Oh you guys are going to love this. LOVE THIS. Lovie lovie lovie. It's the best organic chapstick recipe!
So easy. So inexpensive. So free of nasties. I love this.
Don't read this if you are my sisters or my Mom, because this is a stocking stuffer I made for you. So please ignore.
I recently paid $4 for a tube of all natural organic chapstick. Ridiculous, I know. I'm a fool.
Best Organic Chapstick Recipe
- 2 tablespoons organic coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons organic shea butter
- 2 tablespoons beeswax
- 3-5 drops of essential oils, your choice (I order all my oils from my favorite essential oils company. You can order from them HERE.)
- A dozen chapstick containers, or a container of some variety like THIS.
The instructions couldn't be simpler. Melt the beeswax, then add the shea butter and coconut oil until melted.
Once melted, use a medicine dropper (I used a turkey baster!) to put the melted oil into the containers. I got sloppy, fumbled over the dog, shut my fingers in the stove door, slipped in a puddle of water and then squirted a turkey baster of hot melted oil mixture on my hand. Be careful. Because it buuuurrrrrnnnnnns.
The mixture will solidify as it cools. We topped these off after they started to cool, as the liquid shrinks down a wee bit.
This is wonderful. Even Stuart loves it. It's a manly chap and a girlie chap. It's a real moisturizer – nothing fancy. Plus, get this – it cost roughly $2.50 for 12 tubes of chapstick… and there ain't an artificial ingredient to be found. Can't beat that can ya? I'm telling you, it's the best organic chapstick recipe I've found!
Give it a try and let me know what you think. Unless you are my mom or sisters, then don't try it because I am giving you one for Christmas in your stocking… and forget you ever read this. Act surprised or I will cry.
Best Organic Chapstick Recipe!
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons organic coconut oil
Instructions
- Melt the beeswax, then add the shea butter and coconut oil until melted.
- Add the essential oils of your choice.
- Once melted, use a medicine dropper (I used a turkey baster!) to put the melted oil into the containers.
- The mixture will solidify as it cools. We topped these off after they started to cool, as the liquid shrinks down a wee bit.
Ooh! That looks amazing! I suffer from severely chapped lips, ‘specially in the winter. I will definitely have to try that. 😀
You need Cos liver oil Tablets for your dry lips!
They make a kit on Amazon for less than $20 where you can get 50 tubes, a tray to hold and fill them and a spatula.
It is amazing! I hope you love it!
Awesome!! I’m definitely gonna have to give that a try. And the little chapstick containers are so cute! I’m a total chapstick/lipstick addict. I have to have something on my lips All. The. Time. or I will pick at them constantly. Thanks for sharing this with us 🙂 I would have never dreamed it could be so cheap too!
This looks great! Can you add an essential oil for a flavor or scent and how much? Or perhaps an flavoring would be better – like the one I mentioned on my blog from Frontier Naturals. My lips are SO dry this year (always dry, but more so for some reason).
Hey Amy! I heard that a couple drops of peppermint essential oil works great with the recipe! I didn’t put it in this batch, but I will on the next one!
I used the peppermint, edible type essential oil, i didn’t over do it. There is a slight coolness and sent. Also I have found it easier to use a glass measuring cup with a handle. I put the handle over the side of the pot and allow the steam to melt the the wax and oils, then I just poured them right into little lip balm containers. NO MESS! Love this recipe, thanks for sharing!
I am curious as to how it only cost about 25 cents for one lipbalm. My daughter and I planning on making these and would love the secret on getting the cost down. We can get the cost down to about $2 a balm.
If you have Amish around you they sell beeswax for cheap. I keep bees so the bees wax for me is free. I also found a website natures guarded that is right down the road from me so no shipping and they sell the Shea butter. Aldi has organic coconut oil and not expensive.
Hey Jessica! You know, I never actually did the price calculation of how much these costs. Kendra at New Life On A Homestead did though, so I would give her a shout to see how she calculated it. I know it couldn’t be much – I ordered all the supplies from Mountain Rose Herbs for great prices. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this. I want to try to make a vegan version by using candelilla wax.
I love the smell of vicks. (Childhood thing I guess) I wonder if you could add a little of that without throwing off the recipe.
Try adding eucalyptus tea tree and lavender instead of Vicks I think that putting it on your lips might not be the best
The main ingredient that gives vicks it’s small is camphor
Try adding some of that. Maybe a couple drops.
I don’t know – it might be worth a shot! Maybe half the recipe so that if it doesn’t turn out, at least you haven’t wasted too many ingredients!
I am so glad I found this! I am a serious chapstick addict and I think my husband is now also. Thanks!
Yay, yay, yay! I made this and it was so easy and came out PERFECTLY!!! I feel so legit 😉
I’m never buying chapstick again!!! woo hoo!
Thanks, Shaye!
How do you know how much water to boil? Apparently I used to much water. And do you pour the hot liquid into the containers? My containers were leaking!
I bought some chapstick containers off of amazon and I read a review that said you need to twist the knob that you twist to make the chapstick come out or go back in. You twist it counter clockwise to tighten the container down so it doesn’t leak. I hope this helps.
I too love my chapstick. If I were stranded on a desert island…this would be at the top of the list. I just got all my supplies from MRH and can’t wait to try this with my sister. Thx!
I was wondering about the measurements for the coconut oil. Is it 2 Tablespoons melted or solid coconut oil? I know for cooking the measurements are for melted but I didn’t know about for this recipe. Thank you.
Was 1 once beeswax enough for 2 tablespoons?
I see I’m reading this about 2 years after the fact, but did they hold up well? Do those containers push the balm up so you’re able to use the entire stick? Do you still use these yourself?
Was the coconut oil refined?
Nope.
i made the chapstick and love it BUT I tried using the medicine dropper and it cools way to fast in the dropper and I didnt notice so it sprayed the boiling hot mixture on my fingers burning them. lesson learned! Other than that everything turned out great and I used a turkey baister instead which was perfect!
I bought a cheap little butter pan with a pour spout. Heat the ingredients like a double boiler and pour right from the pan (after you dry the outside with a towel). No wasted lip balm.
OMG, I LOVE this idea, I’m going to have to try these, thank you so much for sharing!!!!
Can you substitute coconut oil for a different oil or extract or you want to make different flavors?
Yeah you definitely can but I would add a bit more beeswax to compensate for a softer oil since coconut oil helps solidify the mix a bit. And you can add extract at the end when you add the essential oils. 🙂
I do agree that it needs more bees wax so I tried it again with a little bit more and it was great no more caped lips for me !!!!
Awesome! Super easy…but how the heck do u suggest clean up? This stuff does not want to come off my hands or the baster :/
I have made this recipe several times. Clean up is tough. I have found that boiling water is about the only thing (not for your hands, just rub it in and use it like lotion). I make the recipe in a “double boiler”, I put the ingredients in a mason jar and then put the jar in a pan with water to melt it. Then when it is done I use boiling water from the pan to clean the jar and other utensils.
Great advice! I just made some body butter today and I was so overwhelmed with the cleanup. I didn’t think to use the boiling water in the pan! Thank you!
Michelle
Wipe your container out with paper towels, dont wash it down the drain. Then use very hot water with Dawn dish soap, or you can rinse with alcohol and use organic dish soap.
I added coco powder & cinnamon to mine, gave it color 🙂
If you dont have the shea butter can you substitute with coconut oil?
I don’t think coconut oil would work, but cocoa butter would. Coconut oil is not nearly as solid as shea butter at room temp.
If I were to add vitamin e oil, any recommendations on how much?
I had a chap stick with tea tree oil in it and I loved it… How much tea tree oil would I add if I wanted to add it to this chap stick?
I would just do a few drops. Tea tree oil can be pretty harsh!
I made these last night and they are incredible. Thanks for sharing. But it does get solid fast.
For easier, potentially burn-free filling of chapstick tubes:
http://www.sks-bottle.com/340c/fin77c.html
These are so adorable! I love homemade gifts the best and I know everyone would love to get these.
I used this recipe and added peppermint essential oil – LOVE IT!!!!
Where did you find the tubes to put it into?
Amazon 🙂 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006WBEGNI?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B006WBEGNI&linkCode=xm2&tag=theellihome0d-20
Yay finally a way I can make my own lip balm and save money on buying expensive natural and organic brands! Thank you!!
Do you have any suggestions for an alternative for the Shea butter? I live in Chile and importing things here is very difficult and expensive, also it was hard enough trying to find coconut oil lol. The concept of a healthy lifestyle has not reached this part of the world yet unfortunately. Thanks so much!
Cocoa butter or mango butter
Greetings from Carolina! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to browse your website on my iphone during lunch break.
I love the information you present here and can’t wait to take a look
when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my cell phone
.. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, great blog!
I just made some chapstick recently that was very much this same recipe. I added a couple drops of EO’s in it and I increased the beeswax, but other than that, it’s the same stuff. My problem with it is how easily it melts! I certainly can’t keep it in my pocket or my purse in the car. It instantly melts the second it hits my lips and doesn’t “coat” my lips…..from the coconut oil I assume. What should I put in it to make it thicker so it is more stable and coats my lips a bit better? I have to keep mine in the fridge! 😀
Just add more beeswax. That will make it stiffer at room temperature and coat your lips a little more. I also find using a liquid oil, such as avocado oil, rather than than coconut oil helps me control the results a bit better.
I think I’ll add some peppermint 🙂
Just made this and while I made a mess, the end result is awesome. Thanks so much for sharing this!
oh and I calculate my costs at about 47 cents per tube.
How do you clean your turkey baster in between uses?
I don’t!
This looks great! Do you think you can use cocoa butter instead of shae butter?
Sure!
Shaye, I just found your blog tonight.. great stuff on here!!!! Love your writing 🙂
I make a similar lip balm to this, adding a bit more shea butter and bees wax helps keep the balm a little more solid. I usually flavor mine with some EO, usually vanilla. First batch I made I used a tiny square of high quality dark chocolate. Not only does it flavor the lip balm but it tastes mighty good too!
I also found that using an empty egg carton with holes cut into the bottoms will do quite nicely for holding the lipstick tubes upright. I too have tripped over the dog, ruined a brand new sweater and spilled melted wax/oils all over my kitchen floor. It was ugly.
This may be a silly question, but once you have used all the chap-stick can you re-use the container or do you buy new ones?
Reuse, baby!
I made some chapstick (not this recipe) last year as Christmas Gifts. It went on great, smelled amazing & MELTED in everyone’s handbags 🙁 How well does this hold up?
I’ve never had a problem with it melting, Christine!
Any suggestions as to what EO’s to add? I know someone mentioned peppermint, but any other suggestions?
I just made this and used Tangerine.
I do lavender and orange and i do peppermint and orange and they are major hits with my people! 💜
Just made this lovely chapstick! What an easy process and yummy product. I added 3 drops peppermint oil to a half batch. I will experiment with different oils next time too. Thank you for the great recipe!
Terrible! Used exact ingredients and it is to hard! It’s too much beeswax!
Then perhaps try a bit less next time.
I make homemade chap stick and I’ve found it is best to use a lip balm pour/filling tray. It holds all the tubes in place, makes filling the tubes a lot easier and prevents you from burning yourself. Also, using an old crock pot works great too. Good luck everyone!
I made this a couple of weeks ago. I third the recipe to make 3 1/2 tubes (which would probably have been 3 but I didn’t top off the others). I absolutely love it. I find I do not have to reapply as often. Thank you for the wonderful instructions.
Does this hold up well in your pocket? Have you had any problems with it melting?
Nope!
Hi!
Just tried your recipe and added 5 drops of sweet orange EO,
was I suppose to add much more cause my lipbalms barely taste or smell of orange but the texture is awesome. I did add 2 drops of vitamin E.
I noticed in the recipe it doesn’t say when to add the essential oils. Do you just add it to the mixture after it is melted? Also do you have any specific essential oils you like best?
I love Peppermint! Add during the melting process.
I have read on numerous sites to not use EO’s in plastic because the oils can cause the chemicals in the plastic to leach into the product. I read through all the reviews and didn’t see a comment. Are these containers specifically designed for EO’s?
Making. Very soon. Just ordered supplies. My mom requested pink grapefruit.
I see that the coconut oil and shea butter are measured in solid form but how do I measure the 2 tablespoons of beeswax if it comes in a block? This may be a dumb questions but I’ve never done this before. 🙂
Just cut a chunk off! It’s not too hard.
so funny, I was thinking the same thing
I got a small cheese grater from the Dollar Tree that I use for my beeswax if that helps. Then you can measure by volume easier 🙂
Is there something I can use to add color to the lip balm?
I like for my lip balm to have some amount of SPF. I will try this recipe with some zinc oxide that I use in making sunscreen.
Here’s a good one if you’re interested.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M0CT7UK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thank you for the recipe as I’ve been looking for one to use in sticks.
You could use helichrysum or mrryh essential oils. They have natural SPF.
You can use raspberry seed oil it has a naturally high spf rating.
Hi!
I was thinking of adding zinc oxide too! How much did you add? Did you need to alter anything else for the recipe since you added a powder?
Thanks in advance!
Really lovely chapstick recipe. Easy to follow and very cheap to make; and all natural ingredients. Thank you.
Hey everyone – I melt and mix everything in a 1 cup glass measuring cup. Then I pour it into each tube. It was easy and clean up with hot water, a little dish soap and a scratch pad was also easy.
Do you melt ingredients in microwave as opposed to stovetop?
I make mine in glass measuring cup also and melt in the microwave. Works great and no mess.
I used to use chapstick but after childbirth and nursing I became addicted to lanolin or nipple butter as a chapstick. I now use that instead because it is heavier, more absorbent, hangs around on the lips longer and heals chapped lips sooner though it might be better if it had an antibacterial essential oil component to it for really chapped lips.
I was wondering if the Chapstick comes off glossy on the lips? I’ve made a few before and they’ve been glossy because I didn’t use enough beeswax. Just want to make sure before I used this recipe because I want to make some for my boyfriend.
I have tried so many lip balms I couldn’t begin to list them all. The Somaluxe Lip Rescue beats every one hands down and I purchase this regularly – I am never without it. It is long lasting, smells good, is full of natural ingredients, your lips are left feeling smooth, moisturised and healthy for hours after application.
I love this recipe and have made it a few times. I’m experiencing one problem though….after a couple weeks the Chapstick starts getting rough. Feels like sand on the lips. Am I doing something wrong that would make it do this? Please let me know! Thanks!
Hi I’m wondering if you could use cocoa butter instead of Shea butter as I don’t currently have any Shea butter. Thanks!
When I have made chapstick in the past, I get a plastic measuring cup from the dollar store and use that to pour into each container. I rubber band all the containers together this way they are more stable and don’t move around. I put a paper towel under the whole thing and pour into each container. That way it it over flows it doesn’t go every where and if I cant get all of the left overs out of the measuring cup I just toss it and don’t stress about the mess. Hope this helps.
Really great tips, especially about rubber banding the tubes together. Thanks for taking the time to share!
How long can this last on a shelf? If I want an extended shelf-life, what preservative would you recommend?
I’ve kept some around for years and it is still great!
4.12.16 Was in need of something for my lips. Been having trouble for days with chapped lips and no way to get to a store. Found this recipe at Pinterest, and I just so happened to have all the right ingredients to make it . My lips thank you, This is the best lip balm. Better than anything I’ve used before. Thank You so much for posting. I’m glad I found you on Pinterest.
So excited to make this!!!
My lips are so bad already this year in just a couple of days, but I was camping in the high Uintahs, so…. Very cold, lol
I’m going to try some candy making flavors to see how that works, I’m sure no longer vegan and organic but still so much better than store stuff, my lips chap and crack from any store bought ChapStick.
So thank you for the wonderful recipe????????????????
Hi, I tried candy making flavors but it made little beads in the oil and didn’t mix well. I tried grape and pina colada. ????. I am sure it depends as in the ingredients used as to how it turns out. Mine were rather soft, maybe due to the coconut oil, which was very soft in general. I was surprised to see a suggestion to use liquid almond oil to have it come out thicker. Does anyone know why that would be? I want to try it but do not want to waste ingredients if it doesn’t work out.
I gave the recipe 4 stars. Sorry about that showing as 2.
Great recipe! I tried adding a tiny bit of honey (about 1/2 a tsp…any more and it will be too soft). I added it at the end, after I took everything off the heat and it had started cooling down enough not to destroy the natural enzymes in the honey. Honey is in extremely healing and adds a hint of sweetness. I split the batch in half and added peppermint EO to one half and a combo of orange EO and vanilla EO to the other. The latter tasted like a creamsicle!
I tried out the recipe and it’s awesome! However, I notice that after a fee uses the lip balm gets a bit rough and bumpty on top. Is this because I used too much of one ingredient? It’s not smooth like when I first tried it or like the ones in the store.
Danielle, I’ve had the same problem! I thought it was my shea butter, so I switched to mango butter. It was so smoothe in the beginning with the mango butter but then it got rough later. I wish I knew why!!
Does this lip balm stay smooth and glide on easily? I ask, only because I can’t use products like Chapstick. They get too sticky, and I don’t like the way it feels on my mouth. Is this one smooth, and does it stay smooth?
Thanks so much!
This is the first time I made lip balm and this was the easiest recipe ever. I used one large glass measuring cup and placed in pan with boiling water when everything was melted i added 2 more shot glasses to the water and split the wax into the 3 containers keeping them in water so the wax stayed melted and then filled the tubes with droppers I used mango, vanilla and peppermint …. they turned out great thank you for this recipe!
I’ve made this!! AMAZING!!! best chapstick every, so smooth, stays on your lips, keeps them hydrated. My daughter has horribly dry, cracked lips.. I make this for her. It is the only stuff she uses now!
Your recipe looks wonderful. I’m wanting to make batches of these little tubes for various purposes. A peppermint headache stick, small ones for various muscle rubs. Therefore not all will be the same scent. If I were to just add the EO to each tube depending on what I want in it, how many drops would you suggest in this small tube? Thank you.
Could you use an extract instead of essential oil?
You could try beet powder for color.
I just went to Hobby Lobby this morning. $2.99 for 12 tubes. I pulled up the 40% off coupon on my phone. I paid for the wax using it and my daughter paid for the she butter using it. Both go a long way.
Made this recipe for my gardening class at school and let the kids pick their own essential oil flavor, lime, orange, peppermint, and lavender. They loved this. I melted all the ingredients in a crockpot with a liner in it. It worked well. We took a dropped and dropped the oil into the tube and then poured the hot mix on top. It mixed well. I also ordered the tubes and tray from Amazon since I had roughly 50 students doing this activity. Great recipe.
The best chapstick EVER! I make it all year round 😊
Household vinegar, liquid Dawn and boiling water makes cleanup a breeze
Household vinegar, liquid Dawn and boiling water makes clean up a breeze
About. how long is one of these good for? Any idea?
How long are these shelf stable?
What is the shelf life of these chap sticks?
Also, I thought that using Essential Oils was only for glass containers. Can your recipe with Essential Oils be safely put in the plastic tubes?
I have a question! Is there any sort of expiration time after these are made?