So this post has been in the making for a long time. I'm beginning to envy people who blog on a weekly or even on a daily basis. Props!
The idea for this came to me probably two months ago when I was rock climbing. I love climbing and wish I could do it all the time. Unfortunately, my body doesn't always agree and I usually last a few hours until my arms turn to mush. Those of you who climb are familiar with arm mush. Somehow I am a unique climber in that every time I boulder (shorter climbs that have more of an incline and are designed to do without rope) my hands get completely hacked with blood blisters and skin tears. No pictures this time. I had seen a hand salve/lotion bar for post climbing hands and figured I'd try it out.
This stuff works great and one day I wondered to my self what was in it. Surprisingly, all the ingredients were household items! Coconut butter, beeswax, hempseed oil, almond butter, caster oil, etc. Not exactly what you would expect as household items but my mom likes to make soap, and the Rowley family is known for having a unique household inventory..... So I talked to her about how she worked with all these things and after some research I learned that making lip balm is surprising simple, so I gave it a shot. Turns out, it is super easy and kind of fun.
Here is a brief how to for making your own lip stuffs.
What you need:
Vegetable Butter (like cocoa butter or avocado.....which are actually both fruits...)
Beeswax
Olive Oil (or any other cool oil stuffs they have out there like almond, hempseed, etc)
Flavor! (all over the place online)
Vitamin E Oil
Double Boiler
Lip Balm Tubes
Scale
Labeling items (or not, your call)
Vellum Paper
Computer
Packing Tape
The process is super easy. Measure on the scale each ingredient and then melt in the double boiler. When everything is mixed you poor it into the tubes and let it dry. That's it!! No secrets.
(I used Vitamin E oil pills because they were cheaper;
you just cut a little whole with a knife and
squeeze out the juice; its good for your skins)
As far as labeling goes, I found a template online and tweaked it a bunch to make my own look. Packing tape and vellum paper work great and then a little strip of scotch tape acts as a great tamper proof seal.
So I'm beginning to learn that with most things people think that their way is the only right way. For lip stuffs everyone had their own recipe that they swore by, so I looked at all the options, tried a few of them out, decided what I liked and didn't liked, and then figured out my own way of doing it. There is probably a life lesson in there somewhere...... But as for lip stuffs, if you are doing this on your own I'd say try equal parts oil, butter, and wax. Then add a few drops of flavor and some Vitamin E oil and see what you like. Then make it your own! My recipe is a secret.
My recipe ended up yielding loads and loads, and I haven't even taken a chunk out of my supply. This batch was cucumber melon flavored and it has tested great with certain focus groups. :) I've been selling them for $2 so if anyone is interested just e-mail me at zackery.rowley@gmail.com. If you bump into me, I usually have some extras on me as well. If you can't stand cucumber melon then I'm planning on a wintery citrusy flavor this month.
Here's a fun promotion! If you share a link for my blog on social media and then post a funny picture of you using my lip balm then I'll give you a free tube!
Better yet, try it out. For me this is probably becoming to most important thing about this blog. I am slowly realizing that being a lip balm peddler doesn't really bring in the dough. But, if this blog becomes of venue for stimulating learning and creativity then I will consider myself a happy man/boy/child/person. So please, if you have questions let me know. I can hook you up with my sources and recipes if you are interested. It's pretty fun. Here what I learned!
Next post: Soap making, no lye! (joke, lots of lye)
And then: 100% from scratch Dream Catchers (my favorite!)
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