I’ve enjoyed making my own lipstick with natural ingredients but sometimes a girl needs a little lip gloss. A natural lip gloss can add some shine and color to lips and it’s simple to make. Here’s how to make natural lip gloss that’s moisturizing and nourishing to give your lips some love!
DIY Lip Gloss
A popular tutorial for making your own lip gloss is to simply combine Vaseline (petroleum jelly) and crayons. While it’s easy and offers some color, this formulation has a few (major) problems.
Petroleum jelly is a byproduct of the oil refining (gasoline) industry and has some potential side effects. Evidence points towards toxic hydrocarbon contamination and skin collagen breakdown. These toxins accumulate in the body and can even be passed through breast milk.
Then there’s the crayon problem…
While crayons are technically non-toxic, they weren’t meant to be used in skincare (much less ingested). The pigments used are proprietary and (unlike DIY crayons) there’s no way of knowing what you’re getting. In fact, Crayola is adamant consumers should not use their crayons for makeup recipes.
So how do you make DIY lip gloss then?
Homemade Lip Gloss Recipe
There are plenty of safe, natural ingredients you can use to make your own lip care recipes! A lip balm recipe is great for hydrating lips and natural lip gloss can do the same. Carrier oils help moisturize, while beeswax and shea butter protect. You can also add a few drops of essential oil for scent and added benefits.
You can add some tint or do more of a clear lip gloss. Since beeswax, butters, and oils naturally have some color it won’t look clear in the container, but will on the lips. For colorant, mica works well to add some shimmer. Another option is to infuse the carrier oil with alkanet root for a red pigment. Beetroot powder is sometimes recommended, but it doesn’t offer much color and gets gritty.
How to Make Lip Gloss
Now that we’ve eliminated the crayon/vaseline option, what ingredients do we use? Conventional lip gloss bases use ingredients like Versagel as a base. While it is clear and easily colored it’s also made up of tongue twisters like Hydrogenated Polyisobutene and Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate. (Yes, that’s really a word!)
I don’t feel like ingesting any of that by putting it on my lips!
Instead, this recipe uses carrier oils, beeswax, castor oil, and (optional) alkanet root for color. The castor oil is really the secret ingredient. It not only nourishes lips but gives them that glossy shine. If you don’t want a tinted option, then omit the alkanet root. Sweet almond oil, olive oil, and jojoba oil all work here. I did not use coconut oil since it changes from a liquid to a solid depending on the temperature. This way if your house gets cold you’re still able to apply the lip gloss.
Lip Gloss Containers
I often make lip balms to give as gifts and use the twist up lip balm containers or tins. Lip gloss is much softer so it won’t work in a Chapstick container. There are plenty of lip gloss tubes with an applicator wand available on Amazon, but I could only find plastic options. The popular squeeze bottle option is also plastic. Instead, I opted to use a glass roller bottle for this lip gloss.
If you don’t have a roller bottle then a metal tin or glass jar will also work. Keep in mind the product will be soft so it could get messy. You can always increase the beeswax some to make it more solid in a jar.
How to Make Lip Gloss With Scents
Essential oils are an easy and healthy way to scent your lip gloss. Certain essential oils, like cinnamon, clove, and lemongrass can cause irritation and burns, even in small amounts. Other ones, like lime, lemon, and bergamot are phototoxic. Phototoxic oils can cause burns if the skin/lips are then exposed to sunlight.
Some good lip safe options (when properly diluted) include:
You can mix and match which scents sound good and experiment to create your own flavors!
