Month: December 2022

Create

Homemade Lip Balm

Lisa

If you’re looking for a new craft to explore, lip balm is a fun and easy DIY project. I’ve been making my own for several years, and I have my recipe dialed in. It has a great consistency and texture—it sets up nice and firm but still glides onto your skin smoothly. 

When I first decided to try making lip balm, I didn’t want to invest in a bunch of equipment or supplies that I might not use long term. Would I enjoy the craft? Would it even work? So I kept things as simple as possible while I experimented. 

But I loved it! I like choosing which ingredients I do (or don’t) use on my skin, and lip balm makes a great gift—I pretty much always include one with packages I give to others. I’ve made numerous batches of lip balm using my simple setup, and it works just fine . . . though there are a few extra items that I will recommend in the directions below that I have found to be helpful in the balm-making process.


Base Recipe (will yield ~8 lip balm tubes)

The base ingredients are all readily available in stores and online. I like to purchase organic products whenever I can, and as you use very little of the ingredients in a single batch, they last a long time. These ingredients are popular in skincare products because they are moisturizing, vitamin-rich, and anti-inflammatory.

1 Tbsp unrefined coconut oil
1 Tbsp shea butter 
1 Tbsp beeswax pellets


Add the ingredients to a double-boiler and gently heat until melted. (Some people use a microwave; I prefer being able to monitor the slow melting on the stovetop.) I don’t have a fancy double-boiler—I just use a glass bowl resting on top of a pan of simmering water.

After the base ingredients are melted, but before you decant the liquid into the tubes, you have many options for customizing your lip balm.

Clockwise from top: Coconut oil, beeswax pellets, shea butter

Add scent: You can add drops of essential oil to the base. Peppermint, Grapefruit, Sweet Orange, and Lavender are nice…. I’ve experimented with all of these at different times (not all at once!). Stir ~10 drops into your melted base. It’s important to add these at the end, after you remove the pan from the heat, because high temperatures can damage the delicate essential oil.

Add color: You can give your lip balm a tint of color with add-ins like hibiscus powder or cosmetic-grade mica powder. I use a very light touch with these (like 1/8 of a teaspoon), as I’ve found they can make the lip balm too “grainy” if I overdo it.

Add SPF: I did a little research on how to add SPF to homemade lip balm. Coconut oil offers a very small degree of natural protection (single-digit SPF), but Red Raspberry Seed oil can provide a somewhat higher SPF quality (source). It’s difficult to quantify exactly what protection factor these will add to your lip balm so I don’t “advertise” it on my labels, but I like knowing that my lip balm is providing at least some amount of sun protection. I add ~15 drops of Red Raspberry Seed oil to my melted base ingredients.

Tube Time!

Once the lip balm base is melted and well-combined, remove it from the heat, add any custom ingredients, and prepare to get it into the tubes. You can purchase 5.5 mL tubes in bulk, in packages of 50-100, for a good price. To get the melted base into the tubes, I like to use a large 20 mL syringe. This makes it easy to draw up the liquid and neatly deposit it into each tube. Use a rubber band to secure the tubes in a little bundle so that they will not tip over while you are filling them. Allow the tubes to cool and harden for a few hours, then place the caps on them and they’re ready to use.

I filled a few of the tubes, then added a bit of color to the remaining base for the rest of the tubes

Labels

I didn’t use labels for my first few batches of lip balm, but once I knew that balm-making would be an ongoing craft for me, I wanted my finished products to look more polished. The labels also let people know which ingredients you used. 

At the Avery online store, you can find a template expressly for 2 1/8” x 2 1/8” “Lip Balm Labels.” Create your custom design, order sheets of labels (12 per sheet), apply them to the tubes, and voila. Your results will look next-level professional, so don’t be surprised if people are shocked when they learn that you made the lip balm yourself!

Eat

Actual Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Lisa

I’ve been keeping something secret for way too long. 

I have a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies. I get rave reviews when I make these, and people frequently request the recipe. It’s funny because the secret ingredient is not something I put IN the cookie dough, but rather something I leave out.

I enjoy desserts—especially desserts that feature chocolate—but I do not like things that are overly sweet. Plus, sugar’s inflammatory effects on our bodies are well-documented, impacting organs, joints, skin, mood. It’s one of the few things doctors and nutritionists seem to agree upon, so I try to limit my sugar consumption as much as possible.

Homer has a different philosophy…

I modify recipes all the time, for health reasons or simply because I don’t have a required ingredient on hand. One thing I’ve discovered is that I can pretty much ALWAYS reduce the amount of sugar a recipe calls for, and it doesn’t adversely affect the final result. In fact, sometimes it makes the result spectacular.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Time

I’ve been making these cookies for years, so I don’t remember exactly when I first tried this experiment. But I was following a recipe for “best chocolate chip cookies” I’d found on allrecipes.com, and when it came time to measure out the sugar, I was like, Dang that’s a lot of sugar. I just couldn’t do it. I decided to try cutting the amount of white sugar and brown sugar in half. The cookies turned out cakey and fluffy, super soft in the center but nicely snappy on the outside. With less sugar in the recipe, the cookies do not spread and carmelize as much as others I’ve made.

Ready for the secret recipe? Here we go.


Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda + 2 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like to use dark chocolate morsels)

Steps:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream together butter and both sugars until smooth.
  3. Add eggs to batter, beating in one at a time (you’ll get better emulsification of the ingredients; here’s why).
  4. Add the vanilla.
  5. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water then add to batter, along with the salt.
  6. Stir in the flour.
  7. Fold in the chocolate chips.
  8. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
  9. Bake for about 10 minutes, just until the edges are starting to brown.
  10. Remove to a cooling sheet/rack immediately.

You should get between two and three dozen cookies from this recipe, depending how big you make them. 


I hope you enjoy the cookies as much as I do! And maybe the results will embolden you to play with sugar reduction in other recipes as well.