It’s that time of the year when I take to my crafting studio and come up with my annual lip balm creation. This time around, I pulled some inspiration from our new seasonal release tea, Mint Patty, and decided to craft a “Mint Chocolate Chip” blend for gift-giving. After all, I have never once gone wrong when combining chocolate and mint!

This hydrating lip balm calls upon the emollient properties of shea butter, and pairs with the alluring aromas of cocoa and peppermint. I like to make this balm in two different colors and marble them together to look like ice cream. While this adds some more time to the craft, it also brings a fun dimension and a bit of “wow factor” to the finished product. Let’s get craftin’!

Homemade Lip Balm Recipe: Chocolate Mint

Makes about 9 tubes.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. beeswax
• 2 Tbsp. organic sunflower oil
• 1 Tbsp. organic cocoa butter (about 5 wafers)
• 1 Tbsp. organic refined shea butter
• 2 Tbsp. organic peppermint leaf
• 12-15 drops organic peppermint essential oil
• A few drops Non-GMO Verified vitamin E oil (optional, but recommended)
• 1/4 tsp. Fair Trade organic cacao powder

Directions

1. Add beeswax, oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, and peppermint leaf to a double boiler over medium heat.
2. Once fully melted, infused for 5 minutes. Use an immersion blender to gently pulse the leaves into smaller bits. Allow to infuse for 15 more minutes.
3. Remove from heat and strain peppermint leaves out using a fine mesh strainer. (Some small bits may remain.)
4. Remove from heat and add essential oil and vitamin E oil.
5. Put about 1 tablespoon of mixture into another small pourable container and add cacao powder. Stir well.
6. Using a dedicated pipette for each mixture, slowly alternate adding about five drops of each mixture into lip balm tubes until filled. 
7. Allow to cool before placing lids on.
8. Label and share with your favorite humans!

Pro Tips

• Infusing the peppermint into the balm mixture adds a gentle green hue to the lip balm. This is optional. If you don’t wish to do this, skip steps 2 and 3.
  You can choose to make a whole batch of colorless lip balm, or a whole batch of chocolate-colored lip balm by omitting or adding the cacao powder. The color might transfer a very subtle hue to your lips, but is not lip coloring.
• Keep your lip balm mixtures warm so they remain pourable during the “bottling” process. 
  To achieve a more attractive marbling, you’ll want the previous layer to be partially set so that the colors don’t meld and begin to look murky. Add a few drops in several tubes so by the time you come back around with the other color, the previous color has partially solidified.

Looking for other fun lip balm recipes?

Try This Cookie and Cream Lip Balm!

You may also enjoy:

• Coffee Cardamom Lip Balm
• Hot Cocoa Lip Balm with “Marshmallows”
• Ginger Cookie Lip Balm