| Ohh! Just this recipe’s name perks my interest. This is a fabulous recipe. It is a firm but easily applied lip balm. It smells wonderful. I love honey and this recipe is right up my alley because it contains honey! I can already hear the questions. Wait! Doesn’t honey contain water? How do you get it to blend into your oils? The answer? This recipe also contains lanolin. The lanolin acts as an emulsifier to blend your oils and honey for a scrumptious lip balm!
These are the ingredients you will need for this recipe.
Here is the equipment you will need for making this recipe.
Here is the recipe in percentages. This will allow you to adjust to recipe to fit your needs.
Here is the recipe for making a 100 gram batch.
I place my lip balm jars or tubes into the refrigerator to cool. Do not place them in the freezer! We only want the lip balm to cool quickly not freeze instantly. Weigh all ingredients except the honey into a microwave safe container. We do not want to microwave our honey because it will burn and not incorporate into our mixture of oils. Microwave in short bursts until all ingredients are melted. The beeswax will take the most time to melt but if you stir the lip balm after the other oils have been heated, it will melt quickly. Add the honey once all of the oils have been melted. Pour the liquid mixture into the cool lip balm containers. Allow the solution to solidify. Cap and label. Enjoy this scrumptious recipe! Remember: Do not add honey prior to melting your oils. The honey will burn. If your honey burns, it will not incorporate into your oils. Lets prevent this fantastic recipe from becoming a failed batch.
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 Finished Lip Balm  Assembling the Ingredients  Weighing the ingredients  Adding Honey  Pouring Lip Balm into Jars |
I love the idea of sweetening lip balm with natural honey. I have a question though. If you are selling the lip balm and it has honey inside, do you need a preservative?
Excellent point Zany! Zany is right about no preservative needed for a honey lip balm.
Actually, if honey is stored correctly (in a dry area between 60 and 80 F and out of direct sunlight) and enough water evaporated before extraction by a beekeeper, honey can last indefinitely in a closed container. Once if the container remains open, honey can start to absorb moisture from the air. This isn’t a problem if you live in a dry climate, but if you live in a humid climate honey can start fermenting after enough water has been absorbed.
Did you know the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Assyrians and Arabs used honey and wax for embalming their prominent dead?
Have fun!
A preservative isn’t necessary. Honey has a shelf life of 3 years — I learned that watching Jeopardy! LOL
As it happens, I just cleaned out my fridge and found a small jar with the last bit of honey lip balm I made a long time ago that had been in there for over a year. It was in perfect condition and tasted yummy!
HTH
Zany in CO
Cool! I’ve got some raw honey that I thought would make amazing lip balm.
Thanks Cee and Andee. I tried this recipe and I had difficulty in-cooperating the honey into the oil mixture. The honey seemed to become a blob at the bottom of my measuring cup. I did use raw honey. Would that make a difference?
Raw or Pasteurized honey will not make a difference. Taylor used raw honey in this batch.
Honey will be a blob at first. You need to make sure your lip balm is completely melted and what we call “H-O-T warm” before adding the honey. There will be a small blob and you just need to keep stirring. The honey will disperse if your lip balm is hot enough. An easy way to determine if your lip balm has reached this stage is to check for any haziness. If there is any haziness, then the lip balm isn’t hot enough.
Hope this helps!
Hi Andee, I am so grateful for your last comment on this lip balm! I just bought some lanolin from the local drugstore (until the one from MMS arrives) and I started to do this lip balm.
I got the same problem, honey not being incorporated (I only made a 10 gram test batch on this one), so I guess that re-heating the balm and stirring will actually solve my blob problem 🙂 (ok, I started the process without reading the comments :)) )
I just hope that in the end the balm will be firm enough to be poured in a lip balm tube 😉
Is the lanolin an emulsifier? I am just wondering if the honey will seperate in the oils while cooling in the tubes? Thanks!
Yes, lanolin is an emulsifier. It can hold up to 2 times its own weight in water. Mix well. High shear mixing is good for lanolin too, such as an immersion blender.
Update: I’ve found that stirring every 15 minutes for one hour while the lip balm cools keeps the honey from settling. Once cooled, I fridge it overnight, then warm it back up (nuke 10 minutes on 3 (DEFROST) and pour. I don’t usually add flavor, but MMS Honey Flavor Oil is perfect for this and a good seller for one of my wholesale customers.
I’ve been reading about making lip balms (only made one so far myself) and in a few places I’ve seen Allantoin mentioned. I love the idea of incorporating it into a lip balm, but it being a water soluble product has me stumped. I asked Susan over at “Point of Interest” and she didn’t know either. I’m wondering.. would it dissolve in warm honey? I’m intrigued by using the lanolin as the emulsifyer in this recipe so I’m wondering if this might be the way to incorporate the Allantoin. Am I crazy or do you think it would work?
Thanks!
Rhonda,
Allantoin is not soluble in water, it is only dispersible. You should not add any water type products to a lip balm, it creates a preservative issue and you will need a preservative if you use water soluble ingredients like honey. Allantoin can be used in lip balm but it may not be the best ingredient there. Getting the lips to a supple texture is more likely to be from adding fats and waxes which prevent moisture loss.
Does that make sense?
I do understand the need for a preservative in the presence of water. I don’t have a problem with that. Kinda confused now since I thought honey was a “water type” product in this recipe. I’ll have to make a split batch and see what happens. All part of the learning process 🙂
This recipe does ideally need a preservative if made for sale. This recipe was made and demonstrated for those who want to make lip balm for personal use. We do not carry a preservative that is optimal for use in lip balms. I hope this helps!
Hi there,
Can lanolin be replaced with something else?
Thanks,
Sofia
In this mixture the lanolin gives texture and long lasting power to the lip balm. If you wish to make a lip balm without lanolin I would suggest one of our other lip balms that does not contain this ingredient. Do not add honey unless you have an emulsifier. In this recipe the lanolin is the emulsifier.
Tina