making chapstick

When the weather gets cooler my mind turns not only to knitting but also to making body products. I made chapstick already last year, but wasn’t overly happy with the recipe, so I tried a different one this year.

I used:
20% beeswax
25% coconut oil
15% cocoa butter
40% olive oil

No coloring, no scent, no smell. I actually like the faint smell of beeswax 🙂 I was aiming for three or four tubes worth of chapstick and eyeballed the quantity. Now I’m not that good with numbers, so eyeballing was probably not the best idea in the first place. I made 50grams total, which turned out way too much (mental note: make only 25grams next year!) and ended up giving away the extra tubes to my work colleagues.

The process is very simple: 1. Melt the beeswax and cocoa butter in a boiling water bath.

2. Add the coconut oil and the olive oil (return to double boiler briefly if the beeswax solidifies again).

3. Pour it into the empty chapstick tubes and let it cool down.

Done! A great and simple chapstick to protect your lips from the cold in the coming months, without artificial flavorings, colorings, preservatives etc. Since you’re only dealing with oil there is no need for preservatives. I only use my chapstick for a couple of months before making new one though.