Lip balms are among the most fascinating products from a formulator's or marketing perspective. From the teenage (maybe even before depending on the climate) to the very latest breath, women and men all need and use one form or another lip balm. They are used in summer as well as in winter, on hot and humid days as well as cold and dry days. If you are going to start with just one single item to sell, that should be a lip balm.
In fact I know of a couple of artisanal brands that have started only with a couple of lip balms and then they expanded to other skin care products. You can start with a very simple and universal balm for everybody and then branch to different variations by varying the color and scent and the oils you are using. You can prepare a special one for men, some for winter sports (have you ever seen a skier without a lip balm in the pocket?) some for bikers, or prepare a bundle for 4 seasons. The sky is the limit. What makes them even more attractive (from supplier's perspective) is that you do not need a huge inventory to create a broad variety. You can make them in a jar, a pencil, a tube or a lipstick mold. These are at least 20 different sorts for just one simple but necessary product.
Another advantage of lip balms (or any balm) is that since they do not contain any water, you don't need to go through the hassle of challenge testing and routine microbial testing. This again, spares you huge amounts of time, money, real state in your lab and nerves.
Basically what you need to create ANY lip balm is a few oils, butters and waxes and an antioxidant. This is the minimum inquiry. You can even leave the color and scent to the oils and butters you are using. For example if you are using buriti oil or avocado oil as your main oils, you don't even need any additional colorant. Use the plum butter or plum oil in addition to the unrefined cocoa butter and you don't even need any scent. How fabulous is that?
Now to encourage you to dedicate some time to making (and selling) lip balms, specially now that we are moving on to the end of summer, we have prepared not one but 4 lip balms for this post. In the video we show you just one variety but when you know how it works you can create an endless collection of lip balms. In the PDF file we share the formulation for all 4 versions.
These formulation contain a certain amount of wax and are suitable for filling in lipstick molds, in tubes or in these natural jumbo pencils. They are not suitable for filling in the jar.
Formulation:
| Phase A | Dosage |
|---|---|
| Cocoabutter | 14,0% |
| Myrica fruit wax | 28,0% |
| Rice bran wax | 8,0% |
| Olive squalane | 5,0% |
| Green tea wax | 2,5% |
| Phase B | |
| Emogreen C69 | 38,1% |
| Green silicone alternative | 3,0% |
| Fluid ceramide NP | 0,5% |
| Tocopherol | 0,3% |
| Rosemary CO2 extract | 0,1% |
| Lemon zest oil | 0,5% |
Procedure:
1- Blend phase A and B separately.
2- Prepare your molds and sticks.
3- Melt phase A in a water bath between 75-85 C
4- When phase A is melted stop heating. Add phase B and immediately fill in the molds and tubes. Put them in the freezer for up to 5 minutes.
You can watch the video here
Download the PDF file with all 4 formulations here
