Vegan lip shimmer

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 30 minutes
Yields: 10 lip balm tubes (5 g each)

I wanted to create a lip balm that gives your lips a touch of bronze shimmer, but without it being too obvious. The bronze is a perfect match to sun-kissed skin. The lip balm will not tint your lips, just add a light bronze shimmery shine to your lips and at the same time nourish and protect your lips.

You will need sweet almond oil, castor oil, mango butter, candelilla wax, a lip-safe fruity flavour oil, and a lip-safe copper mica.

ONE: Before you start, prepare your lip balm tubes by holding them together with an elastic band, like in the photograph above. This will help with the pouring.

TWO: Next, combine the oils, butter and wax in a small pot and place on the stove until all the oils, butter and wax have completely melted.

Take the pot off the stove.

THREE: Add the mica to the now melted oil/butter/wax mixture and stir well to blend the colour evenly throughout the mixture. Sometimes mica likes to form clumps at the surface. Just give it a spritz of isopropyl alcohol, which will break them up and disperse more easily into the oil.

FOUR: Add your flavour oil and if you choose to, a few drops of stevia. Make sure your stevia is oil-based and not water based, otherwise it won’t mix with the oil. Once again, give everything a good stir.

FIVE: Carefully pour the liquid balm into the tubes and leave them to harden for a few hours. Make sure the lip balm has completely cooled down before putting the lids on to prevent condensation forming on the inside of the lids.

The colour of the balm appears strongly tinted but after testing, it really does only leave a hint of shimmer. Enjoy!

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Bronze lip shimmer (vegan)

Ingredients:

• 20 ml sweet almond oil
• 5 ml castor oil
• 15 g mango butter
• 15 g candelilla wax
• 10 drops lip-safe fruity flavour oil
• a couple of drops of stevia to sweeten (optional)
• 1 tablespoon lip-safe copper mica
• heat-proof glass jug (i.e. Pyrex jug)
• 10 lip balm tubes (5 ml)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the lipstick tubes, by holding them together with an elastic band for easy pouring.
2. Combine the oils, butter and wax in a small pot and place it on the stove on medium setting until all the oils, butter and wax have melted.
3. Take the pot off the stove and mix in the mica until the colour has completely dispersed throughout the oil.
4. Add the flavour oil and give it another good stir.
5. Carefully pour the oil into the tubes and leave them to harden and cool completely before putting the lids on.