Easy LIP BALM & Gloss - Cold Season recipe

I know there are lots of recipes out there for creating lip balm & lip gloss - but here is a SUPER easy to make - all natural balm that not only soothes your lips - it's herbal benefits will help heal & protect them as well. This is a great lip balm to make & use during cold & flu season.

This recipe will fill about 8 lip balm tubes or 4 to 6 slide tins/lip pots.

Cold Season Lip Balm

1 Tbl melted natural beeswax

3 Tbl of sunflower OR olive oil.

4 to 6 drops of cinnamon-orange-clove essential oil

1 natural vitamin E capsule (d-tocopherol)

melt the beeswax in a small glass container, mix in the sunflower or olive oil and stir well. Pierce the vitamin capsule and squeeze the liquid into the balm. Add your essential oil blend and pour into containers using an eye dropper.
Place your lip balms in the fridge for 10 minutes to harden.

If you'd like your balm harder - add a little more beeswax, slicker - add a little more oil.

Clove - offers healing and antibacterial benefits, orange - vitamin C, cinnamon is an antiseptic and vitamin E acts as a preservative that also offers soothing/healing properties as well.

Cold Season Lip Gloss

1 Tbl melted natural beeswax

4 Tbl melted sunflower or olive oil

4 to 6 drops of cinnamon-orange-clove essential oil

1 natural vitamin E capsule (d-tocopherol)

Melt the beeswax - add other ingredients same as for lip balm above. Whip the mixture slightly with a fork while still hot and then pour into lip pots/tins or tubes.

Tips & Recycling info: Work with glass dishes when making your balms & glosses. This way if your lip balm starts to harden you can re-heat it in the microwave. Gradual 10 second bursts of power are all thats recommended for reheating your mix.

In addition to purchasing containers at craft & some beauty supply stores - you can reuse old lip balm tubes and eye shadow pots as long as you clean them well, soak in a bleach water rinse and dry thoroughly before filling.

WANT A MORE LUXURY LIP BALM? Substitute some of the oil with sweet almond, grapeseed or jojoba oil .... and/or ..... replace a teaspoon of oil with melted shea or cocoa butter.

Recipe - All Natural Hand Sanitizer

With cold & flu season upon us I'm sharing some helpful all natural herbal recipes/remedies that are easy to make and safe for you & the environment. Each week during the month of December I will share a new recipe and offer some recycling/packaging tips & suggestions to help keep these projects totally green.

All Natural Hand Sanitizer

1 cup of aloe vera gel
1.5 teaspoons of Witch Hazel
6 drops of cinnamon-orange-clove essential oil
............OR...........
3 drops each of tea tree & peppermint essential oils.
............OR...........
any other essential oils to your liking that offer antibacterial/antiseptic qualities.

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Slowly begin mixing the witch hazel into the aloe gel, trying to avoid too many air bubbles.
Once fully incorporated mix in your 6 drops of essential oil.

This gel offers wonderful antiseptic, anti-bacterial properties as well as heals small cuts & abrasions. The Aloe soothes and moisturizes your skin. You will only need to apply a tiny bit of gel with each use. Less than half that of commercial/chemical sanitizers.
You'll need a small funnel if filling bottles with small openings.

Aloe vera gel is available at pharmacies & most department stores in the vitamin/medicine section. Make sure you are purchasing pure aloe gel and not a commercial sunburn soother.

I have pre-made combinations of essential oils in 30 ml bottles for sale - saving you the expense of purchasing multiple bottles of costly oils. These have dropper caps for ease of counting/pouring. They are full strength pure essential oils & a little will go a LONG way.

Packaging/Recycle tips & suggestions: use your favorite pump bottle to store your gel. If choosing to recycle - you can use empty lotion, shampoo & liquid soap bottles/tubes/containers.

Sample size bottles are great for filling & carrying in your purse.

Always clean empty containers thoroughly. I soak all my plastic containers in a small tub of a bleach-rinse solution.
To make a bleach rinse add 1/2 cup bleach to a gallon of warm water.