Only a couple of weeks ago I was looking for a new lipstick mould on the net. Needless to say, there are so many choices available, it is not easy to pick just one. I wanted a mould that can be taken apart. The ones that come as all-in-one were just not good enough especially when it comes to cleaning ( it may just be me, I hate washing up).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I came across these metal moulds with which, if you change certain parts, you can create exciting lipsticks and lip balms with two different colours.

I started experimenting. Ugh, a nightmare. As much as I love formulating and considering how many products I have made in the past few years, lip balms were not so easy ( I am deeply embarrassed :)). Truth be told, I don’t care for them a lot but in this cold, windy weather I am desperate to have some with me when I go out. My good friend, Barbora sent me her coffee lip balms; oh my, delicious and creamy and just super nourishing. But I cannot rely on her supplying me with balms, right?!

It took me 3 trials to get to a formula I actually liked. Either the colour was weird, or the lip balm kept on cracking. I realised that in the past my moulds were all plastic and this was metal. I had to keep the molten lip balm warm ( and not hot) otherwise the metal made it cool too fast and it resulted in tiny cracks on the side. So keep an eye on the temperature.

As easy as lip balms may seem, there are a few things novice formulators may struggle with. First and foremost, graininess. Butters are amazing ingredients but they can be super prone to making your balms grainy. Shea is notorious (although fantastic), in this case I chose cocoa. Rapid cooling will help eliminate the graininess issue.

Secondly, the wax-oil ratio. If you are not used to making lip balms, try 30% wax to 70% oil and go from there. You can replace some of the oils with a little bit of butter but not too much as it will result in them melting in a hotter weather.

As always, I find that a blend of oils is the best way to go when making these balms and there are hundreds of interesting oils to pick from. How about parsley or apple seed oils? Nice, right?

In this formula the orange layer is created by adding a bit of buriti oil and I also added some blood orange essential oil. The white one, the centre, is with coconut and plum kernel oils. I just love the coconut, the marzipan-like plum and orange combo. Remember that you need to keep the essential oils very low in lip care products.

The result is a lovely creamy balm. The colour difference is not very striking but it’s OK. I already have plans to make variations with green, red and blue. Stay tuned for those!

I am attaching the formula below and I just had to make a video as well. Feel free to watch the video for the process and come back here for the formula. I hope you’ll like it.

HOW TO USE

Apply a small amount whenever your lips feel dry or chapped. Use it in cold weather to protect your lips from the elements.

THE FORMULATION

I prepared 10g each of the phases and that made 2 two-tone lip balms and 2 regular lip balms.