To continue the theme of DIY natural lip care recipes, I’m sharing this recipe for homemade healing lip salve. I really like homemade lipstick and homemade tinted lip balm, but sometimes I just want something to help with dry lips after gardening or being outside in wind/snow but don’t want color, shine, or scent.
This recipe is also great for guys and for kids as it isn’t brightly colored or strongly scented. This recipe incorporates optional healing herbs that help heal and protect the lips, but you can leave these ingredients out to have an unscented and simply moisturizing version. Homemade healing lip balm/salve also lasts forever, since a little goes a really long way.
Lip Salve Recipe
The herbal ingredients are naturally moisturizing, antibacterial, and anti-fungal, and some people have success with using it to speed the healing of cold sores. It doesn’t contain petroleum or chemicals like most commercial lip products so you can feel safe using it on yourself or your kids.
All ingredients, tins, and lip chap containers to store it in can be found online. (Storing in a lip-chap container makes it portable and easy to apply.)
Lip Balm Ingredients
- 1 cup of olive or almond oil
- 1 teaspoon echinacea root (optional)
- 1 teaspoon comfrey leaf
- 1 teaspoon plantain leaf (herb-not banana!)
- 1 teaspoon calendula flowers
- 1 teaspoon yarrow flowers
- 1 teaspoon rosemary leaf
- 1/4 cup beeswax pastilles
- 10 drops Vitamin E oil (optional)
- 5-10 drops of peppermint essential oil (optional)
Lip Balm Instructions
- Infuse the herbs into the olive oil. There are two ways to do this. You can either combine the herbs and the olive oil in a jar with an airtight lid and leave 3-4 weeks, shaking daily OR heat the herbs and olive oil over low/low heat in a double boiler for 3 hours (low heat!) until the oil is very green. You can also omit this step completely, or add just a drop of each of the essential oils instead.
- Strain the herbs out of the oil by pouring through a cheesecloth. Let all the oil drip out and then squeeze the herbs to get the remaining oil out.
- Discard the herbs.
- 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 for another batch of lip salve).
- Remove from heat and add in the essential oil and vitamin E oil (if using).
- Pour into small tins, glass jars, or lip chap tubes and use on dry or chapped lips.
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!
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!
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!
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)
It should be fine, it would just be harder to strain.
Any recommended amounts for the grapefruit seed oil? My bottle is a small bottle with a dropper lid on it. # drops?