ISO Soy Lip Balm

[soygirl]

My supplier is out of lip balm base, so I want to try to make it myself. The recipe seems fairly simple - just hydrogenated soybean oil, shea butter, coconut oil and vitamin E. Can anyone recommend good proportions of each ingredient, or does anyone have a lipbalm recipe to share that uses these ingredients? Also, I've been reading up on vitamin E, and it is supposed to keep oils from going rancid, but will not prevent bacterial growth. Does this mean that I should also add an additional preservative, or are these oils and butters bacteria-resistant on their own? One more questions, and this might be a stupid one, but I have pure coconut oil in my kitchen cupboard - for making popcorn. It seems to melt around 80 degrees F. Is this coconut oil the same as the kind you buy for making bath and body products?

[mountainmadness]

Pure white coconut oil.. which is sold for making popcorn is what you use in B&B products. That much I know! :smiley2: The melt point is normally 76 degrees. In the lip balm that I have made I use vitamin E and do not use a preservative. I have never felt the need and have done a lot of testing.

By looking at your ingredients my suggestion would be:

60% shea butter
20% coconut oil
20% soybean oil
vary the amount of Vitamin E depending on the size of your batch. You do not need much and too much might make it runny.

HTH.

[soygirl]

Thanks Jennifer! If I use hydrogenated soybean oil (soy wax) instead of soybean oil, will that change the proportions?

I'm a little confused, because I don't see an oil component in the ingredients of the lip balm from my supplier. I thought lip balm recipes always need a mixture of oils, waxes and butters?

Can jojoba oil be used in place of vit E? Because I was thinking something like this:
25% soy wax
40% shea butter,
15% coconut oil
20% jojoba oil
Then I could increase/reduce the soy wax or jojoba oil to make it softer or harder as needed.

[mountainmadness]

The soybean wax amount should be varied depending on how creamy you want your lip balm. I, myself, prefer a somewhat soft balm that you can put your finger in the jar and squish if you push hard enough. Some people like harder balms and if you use a tube it cannot be as soft. I think that you will have to mess around with the amounts to see what you like better and what kind of tube/pot etc. that you will be using.

I do not think that jojoba has the same properties in it that vitamin E does. You can try it and see is my only advise on that. :undecided

HTH some.

[soygirl]

I tried this last night:
30% container soy wax
40% refined shea butter
15% coconut oil
15% jojoba oil
added 3 drops of vit E and 5 drops of flavoring. Then I quick cooled it in in a lip pot in the fridge (I've read that quick cooling keeps the shea butter from getting grainy).

The result was too soft. It melted on my finger and looked like an oily gloss when applied. I think I'll try leaving out the jojoba oil altogether and increasing the soy wax and shea butter. I'd like to get something that I can actually put in a lip balm tube, but is still softer and more moisturizing than Chapstick.

[itsallgood20]

That looks like a good recipe. You may want to try a little beeswax to help firm it up a bit. :)

[soygirl]

Thanks Cynthia,
I'm sure it would be perfect then, but I'm trying to avoid using beeswax if at all possible. Not that I am against using beeswax, but I just don't want to exclude potential customers who might not buy it if it has beeswax in it.
-Margie

[daniedb]

I'm only repeating something I read here, so I can't vouch for the truth of it, but I thought I'd mention it - I read that soy wax is softer in general than beeswax, so it's advisable to use approximately 2x the amount of soy wax than you would have beeswax. I'd love to hear about the results, I've been toying with lip balm and I want to make my own using my soy flakes as well.

[soygirl]

Well, I tried this combination:
50% Shea Butter
40% Soy wax
10% Coconut oil
a few drops of vit E oil & flavoring

It's getting closer, but still a bit softer that I want. Also, it looks shiny when you put it on, and I don't think guys would go for that look. I want my balm to be unisex. I guess I will up the soy wax and reduce the coconut oil by 5%.

[Elizabeth]

i'd definitely up the soy wax since you are not wanting to use beeswax at all. Shea butter is on the softer side so i'd go down on its percentages and possibly add a harder butter like mango, kokum or coco butter. HTH

[soygirl]

Thanks for the tip. I will try adding a harder butter to it. That means I'll have to place another order. Eeek! My husband cringes every time another box arrives. I try to sneak them into the house now. If anyone would like to sell me a small amount (4 oz. sample) of mango or cocoa butter, PM me. I'd be happy to pay for the sample plus shipping via Paypal.

Thanks,
Margie

[edensong]

Margie, in your first post where you listed your supplier's ingredients - hydrogenated soybean oil, shea butter, coconut oil and vitamin E - is that the order on the container? If so, then you need to seriously up the soybean percentage.

You could certainly try harder butters, but I bet you can figure out a formula close to your supplier's. :wink2:

45% soybean
45% shea
9% coconut
1% Vit E

I haven't a clue if the above would work, but it's worth a try.

[soygirl]

Actually, they list coconut oil as the first ingredient. Then hydrogenated soybean oil, shea butter and vit E, in that order. I know that can't be right, because that would be extremely drying with coconut oil in that high of concentration, and this stuff isn't drying at all. I think they listed the ingredients out of order. I suspect that the formula must have more soybean wax and shea butter than coconut oil.

[edensong]

Why would you think coconut oil is drying?

Check this thread -- it's about lotion bars, but suds posts a couple formulas with soy and the ratios should work for lip balm.

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7122

[soygirl]

I tried straight coconut oil on my lips once, out of curiosity, and it was quite drying. It felt good at first, but awhile later my lips were dry and tight. I've also heard from several sources that too much coconut oil can be drying. Even the PVSoap site says so. Anyway, that was my reasoning. So, as much as 33% coconut oil should still be okay then? Thanks so much for your input edensong. Those look like good recipes, and one looks pretty close to what I might already be using:wink2:

[daniedb]

Have you tried it with any new butters? I'm really interested in your outcome, a soy wax lip balm is high on my R&D list, and I'm following your experiment avidly!

Mango or cocoa are really great, verrrry hard butters, and I'm totally out of mango, and I've just got a smidge of cocoa, or else I'd share the wealth. I'm on a spending freeze for now, so eeek!

[maryann]

This is a recipe I came up w/ awhile ago (Its what I sent as part of the swap)

.5oz soy wax (cosmetic)
.5oz cocoa butter(unrefined when making chocolate & refined for other flavors)
.2oz beeswax
.5oz shea butter
.3 oz emu oil
.2oz sweet almond oil
.1oz vit E
20 to 30 drops of flavoring

I don't color them or use sweetener

I melt the first 3 ingredients in my presto pot on warm, then when almost melted I add the shea butter. Once melted I pour into a glass measuring cup (pyrex) that already has the other ingredients measured out. Mix and add the flavoring and pour immeadiately. This makes 9 tubes, which I rubber band the tubes together before hand. Using a pyrex measuring cup w/ spout helps with the pouring. The recipe is firm yet melts on lips.

Today I made some and used .7oz soywax and .1oz beeswax and they turned good.

My husband tried a balm I got from a supplier awhile ago when I was first experiementing with balms, and loved it. He said he had a crack on his lip for 2 weeks using his normal blistex medicated balm, tried this supplier's balm and the crack was gone in two days! He has lots of problems w/ his lips & getting dry which causes coldsores (its a family thing/hereditary his mom says)... anywho the base of the balm was emu so I think I'm going to up the amount I use in this recipe. This past weekend I tried adding 2 drops of Melalucea's tea-tree oil, 4 drops of peppermint EO, and 20 drops of wintergreen flavoring and was disappointed. I was hoping to feel the tingle from the peppermint EO that some have talked about. I just thought 4 drops would be plenty for this size recipe. It smells just like double mint gum (I'm just glad I can't smell the Melalucea oil)

[edensong]

Margie,
Did you ever come up with anything that you really liked?

[soygirl]

I am going to try again this weekend. I've been waist deep in trying to get my new Peachtree Accounting Software set up, so I haven't had time for any R&D:sad2: Maryann, thanks for the tip on rubber-banding the tubes together. I'll bet that would work great. I'm going to try adding Mango Butter to my mixture of Soy wax, coconut oil, shea butter and vit E. I'll let everyone know what percentages work best.

[soygirl]

This weekend I tried:
20% virgin coconut oil
20% refined shea butter
20% refined mango butter
40% soy wax
Vit E.
Flavor oil

I think it's the vitamin E. I am using the capsule kind, and it's not just vit E, it has soybean oil too. I am adding only a teeny little bit, but maybe I should try the recipe without the Vit E, to see what happens. The other reason could be that I am only melting the ingredients together. Maybe I should try "cooking" them for a little bit to bind them together. I am afraid to cook the butters though, because I don't want them to get grainy. I made a control batch of my vendor's lip balm, and it isn't oily at all, so it can't be the flavor oil that is making my recipe shiny, because I added the same amount to my control batch. It is also still too soft. I should increase the soy wax even more, and cut back on the coconut oil, I guess. I'll keep trying, and keep everyone posted.

[daniedb]

Okay, I'm thinking that it may help if you add another hard butter. I think that's going to be what could do it for you - instead of shea, even, you could add cocoa - the shea may just not be hard enough for it. I know that mango is super hard, but I'm afraid you're not going to get a good hardness with that amount of shea. If you want to include shea, for its properties, or just for marketing purposes, I would only include it at 5-10% and make the cocoa your other 10-15%. Hmmm...dilemma.

I get in a nice sized order of cocoa on Tuesday, you want me to send you a few oz to experiment with?

And one more question - by oily, are you talking shiny and not hard enough? I would love to get a hard, tube consistency, but also a softer, pot consistency - is this recipe one that would go nicely in a pot?

[maryann]

adding more soy wax will help it be harder. :)

[daniedb]

PS maryann - thanks for the recipe, I love the consistency of the one you sent, I think I'll be using that one for my tubes (with soy instead of b/w)! It's a great product!

[soygirl]

By oily, I mean that the balm is firm enough to go in a tube, and dials up nicely, but it gets an oily/slippery film on top. So, it's like the oil isn't binding with the wax and butters. If I didn't have the oily problem, I personally think the recipe is firm enough. But some of my testers have tried it, thinking that it will be hard like Chapstick, and then they apply way too much. Plus, it gets too soft if you leave it in a pocket. Maybe I should try some cocoa butter. Thanks for the offer. I'll PM ya. By the way, my first try back on page one of this thread would have been great in a lip pot. It was firm yet looked very shiny when applied.

[edensong]

Do you have any kokum butter? It's great in lip balms.

[soygirl]

Do you have any kokum butter? It's great in lip balms.

No, but what is it? I've searched on the net, but can't seem to find a description. Is it from a plant seed, like Cocoa butter or what?

[edensong]

I thiink there was a recent kokum butter coop here. It's a wonderful butter.

You can read about it here:
http://www.oilsbynature.com/products/kokum-butter-refined.htm

[soygirl]

Wow, it sounds awesome. :drool: I'll have to try it someday, but for now I have to stop buying new butters for testing. My R&D budget for this year needs to be capped, no matter how much it makes me cry. I'm trying cocoa butter next, instead of the mango butter. I'll see what that does to the firmness. I'm actually trying to acheive two separate goals:
1. To replicate the balm recipe from my supplier as closely as possible by using only Coconut Oil, Hydrogenated soybean oil, shea butter and Vit E.
2. To create the world's best winter lip balm recipe, using soy wax instead of beeswax, and whatever else it takes. These cold dry Wisconsin winters are a perfect testing ground.
I really like my suppliers balm base, but I think I can do better:cheesy2:

[edensong]

Whereabouts in Wisconsin? I lived in Eau Claire for several years when I was younger. I remember -60 degree weather! :shocked2:

You might consider swapping some ingredients with others so you can continue R&D with new stuff. ;)

[soygirl]

I live in Neenah, which is south of Green Bay - the other side of the state. Yep, it can get pretty cold with the wind chill added in. We've had lows around zero without the wind chill lately, but it's starting to warm up again. I can remember some - 60 degree weather. You step outside, take a breath in, and your nose hairs freeze togethersanta chee . Ah, that's living!

[soygirl]

Wednesday night I tried the basic balm/lotion bar recipe:
.5 oz soy wax
.5 oz shea butter (refined)
.5 oz coconut oil (I used virgin)
plus partial contents of vit E capsule

It came out EXACTLY like the lip balm base I bought. Well, that was simple. I guess I was trying to make it too complicated. Anyway, now I'm going to improve on that recipe. Danielle was nice enough to send me some cocoa butter. It's super hard. Even harder than mango butter. So, instead of upping the soy wax, I'm going to add some cocoa butter to the recipe, and maybe add a bit of jojoba oil for more moisture.

[celicagtca]

I just posted on the general bath and body and maybe should have posted here. I just purchased the Lip Balm from Bitter Creek and find it to be to muckyt for my liking. The ingredients are:

Soybean Oil
Beeswax,
Sunflower seed oil,
Cocoa seed butter
She butter
Vitamin E

Could I add cocoa butter to harden this up?

[daniedb]

I'm so glad you're having success! I'd love to hear more about the end result, if you end up adding the cocoa butter.

[julwid]

The soy wax is it the same as what you make your candles with. I am wanting to try lip balms and just not sure of what ingred. to use. THanks

[Ann M]

I had been looking forever for a soy wax lip balm. I played around with it and tried 1/3 soy wax, 1/3 mango butter and 1/3 virgin coconut oil. It took a few days to really get set up, but it is so smooth and creamy. I just love it. I also tried 1/3 soy wax, 1/3 mango butter and 1/3 coconut 92, but it felt too greasy and not as smooth. I love mango butter and it is fabulous in this recipe.

Ann

[soygirl]

I realize that I'm really late in following up on this, but I've been tweaking and refining my lip balm recipe for over a year now, and am finally happy. I gave up on using soy wax altogether - yes I was using the same soy wax as I used for candles - and created a recipe with soybean oil instead. Here's what I ended up using - can't remember the amounts, but you'd want to play around with the percentages until you get the hardness that you want anyway. Here are my ingredients:

Virgin Coconut Oil
Non GM (genetically modified) Soybean Oil
Unrefined Shea Butter
Unrefined Cocoa Butter
Candellila Wax
Vit E - a few drops

Melt everything together on low heat and add the shea butter at the very last. Remove from heat when shea is just melted and add the vit E. The chocolate smell of the cocoa butter masks the "funky" smell of the unrefined shea very well, but you can add flavor oil too if you prefer. Work fast and pour into containers immediately. You can up the candellila wax to make this recipe suitable for lip balm tubes. This makes a really nice buttery balm that makes your lips moist and smooth, and lasts for quite awhile. The one problem with using shea butter is that if this balm melts in the summer and rehardens, it will get grainy, but it makes my lips feel so nice, that's a risk I'm willing to take.

[stacien]

I am curious as to why you are not using beeswax. Soywax does tend to result in oral facial allergic reactions on a majority of consumer's. You are better off using Candellila wax.

[Abrien]

Great posts! I have followed the experimentation on this subject. I absolutely can not live without my lip balm. Have you had a chance to sell any yet soygirl? If so what is the response?

[dirtybirdsoaps]

You can always add some candelilla wax to harden it up and still keep it vegan.

[Candle Makin Momma]

some vegetarians won't use a product with beeswax in it because it is an animal derived product.

Can you get any of these ingredients at a local store? I'd love to play around with lip balms, but can't start buying tons of B&B supplies, too. lol My hubby would flip.

[gloworm]

Wednesday night I tried the basic balm/lotion bar recipe:
.5 oz soy wax
.5 oz shea butter (refined)
.5 oz coconut oil (I used virgin)
plus partial contents of vit E capsule

It came out EXACTLY like the lip balm base I bought. Well, that was simple. I guess I was trying to make it too complicated. Anyway, now I'm going to improve on that recipe. Danielle was nice enough to send me some cocoa butter. It's super hard. Even harder than mango butter. So, instead of upping the soy wax, I'm going to add some cocoa butter to the recipe, and maybe add a bit of jojoba oil for more moisture.

What didn't work out with this recipe? If it was exactly like the base you bought?
Glo

[Soapgirl]

The only thing with candelilla is the scent is so strong it will overpower what ever scent you put in. At least that is what happened to me with it lol.