Ultra Creamy Lip Butter

Lip balm, lip gloss, lip stick, and now lip butter. I’ve created lots of different natural lip products over the years to replace all the tubes of lip products I used to buy. This lip butter is so simple to make with just a few ingredients and melts like butter on your lips, hence the name!

It’s a little more nourishing than some lip balms so it’s perfect for when you need the extra hydration.

Lip Butter vs Lip Balm

When I first heard the words lip butter I thought it was just a strange name for lip balm. It turns out there are some differences between the two (even if they are more subtle). Lip balm uses a blend of waxes and oils to moisturize the lips. A lip butter can also use some wax and oil, but it also adds in more creamy lip butters. 

Shea butter, mango butter, cocoa butter, and cupuacu seed butter are some of the top favorites here. Butters are thicker than liquid oils but they’re not as hard or waxy as beeswax or candelilla wax. They also have a unique fatty acid profile that’s great for skin and lips. 

Lip Butter Ingredients

I’ve kept the ingredients list simple so you don’t have to buy a ton of different oils and butters to make this. Beeswax helps thicken, while cocoa butter and mango butter add that luxurious emollient feeling. I’ve also included some meadowfoam seed oil to make it spreadable and essential oil for scent and added lip benefits.

Mango Butter

First up we have mango butter. I love how smooth and creamy it feels without being too thick. It’s softer than cocoa butter and feels more like shea butter. Mango butter is one of the few butters that has some astringency, so it doesn’t leave skin or lips feeling overly greasy. 

You can substitute shea butter, but shea butter does have more of a tendency to get gritty once it’s cooled down. A good way to prevent this from happening is to cool any product made with shea butter in the fridge, instead of room temperature. 

Cocoa Butter

I chose cocoa butter because it’s harder and gives the lip butter more thickness without over relying on beeswax. Cocoa butter is high in saturated stearic and palmitic fatty acids and creates a lipid barrier to prevent moisture loss. It also smells amazing with it’s slightly chocolate scent!

Meadowfoam Seed Oil

This liquid carrier oil may not be one you’ve worked with before. It adds a nice lightness to the blend and makes the creamy butters more spreadable on the lips. Meadowfoam seed oil is an emollient to lock in moisture, but is more easily absorbed than heavier carrier oils like olive or avocado oil. If you don’t have any on hand you use any liquid carrier oil you prefer, but it will affect the overall absorption and texture of the lip butter. 

Essential Oil 

Not only do essential oils make this smell amazing, but they add additional soothing and aromatherapy benefits. Just be sure to choose lip safe essential oils that won’t irritate this delicate area! Oils like cinnamon, lemongrass, clove, and ginger may smell great, but they can cause burns or sensitivity in lip products. And others like lemon and lime can cause phototoxicity (aka burns when exposed to sunlight). 

Here are some of my favorite lip safe essential oils to use:

• Lavender
• Sweet orange
• Geranium
• Mandarin
• Neroli
• Rose
• Spearmint
• Peppermint 

Since the cocoa butter gives this lip butter a chocolatey scent I like using essential oils that smell good with white chocolate. For this batch I used lavender, but peppermint and orange are also really nice with the cocoa butter. 

Another important safety note when it comes to essential oils is dilution. In general how much essential oil you use for lip products depends on the exact essential oil. Nothing in the above list is overly harsh, so a good rule of thumb is .5 to 1 percent. This comes to about 5-10 drops in this recipe. It may be tempting to add a whole lot more, but less is usually better when it comes to essential oils!

Here’s how to make your very own lip butter. 

Tips For Making Lip Butter

Really we’re just adding everything together, melting, and pouring into containers. No multiphase formulas or complicated steps. I have a heat safe glass bowl that I use only for making DIY products and I’ll use that like a double boiler. You can also melt the ingredients in a dedicated Mason jar for easier pouring. 

I’ve found that it’s easy to wipe out the wax/butter residue with paper towels after I’ve poured the product into my containers. Don’t go straight for soap and a washcloth to clean up or you’ll have a waxy mess! 

Avoid storing your lip butter in hot or humid conditions which will degrade the ingredients faster. This includes leaving it in a hot car or in a bathroom with a steamy shower.

Have you made your own lip butters or balms before? What are your favorite scents to use? Leave a comment and let us know!