Lip Balm Ideas?

[dylan1984]

Anybody have any great homemade lip balm suggestions? I have chronically chapped lips which I thought I was just going to have to deal with forever until I found Kiehls Lip Balm #1, to which I am now addicted. It actually heals my lips and makes them soft and wonderful. BUT, I can't afford to keep up this habit and wondered if there is something in it that is doing the trick that I could make for cheap. (P.S. Have used just about every other balm in the book from blistex to burts bees and nothing does what this stuff does - they are all temp. fixes and don't actually heal/stop the cracking. )

Here are the Kiehls ingredients in case any of you know how to decode this stuff:
Active: octinoxate 1.0% (sunscreen) and Petrolatum 90.8% (skin protectant....I thought this stuff was bad?)

Inactive: squalane, lanolin, triticum vulgare (wheat) germ oil, tocopherol, allantoin, propylparaben, butylparaben, aloe barbadensis leaf extract

thanks!

[grazy101]

you can always make your own with beeswax, coconut oil or any type of oil you have at home. Or Etsy will be a good choice for some natural lip balm.

[kalisis]

Petrolatum is Vaseline. And it's a petroleum by-product.

Squalane is derived from the livers of sharks. I'm not sure you could buy it in bulk anywhere?

Lanolin comes from sheep. You can buy this in bulk.

Wheat germ oil, yep, you can get it in bulk.

Tocopheral is vitamin E.

Allantoin is a chemical compound that can be either naturally occuring or synthesized. You can buy it in bulk, although I'm not sure what exactly you would do with it. FWIW, I had to look that one up.

parabens - known carcinogens.


I'm not sure you'd want to recreate this stuff. As usual, lots of weird things in it. Have you tried just plain vaseline? That seems to be the major ingredient in this product and might help. What about Bag Balm? It's about the same as vaseline, but a little more herb-y.

[Chamomile Girl]

Allantonin is probably the ingredient that is healing your lips. It is naturally occuring in comfrey root. Calendula is also a great skin healing herb; I would suggest that you mix the two in a homemade lip balm.

The easiest (not cheapest) way to get the comfrey is to buy a bottle of Gaia Herbs comfrey oil (its in olive oil). You can do a bulk root extract, but comfrey root is pretty hard stuff and takes awhile to extract properly IME.

Meanwhile warm some olive oil in the microwave (or stovetop) and add bulk calendula petals (just enough to be covered/saturated with oil). Let sit for about 20 minutes...strain out the petals. Your oil should be fragrant and yellow (if not leave them to infuse longer).

I don't have exact proportions (I usually make salve not lip balm) but mix:

Comfrey oil
Calendula oil
Coconut oil
beeswax (when mixture is hot)
small amount of:
Vit E (once the mixture is fairly cool)
jojoba oil
essential oils that you like

[summermay]

I just use plain honey.

[dylan1984]

thanks for all your replies! I read your posts and then decided to check one of my cast off lip balms that had worked 2nd best for me in the past:

Trader Joes Virtuoso Lip Balm (spf 15). Here are its ingredients:

Active: Octinoxae (7.5%), Oxybenzone (3.0%)
Inactive: Organic virgin olive oil, beeswax, organic jojoba oil, tocopherol (vit e), essential oil of spearmint, shea butter, rosemary extract, organic comfrey, organic calendula, organic st. johns wort.

Sounded like a lot of great stuff, some of which you all had mentioned. So I have been using it and am pretty happy with the results! Oh, and it is cheap too! 3 pack for I think under $3 if I remember correctly. yay!