Home Cosmetic Science Talk Formulating Making a Lip Balm

  • Making a Lip Balm

    Posted by Heath0o7 on May 10, 2024 at 6:51 am

    Hi all,

    Winter is here in the southern hemisphere and I’d like to make a lip balm for my chapped lips. I also wanted to add ascorbic acid and vitamin E to add more benefits. The batch size is 50g and the tube is a black colored tube. Here’s the formula I thought of:

    Jojoba oil
    Sweet Almond oil
    Beeswax
    Shea butter
    Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride
    Lip balm flavor
    Vitamin E - natural alpha-tocopherol

    Ascorbic Acid

    Rosemary antioxidant

    My questions are

    1. How much % of ascorbic acid and vitamin E Should I use for lips?

    2. How to make the vitamin C as stable as possible?

    Heath0o7 replied 5 months, 3 weeks ago 4 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • yolise

    Member
    May 10, 2024 at 12:05 pm

    Ascorbic acid is unnecessary and waste in a lip balm. Besides since you will be using oils only water soluble ingredients will ruin your batch. Also check if your rosemary oil soluble. Personally in lip balm, I like oils and butters only and generally follow this recipe.

    20% wax

    20% hard butter

    20% soft butter and

    40 oil %.

    You don’t need a lot of vitamin E

    • Heath0o7

      Member
      May 10, 2024 at 4:56 pm

      <font color=”#01574e”>@Yolise and @PwrsNY thank you for the tip</font>

  • PwrsNY

    Member
    May 10, 2024 at 2:39 pm

    I usually use 0.20 % for Lip products of Tocopheryl Acetate ( Vitamin E ).

  • Graillotion

    Member
    May 10, 2024 at 7:13 pm

    Make sure you realize, T Acetate….does not protect your oils….if that was your goal? Acetate form is used for purported skin benefit. MT-E is for oil protection. They are very different in what they do.

    .1% of MT-E …. should be plenty!

    For the question you will ask in a few months….. Swap the shea for murumuru…and it will assure your product never becomes grainy. ???? (Check stearic acid levels in Muru…. vs Shea.)

    • Graillotion

      Member
      May 10, 2024 at 9:42 pm

      If you can get Murumuru that was sourced out of ICSC of Denmark …. you’ll even be further miles ahead. For that matter….all their oils are world class! (I almost don’t use any oil…that is not sourced from them! They are not even playing the same game…as other oil suppliers. I have an odd-ball pain cream that has some oils they don’t carry.)

    • yolise

      Member
      May 11, 2024 at 1:49 pm

      Very true about Shea butter. How grainy it becomes if it’s not heated correctly or there is change in temperature, is the main reason I hardly use it anymore. I’ve heard people say refined Shea butter is better

      • Graillotion

        Member
        May 11, 2024 at 10:55 pm

        Shea is always one melt cycle away from grainy. You can’t change what it is made of. (You can control how it assembles…when you make it….but out of your hands….next time it melts. Just unbelievable better options…without the stank…and greasiness.

        Refined vs unrefined…should make no difference as that process should not change the fatty acid profile. Simply one is gross…and the other is very gross! ????

        • Heath0o7

          Member
          May 16, 2024 at 2:10 am

          Hey guys, appreciate the input! I made the lip balm and I used Shea butter. I actually don’t have a problem with Shea butter. It wasn’t grainy and I used unrefined. The recipe I made is as follows:

          20% Beeswax

          10% Shea butter

          10% mango butter

          20% Cocoa butter

          18% jojoba oil

          13.9% sweet almond oil

          4% caprylic/capric triglyceride

          3% flavor oil

          1% fragrance oil

          0.1% ROE

          The lip balm turned out great in terms of texture, smell and application. However, it didn’t hold the moisture in and after applying multiple times throughout the day. My lips would still be chapped. I’m not feeling any improvements. I thought maybe it would be a good idea to add mineral oil to hold the moisture in. What do you think? If so, how much should I add?

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