Tutorial Time: Let's Make Lip Balm!!

Today I thought I'd share a super easy & very rewarding how-to: Making Your Own Lip Balm.  With all the chilly air right now it's incredibly practical and so simple you can even make it with the kids.

I'm going to do the quickie method here.  I know there are more complicated ways to blend various ingredients, colors, etc., but for basic lip balm this is the way to go.  So let's do this!!

You'll Need:
- 2 oz. Lip balm base
- 1/4 tsp flavor oil
- Pyrex measuring cup
- Knife
- Stickers/Labels
- 10 Lip balm tubes & caps
- Optional: sweetener oil*

You can find the base, flavor oil & tubes at a lot of online shops.  Brambleberry is a good quality source with reasonable prices.  *Sweetener oil is available, but not necessary.  I don't want to give my 3yr old any ideas about eating lip balm, so I leave that out.

Start by scooping the base into the Pyrex cup.  It could be soft like this or more solid depending on the base - either way is ok since it'll get liquified when hot:

Microwaving for 30 seconds at a time on low/defrost setting (3-4) until melted.  In my microwave that was about 45 seconds total.  You don't want it to be boiling.

Stir until smooth, then pour in flavor oil and mix until blended.

Working quickly, pour the liquid balm into the tubes.  It helps to have them all lined up before you start so you can zip from one to another on down the line.  If it starts to firm up while pouring, just warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave.  Wipe away any drips and let cool.  Once hardened, if seem uneven at the top, just turn up slightly and then use a knife to smooth them over & add cap.

To make things look really nice, add some pretty labels.  My newest sponsor, Wholeport, carries these cool masking tape sticker sets that are ideal for this.  And FYI- they're also a totally fabulous source for other crafty goodies - including lip balm tubes.

I just stick a circle on the cap tops and write out the flavor on the strips for a nice custom look.

I think it makes them so much cuter -

Wasn't that easy?  It literally takes minutes and is way better than just buying the boring store varieties.  Even though I just made some, I totally feel like making more, which is always the sign of a good project to me;)

I'm also sharing this with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!