Easy steps to making homemade tinted lip balm lip stain

How to Make Tinted Lip Balm

Renee Harris

What’s better than a lip balm? A tinted lip balm!

It’s as easy as making lip balm, and then adding color.

Check out the tinted lip balms we have for sale on our store site: https://store.hardlotion.com/products/tinted-lip-balms

The results on your lips are perfect: enough to show color, but not so much that you look like your great-aunt Susan at Thanksgiving.

I personally use cocoa butter rather than shea butter in this recipe and that’s because the chocolate scent hides the sometimes earthy natural scent of the iron oxide colorant. Whether you use cocoa butter or shea butter (or mango butter or avocado butter), the ratio would be the same.

Tinted lip balm ingredients include beeswax, cocoa butter, coconut oil and iron oxide

Let’s get started!

Tinted Lip Balm Recipe

To make approximately 35 lip balm tubes of lip balm (.15 oz per tube), weigh and melt:

2 ounces beeswax

2 ounces cocoa butter

2 ounces coconut oil

Melt completely in a double boiler or dedicated (make-up only) small crock pot.

Using a wooden skewer, add in:

1.5 tsp of iron oxide colorant (see below for source)

Stir well.

Use a medicine dropper to carefully fill each lip balm tube almost to the top. Leave a bit of room to cap off the lip balms with more lip balm mixture. Do this when the tubed lip balm is almost dry, but not quite.

Bonus! Downloadable and Printable Lip Balm Labels

We have downloadable lip balm labels for you in two different colors (one matches our Crimson Rose tinted lip balm and the other is our French Plum).

Click to download:

Download –> french_plum_handcrafted

Download –> crimson_rose_handcrafted

I found this resource for buying the actual labels to print on. You may want to double check with the seller (send them the pdf file) before purchasing but the dimensions do add up: https://www.etsy.com/listing/102376218/lip-balm-labels-150-rectangle-white?ref=hp_rv

Variations and troubleshooting:

Try this source for colorants: www.brambleberry.com
I caution against using Amazon as a source for purchasing pigments, unless you’re familiar with the reputation of the company.
Iron oxide is my colorant of choice due to its rich hue, natural tones, and affordable price. Make sure that the particle size is small for easy blending.
Use titanium dioxide (preferred) or zinc oxide to create a lighter version of your main colorant.
A natural, easy to use, but expensive colorant to try is carmine (a rich red colorant, but as it’s derived from an insect called the cochineal, there might be a bit of ick associated with it)
Make sure the colorant is oil-soluble, (water-soluble-only won’t do… it must be oil-soluble).
Micas won’t add color, per se, but can add some shimmer/glitter and shine as they come in hues of gold and silver. When mixed with an iron oxide, you may need to add more than the 1.5 tsp total to create a strong enough color. Otherwise, use the 1.5 tsp of iron oxide, and then add a bit of mica.
Make sure the iron oxide you use is cosmetic-safe and is 100% iron oxide (if it’s not the only ingredient, that’s not necessarily bad, but you may need to adapt the amount).
Check a small amount by dropping a few drops onto wax paper, allow to dry, and then apply to the lips.
Ready to learn even more? I highly recommend the blog www.humblebeeandme.com, or better yet, go straight to her book using our Amazon affiliate link.