Are you serious? :( – Burt’s Bees

Hi!

Okay, so my notes about my lip balm aren’t as clear as I’d hoped, but here’s the general idea –
You need:
– beeswax
– sesame oil (or another oil that has vitamin E).
– scent – optional.

A note: my measurements were in actual silverware teaspoons, not the ones for baking, since people don’t use those where I live and I don’t own any!

So, I made mine a bit pepperminty by tearing open a (GF) peppermint tea bag and soaking the leaves in some sesame oil for a few days in a jar with the lid on. I added a few drops of the oil to my finished un-hardened product.

For the balm itself:
– I made an improvised double burner by placing a mini jam jar (really tiny) in a small pot with hot but not boiling water
– I added 4tsp sesame oil and about 1 tsp beewax (my beeswax came in little chunks, something like this: http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/supply/graphics/beeswax_pastille.jpg – by the way, I’ve heard mountain rose herbs is good to order supplies from, though I never have and I don’t know if their raw materials are GF).
– I melted everything down, stirred it together a bit until it was all melted and homogenous. I added and mixed in a couple of drops of my peppermint extraction, and then I actually poured it into an old burt’s bees tin that I had cleaned out. The remainder I left in the jar to harden.
– The trick is to not let the water that the jar is sitting in get too hot – you get weird clumps when that happens.

If you don’t like the consistency of the final product, you can always melt it down and add more of what is missing – too hard, add more oil; too oily, add more beeswax. It doesn’t fully harden for about a day, so be wary of adding too much beeswax! My first attempt was impossibly hard.

I made my batch in early December and I’m still on my first tin! I found that initially, my lips peeled a bit but not terribly. They don’t anymore, and I’m far less dependent on using lip balm than I used to be. It also looks nice if you put on a fair bit – soft and shiny.

Sorry my recipe is a bit vague, it’s a bit of a trial and error process. But it’s easy and the product lasts so long that it’s worth experimenting initially.

I’ve been trying to make a good hand cream but have not yet succeeded, I’ll let you know if I do!

I just found your blog and it’s so valuable, I really appreciate how thorough you are. I’ll be in N. America in August and am planning on ordering a few things to try.

Also, I wanted to share with you an exchange I had with Nars a year ago:

Their initial response:
Thank you for contacting NARS Cosmetics.

Nars does not use any gluten or gluten derived ingredients in its products.
Therefore we consider our products to be “gluten free”. If you require
further assistance please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Erin
Customer Desires
NARS Cosmetics

My Reply:
Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

Are Nars products manufactured in a facility where they might be subject to cross-contamination with gluten?

Thank you,

Their Response:

We have been advised that there is no cross contamination during production.

Kind regards,

Erin
NARS Cosmetics

**
Now, I didn’t ask if they test, and I’d be shocked if they did. But, it does sound like some good news. I just re-emailed them yesterday to see if the response is the same a year later, I’ll let you know what they say.

Cheers,
Abby.

p.s. no, I don’t have a blog 🙂