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Anyone who’s been rescued in an SOS chapped-lip moment by a lip balm knows that its pout-saving powers can’t be underscored. One that seems to come up in conversation time-after-time? La Mer’s mint concoction—but the next time you run out of your favorite tube, you might just consider DIYing your own. As it happens, there’s a dupe that’s easy to make and the result is similarly luxurious.
Amy Galper, aromatherapist, co-founder of the New York Institute of Aromatic Studies, and co-author of Plant-Powered Beauty (which drops today) along with fellow co-writer Christina Daigneault has concocted a mint chocolate lip balm recipe—and it’s something you can quickly whip up in your kitchen.
The key ingredient is cocoa butter—which is the primary component of chocolate (the best ingredient of all time, IMO). “It’s also a dream for your skin,” notes Galper. “Cocoa butter’s a natural fat extracted from the cacao bean that contains a high concentration of fatty acids and offers lasting hydration and protection from free radicals.”
She put together the lip-saving goodness with the beauty hero coconut oil, and added in peppermint essential oil for that invigorating sensation (and that mint-chocolate taste). “This smells and feels delicious—like you’re massaging a luxurious beauty candy on your lips,” says Galper. “Plus, the main ingredients—cocoa butter and coconut oil—nourish and heal super dry cracked lips.”
The best news of all is that you’ll no longer have to pay for overnight shipping to get something that’ll save your chapped lips (score).
Keep reading to get the chocolate mint lip balm recipe from Galper herself.
Choc-o-mint lip balm
Makes 18 .15-ounce tubes of lip balm
Ingredients
1/4 cup cocoa butter1/4 cup beeswax1/4 cup coconut oil20 drops peppermint essential oil
1. To set up the double boiler, pour 2 to 3 inches of water into the bottom pot and about 1 inch of water into the upper pot. Heat until the water in the top pot is steaming.
2. Add the cocoa butter, beeswax, and coconut oil to a glass measuring pitcher, and gently place the pitcher into the steaming water of the upper pot. Stir the ingredients continually until they are fully melted.
3. Once the contents of the measuring pitcher are melted and combined, remove the pitcher from the warm water and carefully dry the outside of the pitcher with a paper towel.
4. Add the peppermint essential oil to the mixture and stir.
5. Line up the lip balm tubes on a sheet of parchment paper. With a steady hand, carefully pour the mixture directly from the measuring pitcher into each tube, filling it all the way to the rim. Be sure to do this step right away, while the mixture is hot and fully melted. If the mixture starts to cool (you will know because it will begin setting and will be difficult to work with), simply place the measuring pitcher back into the hot water in the upper pot to re-melt the gel. The lip balm will stay fresh for 3 months.
While you’re whipping up your own essentials, here’s how to be your own personal beauty guru with these next-level DIY skills. Just watch out for these 6 buzzy ingredients you might want to avoid in DIY beauty.
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