note: Salves like this tend to cave in at the top as they cool. To avoid this, don't fill your tubes quite full at first, reserving some of your mixture in your measuring cup. As your balms set, re-melt the mixture in your measuring cup and top off the tubes.