Super Easy Homemade Lip Balm Recipe Anyone Can Make

Lip balm and treatment products can be really expensive if you go through them quickly because your lips are chronically dry. Making your own homemade lip balm is a great cost-saving alternative, but many of the recipes I’ve found online involve cooking or microwaving.

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What I Was Looking For

I wanted a recipe I could just whip up quickly by stirring some ingredients together. With a little experimentation, I created this very simple lip balm recipe.

This is a terrifically effective, cheap, simple recipe. It’s based on the fact that petroleum jelly is a protectant recommended by pharmacists for dry lips, and aloe vera gel is a moisturizer for skin.

The petroleum jelly locks in the aloe vera gel so it can really moisturize – it’s that simple.

The Science on the Ingredients

You’ve probably heard that aloe vera has healing properties. While it’s no miracle cure, studies have found it does help skin heal a little faster and better.

And people have been using it to heal skin for 6,000 years, and many people believe it’s very effective. I find it makes my lips feel less dry and uncomfortable.

You’ve probably also heard that petroleum jelly is bad for you. That’s what I believed when my dermatologist recommended Vaseline and medications containing petroleum jelly to me.

I went to her after having a terrible reaction to a popular brand of “natural” lip balm – cracked lips, stinging, swelling, and discomfort. I told her I didn’t understand what had happened because it was a natural product.

My dermatologist said wryly, “Poison ivy is natural, too.” She recommended I put a thick layer of Vaseline on my lips every night until they healed.

Vaseline is also much better for healing scars than any scar ointment I’ve tried. That recommendation has come from both dermatologists and doctors, and I’ve used both and can attest petroleum is better.

I had tried dozens of other lip balms and even hydrocortisone cream before coming to her. The Vaseline was what worked, and it’s well-tolerated by most people. That’s why it’s used in so many prescription skin creams.

Why It Works

Petroleum jelly forms a barrier. If you put it on dry skin, it can keep moisture out and make the skin drier.

But when it’s mixed with moisturizing ingredients or applied after them, it seals the moisture in so it doesn’t evaporate into the air.

That’s what makes this lip balm work so well.

The Container

If you’ve got one, you can just use an old Carmex lip balm jar for this recipe. I don’t find the recipe firms up quite enough to work well in a tube, especially during the hot months.

To use an old lip balm jar, wipe it out with a paper towel as thoroughly as you can. Put a drop of Dawn or any de-greasing dish wash liquid in it, rub it around and then rinse it out. The pot will come away squeaky clean.

Sample jars from Sephora would also work well for this. Any little jar with a screw-top lid will do. If you don’t have any old jars sitting around at home, you can actually buy small lip balm tins.

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Lip Balm Recipe

• Put equal parts aloe vera gel and petroleum jelly in the pot
• Optionally, add a drop of mint extract or any other flavoring extract you want.
• Stir, stir, stir with a toothpick or something similar until it’s all mixed together.

Also, you can tweak the recipe to suit your lips: if you think it’s too thick and/or not moisturizing enough, you can add more aloe. If it’s too thin and seems kind of runny, or you feel like it’s not protecting your lips from the elements, then you need more petroleum jelly.

It doesn’t have to be exactly half and half – in fact, you might prefer it not to be.

Right after mixing, the balm will be somewhat runny. But after you close it up and leave it for an hour or two, it solidifies.

It won’t be hard and waxy, but it definitely won’t run even if you turn the pot upside down. I’ve been doing this for years, carrying these little pots around in my purse, leaving them around the house, etc., and I’ve never had a goopy accident with them.