Healing Lip Salve Recipe

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herbal lip salve
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To continue the theme of DIY natural lip care recipes, I’m sharing this recipe for homemade herbal lip balm. I love my homemade lipstick and tinted lip balm, but sometimes I just want something for dry lips. After gardening or being outside in the wind/snow my lips can start to get chapped, but I don’t want color or shine.

This recipe is also great for guys and kids since it isn’t brightly colored or strongly scented. The natural lip balm uses an optional nourishing herbal infusion that helps heal and protect lips. You can also leave these ingredients out to have an unscented version that still offers hydration. Plus it’s easy to add a little more healing and scent with essential oils if desired.

I also like that this herbal lip balm lasts practically forever since a little goes a really long way. Organic lip balm is also great for stocking stuffers and small gifts!

Lip Balm With Herbs

The herbal ingredients are naturally moisturizing, antibacterial, and anti-fungal. Some people have had success with using it to speed up the healing of cold sores. It also doesn’t have petroleum or synthetic ingredients like most commercial lip products so you can feel safe using it on yourself or your kids.

Here I’ve used a blend of echinacea, comfrey, plantain leaf, calendula, and a few others. Chamomile and lemon balm are also nice botanicals to add. Lemon balm specifically helps with cold sores so it’s a nice addition if they’re an issue for you.

Other Nourishing Ingredients

I use a liquid oil thickened with organic beeswax as the base of the herbal lip balm. Certain seed oils, like almond, apricot, and avocado seed oil work well here. Apricot and avocado are thicker though and need diluted in something like olive oil, sweet almond, or coconut oil.

You could also replace a little bit of the beeswax with shea butter or cocoa butter. Keep in mind shea butter is much softer than beeswax so you may need to reduce the liquid oil a little to compensate.

Scenting Your Herbal Lip Balm

I usually leave this unscented, but you can add some fragrance with essential oils if preferred. Sweet orange, lavender, and even frankincense are some good options. Or I’ll sometimes add some peppermint. You could even make a chai version with a tiny bit of cinnamon leaf (not bark) and cardamom essential oils.

Phototoxic essential oils, like bergamot and lime, should not be used.

How to Infuse the Oil

There are several ways to infuse the herbs into the liquid carrier oil. The longer version is to combine the herbs and oil in a glass jar and leave it to infuse for 2-4 weeks. You’ll want to shake the jar every so often. The faster option is to use a double boiler. Place the herbs and oil in the top of a double boiler for 1-3 hours over low heat until the oil is a deep green.

After infusing, strain the herbs out by pouring the mixture through a cheesecloth. Let all the oil drip out and then squeeze the herbs to get the remaining oil out. Compost your herbs when done.

You can store your finished creation in a tin, or use a lip balm tube for even easier application.

herbal lip salve
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5 from 1 vote

Healing Herbal Lip Balm

This nourishing lip salve is infused with healing herbs for chapped, hurting lips. Great for all ages and guys too!
Prep Time3 hours
Active Time10 minutes
Yield: 4 ounces
Author: Katie Wells

Materials

Instructions

  • Infuse the herbs into the liquid oil. See above for more details.
  • Heat 1/4 cup of the infused oil in a double boiler with the beeswax until melted and mixed. Save the extra oil for use on wounds/cuts or another batch of lip salve.
  • Remove from heat and stir in the essential oil and vitamin E oil (if using).
  • Pour into small tins, glass jars, or lip balm tubes and use on dry or chapped lips.

Notes

  • Store in a cool, dry place and use clean hands to apply. 
  • This will last for about 6 months if stored properly (a little longer if you use the vitamin E oil). 
 

Another easy DIY I love is my Mint Chocolate Lip Scrub.

Do your lips ever get chapped? Have you ever infused an oil? Let me know below!

This DIY healing lip salve helps sooth dry and chapped lips immediately. Easy to make and natural so it is safe for use on kids.
Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

73 responses to “Healing Lip Salve Recipe”

  1. Joanne Avatar

    I would like to try this recipe. I was thinking of using it for Christmas gifts this year However, nowhere in the instructions or the article does it say how much vitamin E oil or grapefruit seed extract to use, or whether or not adding either one is optional. They are not mentioned in the directions for making the balm at all, so if I had to guess, I’d guess they’re optional.
    At least three people have asked about this in the comments, but no answer has yet been provided. I read all of the comments hoping it was addressed there, but it hasn’t been yet.
    Peppermint essential oil is listed twice in the ingredients list. I’m wondering if you meant to paste something in about the amount of vitamin E oil or grapefruit seed extract to use, right after it is listed in the ingredients, but accidentally pasted in “peppermint essential oil” instead. It would explain why peppermint essential oil is listed twice.
    Thanks!

    1. Jamie Larrison Avatar

      Hi Joanne, this is an older post and it had a few typos in it. I updated the recipe directions to indicate how much Vitamin E to use so hopefully that helps!

  2. Katherine Pacheco Avatar
    Katherine Pacheco

    I just made healing salve but infused all dry herbs oil and bees wax all together in a small crockpot for 8 hours. I didn’t realize I had to add beeswax last. It should be okay right. It’s light green and not to strong smelling.
    All herbs are from my garden I love it.
    Yarrow plantain comfrey calendula rosemary
    (Not used echinacea-I have echinacea plants not many)

  3. Betty Avatar

    Any recommended amounts for the grapefruit seed oil? My bottle is a small bottle with a dropper lid on it. # drops?

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