Have you ever wanted to make your own lipstick? No, I don’t mean the hacky add kool-aid to vaseline kind. I mean real lipstick like you would find in stores. I found a great recipe that I thought you might want to try.
- 1 tablespoon of Candelilla Wax
- 1 tablespoon of Carnauba Wax
- 2 tablespoons of Castor Oil
- 1 tablespoon of Sweet Almond Oil
- 1 tablespoon of Avocado Oil
- 1 tablespoon of Coconut Oil
- 1 teaspoon of Isododecane
- 1 drop of Vitamin E Oil
- Cosmetic grade Powdered pigments
For this recipe, I had a hard time trying to get my hands on the Isododecane. It’s a colorless liquid that is water-insoluble, but completely soluble with silicones, hydrocarbons, isoparaffin & mineral spirits. The vendors that sold it at Amazon were all unavailable or out of stock so I had to really search hard to get my hands on a small bottle of the stuff. I did end up finding it at some random store on the internet but it took a couple of weeks to arrive. I only purchased the 2-ounce bottle of it because I don’t exactly make a lot of my own makeup and the recipe only called for 1 teaspoon, so I knew I wouldn’t be needing a lot of it. That issue aside, everything else was really easy to source and was available from a variety of sellers at Amazon for next to nothing.
You want to slowly melt your ingredients together so the best way to do this is a double boiler. If you don’t have one, don’t worry, all you do is take a normal pan and fill it with water. Now put a glass bowl on top of it.
The idea here is slow, even melting. Take your time, don’t rush. in your bowl add your candelilla wax, then your carnauba wax – slowing stirring, as you go along. Now add in your castor oil. As you add each ingredient, slowly stir, mixing it all together. Next, you add in the sweet almond oil, then the avocado oil, then the coconut oil, and finally the Isododecane.
As the water in the pan below slowly comes to a boil it heats your mixture in the bowl and you are stirring continuously to ensure it’s not overheating and it’s melting together, well mixed.
Remove the glass bowl from the heat and put it into a bowl that has a covered lid. You want to cover it up so that the lipstick base can solidify and form into a lipstick consistency.
I left mine in the bowl overnight but it probably wouldn’t take that long to cool off and solidify, to be honest, I just got busy with someone else.
Now it’s time to pick your lipstick colors. I wanted a due but you can really pick whatever color(s) you desire. You can even get the pearlized colors.
Use a spatula to separate enough mixture out of the bowl for one tube which is roughly about two, tablespoons, maybe a little less.
Add one drop of vitamin E oil and a little squirt of castor oil, to get things movie. Gently stir the mixture together in your bowl. Now keep in mind at this point the color selection is really up to you.
I decided to make a nude color so I added 2/3 teaspoon of brown oxide. Next, I added a small pinch of White Titanium Oxide and yes that’s a real measurement – at least according to the mixing spoons I used. They use measurements like a tad, a dash, a pinch, or a drop. How cute right? The real measurement for a pinch is 1/16.
My aunt got me these spoons awhile ago at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but I found a very similar set at Amazon.
Mix well and you’ll notice that you get a sort of dark chocolate color. You want to make sure you get all of the colors well blended. Now throw in another pink of the White Titanium Oxide and again mix it well. You want to make sure all the colors are well blended.
At this point, I added another squirt or 2 of Castor Oil to maintain the proper consistency.
Take your time and continue to mix well.
I added a drop of Blue Alum Lake. It was still a little dark for me so I added another 4 drops of the white titanium oxide. For those who don’t have my measure spoon set, a “drop” is 1/64 teaspoon.
After mixing well I realized this was the color I was going for so I added 2 squirts of Isododecane to the mixture. This will ensure you get a nice matte finish when it dries. If you don’t want a matte finish then skip this step.
Now fill a large plastic syringe with your mixture and then use that to put your lipstick mixture into an empty lipstick bottle. Another alternative is to use a small funnel that oftentimes comes with empty lip close container kits.
Make sure you don’t fill the container all the way to the top or you won’t be able to get the stopper in. Once you place the stopper in, use a paper towel to clean it up and then place the wand in. And congrats! You now have your own lipstick!
