Lip balm and skin cream recipe

This post has nothing to do with books. It's a recipe for the lip balm and skin cream I make, which my husband calls kitchen witchery. It's what inspired my Christmas gift from him this year - a fabulous chemistry beaker collection with which to practice my potions-making.

I began making my own skin cream when I developed itchy rashes after my oldest son was born - possibly eczema, possibly stress or hormone-related. Petroleum-based creams irritate my skin now, so I make my own from simple ingredients. And dry lips are my kryptonite, so it was an obvious step to add lip balm to the mix.

I keep the recipes in the notes section of my phone, and they've evolved over time. The summers I spent in the Yukon Territory fostered my interest in botanicals, and for awhile I infused almond oil with dried yarrow and fireweed that I'd gathered from the boreal forest. I said this post has nothing to do with books, but that's not entirely true. The short story I just sent in my newsletter was full of boreal botanicals, and Mr. Shaw's plant medicines class in Marking Time was one of my favorites to research.

Think of these recipes as more of a guideline than a rule. I'll share the things I've learned about the ingredients over the years, and if you stumble upon interesting combinations, I'd love to hear about them.

Make the lip balm first. Put a pot of water on the stove to simmer and get a sturdy measuring cup / jar / tempered glass beaker (I always used a four-cup glass measuring cup before getting my fancy new beaker set). Add a heaping 1/2 cup of coconut oil and 1/4 cup of beeswax to the measuring cup and set it in the pot to melt.

I've used almond oil instead of coconut, and it works well too. I like the coconut because I have really dry skin, but I've never tried to infuse it with herbs or flowers, so I'd probably go back to almond oil in that case.

(To infuse dried flowers or herbs into oil, just add a whole bunch into a mason jar with a tight-fitting lid, shake them up once a day, and store them in a dark, cool place for about a month. Strain the oil through cheesecloth to use).

A friend of mine keeps bees and occasionally gives me his vacated honeycombs to process for the wax. It's a bit of work, but the resulting beeswax is deeply yellow and smells like honey. When I don't have access to fresh beeswax I buy the little pellets because they melt quicker.

(To process honeycomb, bunch it all up into 2-4 layers of cheesecloth, tied at the top with a string. Set the bundle in boiling water - ideally in a pot dedicated to messy jobs - and boil until the wax melts. Use tongs to pull the bundle out and tongs to squeeze the remaining wax water out of the bundle, then throw the bundle away. Set the wax water pot out to cool, and a few hours later you'll be able to pull the ridiculously thin crust of wax off the top of the water. If it's still dirty, you might have to do it again, but once is usually enough).

To recap, because apparently I'm one of those recipe bloggers - the ones who can't just write a recipe, they have to tell the story of their lives too: A heaping 1/2 cup of coconut oil (or oil of your choice) and 1/4 cup of beeswax have melted together in a container set in a pot of simmering water. Now it's time to add a heaping 1/4 cup of shea butter. It melts fast, so you add it just at the end before you take the oil mixture out of the hot water. There's something about overheating shea that I can't remember, I just know it goes it right at the end and melts fast.

Take the oil mix off the heat. If you want to add a flavor/scent, now's the time. I sometimes add about a teaspoon of Manuka honey for the anti-bacterial qualities, but a bit of vanilla or some essential oils work too.

Pour the mixture into lip balm tubes if you have them, or small empty spice jars if you don't. Chill and store them in the refrigerator until you use them. I keep a spice jar of the mix in the kitchen for lips and hands, because it makes a good, concentrated hand cream too.

But for a body cream, I do something a little different.

However much of the lip balm mixture you have left - I usually have about 1/2 a cup - measure out approximately the same amount of aloe gel into a separate measuring cup, and then blend the two together.

Think salad dressing, because you're emulsifying the oil with the gel. I use a stick blender and begin blending the moment I dump the gel into the oil container, but it can be done with a regular blender or a whisk too. The blend will be creamy and won't separate if it's emulsified properly. Pour the cream into a small jar and chill it in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes until it sets. If you make extras, keep them stored in the fridge (my crisper is full of lip balm and skin cream) so the oil doesn't go rancid before you can use it.

As you can tell, my measurements are approximate, and at this point, I eyeball things rather than actually measure them. The recipes have definitely evolved with experience. Batches that were too waxy became polish for my cutting boards and tables, and occasionally I've made lip gloss instead of balm, but that's okay too. I'll list the ingredients I use here, and they'll be affiliate-linked to Amazon for ease, but please source your own through small businesses if you have them. Have fun with your kitchen witchery, and let me know how things turn out.

Heaping 1/2 cup of coconut oil

1/4 cup of beeswax (pellets)

1/4 cup of shea butter

Manuka honey or vanilla

lip balm tubes (and a tiny funnel)

1/2 (ish) cup of Aloe gel