Tis the season for making homemade gifts, at least at our house!

A few days ago, I had a mom’s night out at my house and we made all kinds of homemade gifts like lotion bars, vapor rub lotion bars (recipe soon!) and homemade lipstick.

Natural Lipstick Recipe with essential oils and natural colors The lipstick was the biggest hit and it was so much fun to create our own customized flavors, scents and colors with natural ingredients like (click on the link to see the exact brand I used):

Coconut oil
Shea Butter
Cocoa Butter
Beeswax
Mica Powders: Red, Bronze, Rose and Pearl
Essential Oils

We made dozens of tubes of lipstick for pennies each and they will be great gifts and stocking stuffers this year. I’m also packaging up some ingredients to give as DIY lip balm and lipstick kits to friends and family.

Homemade Lipstick Recipe

Some natural products can take time to get used to, like natural shampoo and it can be tough to find the right mixture for your hair, but homemade lipstick is completely customizable and works better than the store bought right away.

You can make them in plastic lipstick tubes or little glass lip balm containers. If you want to keep it simple, little glass jars also work. Here’s how to make it:

How to Make Your Own Natural Lipstick with custom color and scent

3.42 from 29 votes

Natural Shimmer Lipstick Recipe

This homemade natural shimmer lipstick recipe combines beeswax, essential oils, coconut oil, and shea butter or cocoa butter with mica powder.

Prep Time20

Cooling Time1

Author: Katie Wells

Equipment

Plastic lipstick tubes or little plastic lip balm containers, or a small glass jar

Materials

2 TBSP coconut oil
2 TBSP shea butter (or cocoa butter)
3 TBSP beeswax pellets
10 drops essential oil of choice
½ tsp mica powder of choice (or more)

Instructions

In a double boiler, melt the coconut oil, shea or cocoa butter, and beeswax.
Remove from heat.
Stir in the mica powder and essential oils of choice.
Dip a small amount onto the end of a spoon and let it harden for a few seconds.
Test the mixture on the spoon for the desired color and scent with your finger or on the skin of your wrist to make sure you like it.
Add more mica powder or essential oil if needed.
Use a pipette or glass dropper to quickly transfer the mixture to the lip gloss containers or whatever container you are using.
Let cool for 1 hour. Cap and use as needed.

Notes

If your mixture starts to solidify while you are working, you can reheat it slightly to liquify it again.

What homemade beauty products have you made?

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

99 responses to “Natural Shimmer Lipstick Recipe”

Maha

September 26, 2017

How long will it last?

Reply
Kippi Schank

July 1, 2016

I love making my own creams, lotions and shampoo products. I bought liquid coloring for soaps, etc. Could I use that instead of the mica powders?

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Kaity

March 29, 2016

For everyone complaining about the lipstick looking good in the tube but not giving any color to your lips, there is a solution. Adding bentonite clay, titanium oxide, or zinc oxide (which also gives it an spf) makes your color more opaque. The more you add, the more opaque it becomes. Just remember, bentonite clay has a green tint and the others are white which does change the color a bit. You might have to add a little more color, but not nearly as much as you would need of straight mica to have any color. Just make sure you get non-nano particles of zinc/titanium oxide. Also, red and brown iron oxides make a great matte color and can be mixed with mica for those looking for less shimmer.

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Nikki

March 25, 2016

how much does 1 batch yield?

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heidi jo

March 3, 2016

i want to see pics of the color on lips please. 🙂

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Tammy K

February 14, 2016

Can I remelt my lipsticks and add more mica to it? The colors are not dark enough on my lips! Thanks!

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Patience

January 31, 2016

Noticing the damage from commercial products and looking to purge all of the toxic chemicals from everything I put in or on my body and in the process have become more sensitive to said toxins and can’t even use nail polish remover anymore 🙁 I Love your recipes and am hoping you might have recipes for nail polish remover and nail polish it’s self that are natural, pH balanced and non-toxic.

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Grace Gadde

January 8, 2016

Awesome recipe. Came out great, and the color transferred to my lips beautifully! Had to add extra mica though

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tristen

August 31, 2015

How many containers does this fill with one saucepan?

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Marilee Wintz

June 7, 2015

The lipstick turned out awesome BUT as I was putting away the mica powder I read the label. MADE IN CHINA.
I wanted to point out that Slice of the Moon Mica Powder is owned by a company in Toronto, Canada but is made in China. I have emailed the company to find out how this made, and how they think it is safe. Hopefully holistically and sustainably made with high quality but I am skeptical at this point.

Do you have any input on this?

Reply
1. Whitney
  
  July 27, 2015
  
  I also am using slice of the moon mica. I feel like it makes my lips a little dry.
  
  Reply
  1. zahra
    
    October 26, 2015
    
    Hi katie,
    Same problem. Dryness on lips.
    Will adding few drops of olive oil to the recipe works ??
    
    Reply
2. Whitney
  
  July 28, 2015
  
  I love making homemade lip balm! I noticed the mica powder wasn’t sticking to the balm very well so I heat the beewax and the rest of the oils separately first. I mix the mica powder in with the dissolved beeswax and then I add the oils after. Seems to work better, still doesn’t give a super dark color but it’s nice. Also I put essential oils like coffee, mint, cherry, rosemary or thieves oil. Thrives oil smells like cinnamon. If you take the essential oils out you can use it as a blush or eye primer too. That’s what I have been doing and it looks great!
  
  Reply
Charlotte

March 16, 2015

I didn’t mean to put question marks they’re meant to be smilies!

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Charlotte

March 16, 2015

What should I use to get a dark red or dark purple colour apart from mica powder?
SO EXCITED TO TRY IT!????????

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Charlotte

March 16, 2015

What’s best to use to make it a dark red or purple apart from the mica powder?
SOO EXCITED TO TRY!????????

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Joan

February 10, 2015

I just made these….wayyy too much beeswax. I am going to remake tomorrow using a recipe I have for lip balm that turned out perfect. 1/2 oz beeswax, 1/2 oz. coconut oil, 1/2 oz mango butter, 1 Vit E capsule, 1 t almond oil and 10 drops peppermint oil. Then I will add a LOT of the mica, as I couldn’t get any color from this recipe either.

Reply
1. Jaime Haney
  
  March 18, 2015
  
  Joan, is the peppermint oil for flavor? I’m not wanting peppermint flavored lipstick particularly, other suggestions? Also, did you buy your coconut oil, beeswax, mango butter and almond oil from anywhere in particular? Thanks! ~Jaime
  
  Reply
  1. Joan
    
    March 18, 2015
    
    The Peppermint oil is an essential oil and I didn’t want it to really heavily flavor it either. But it just gives it a nice smell and taste (just a little bit, not enough to burn your lips) I guess you could leave it unflavored. I got all of my ingredients locally at a homesteading store called Buckleys Homestead Supply store in Colorado Springs. http://www.buckleyshomesteadsupply.com They are really nice there, although I know you can buy the ingredients online. I just like supporting local businesses.
    
    Reply
    1. Jaime Haney
      
      March 19, 2015
      
      Thank you Joan! That’s what I needed to know. I like to support my local small biz’s, too. Especially since I’m one! Thanks again. -Jaime
      
      Reply
Mary Lou Myers

January 23, 2015

I just tried this….no color whatsoever on my lips even though the tubes look pretty. Added more mica, got slight color, but is so clumpy now. I was hopeful, have spent $$$ trying to find a safe lip color I like, that won’t dry out my lips.

Reply
1. Bernice
  
  January 27, 2015
  
  Hi Mary Lou, when adding color to your wax try using a small blender will smooth out the mica.
  The more mica added the better the coverage
  
  Reply
Courtney

January 1, 2015

What a great idea and wonderful recipe! Thank you for sharing! I did want to give you all a little heads up that mica is one of the most slave-tainted items in beauty care…about 60% of it is mined by slave children in India. I’m sure you weren’t aware, but I thought I’d pass along the info. You can read more at: https://www.one.org/us/blog/where-your-sparkly-eye-makeup-comes-from/

Maybe there’s a way to purchase Fair Trade mica???

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Sami J.

December 30, 2014

Hi! Do you happen to know if this is fair trade mica? I have been wanting to make my own shimmery bronzer and this lipstick but a lot of mica is mined using slave labor. I am having trouble finding a source that is ethically mined. Thank you for all that you do! I have used several of your DIY recipes and they have all been awesome! 🙂

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1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  January 2, 2015
  
  I’ve got emails in to try to find answers to that question. I’ll keep you posted.
  
  Reply
  1. Brooke
    
    July 22, 2015
    
    Any update on this?
    
    Reply
2. Carly
  
  January 6, 2015
  
  Following!
  
  Reply
Susan R

December 29, 2014

Question – Do you have a sense from your experience or what you have read from others as to what the “shelf life” of this lip balm recipe is before it starts to do ugly things ?
I made 24 of them for Christmas gifts (both with and without mica) and they were a huge success in that some stated that they would like more down the road. It would be cool to have some made in advance for those occasions but I don’t want to end up needing to toss them out. Since I will be making lotion bars next Christmas, the same question goes for them as well.
Thanks again for the great inspiration!

Reply
1. Katie – Wellness Mama
  
  December 29, 2014
  
  They last for years. I have lotion bars I made two years ago and I’ve been actually waiting for them to get an off smell or “go bad” and they haven’t yet. Since these are all oil-based, they last a long time.
  
  Reply
Lois

December 29, 2014

I recently tried some of your recipes for the body butter and lip sticks. Products were great and the mica worked beautifully. I wasn’t thrilled with the scent of the beeswax. Is there a wax that has a milder smell or is unscented?

Reply
Lauren

December 26, 2014

Can candelilla wax be used instead of beeswax?

Reply