Lip Balm

So on to a project that was successful!  So one of the many things that I thought was a cute idea came from the Martha Stewart Website to make your own lip balm.  Her product list includes beeswax.  Now that I'm incredibly lazy I had been solely using Amazon.com for all of my purchases, to take advantage of Amazon Prime, which I love an wholeheartedly endorse.  So I started to get nervous with the idea of picking out beeswax and the quality of it until I came along a comment on the Martha site that recommended this website for getting supplies.  So this is what I ended up using:

Supplies

Lip Balm base (I used the  Macadamia and Jojoba Lip Balm Base and the Soy Lip Balm Base w/SPF 15)
Lip Balm Tint (I bought blue and rose)
Lip Balm Flavor (Cherry and Blueberry)
Containers (Oval and small tins)
Plastic Pipettes
Kitchen Scale
Candy Thermometer

Things I wish I had:
My Mettler Toledo scale from the lab

So this project was easier than I expected.   I measured out 60g of base and melted it in a glass container in the microwave.  I started on high and then later moved to 50% power since it heated up so quickly.  I read that you needed .03% of tint and that you couldn't add that if the base was more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.  So I used my candy thermometer (that I have yet to use) to take the temperature of the base (much higher than 120 degrees!)  let it cool, then I hit tare on the scale and attempted to add the base.  My scale, while displaying the correct number of significant figures, could not register the tint amount.   So I used what I thought was appropriate for the tint, it was a little more risky with the flavors but I figured if I got it wrong, oh well.

While filling the containers (sorry no pictures of the conventional lip balm tubes) I noticed that I needed to zap the glass dish in the microwave for about 30 seconds max to heat the mixture prior to filling the containers.  When I didn't do this the mixture cooled too quickly and the pipette clogged.   When I used the tubes, I used a rubber band to bind the tubes upright which made it easy to fill.  As long as the mixture was hot, the mixture would cool so you would get the nice looking meniscus that you see in lip balm tubes normally.  

 So this project turned out really well.  It was a last minute (I have 30 minutes, will this work?) project, and wow, was this easy. My big changes would be to use different tins, since the metal ones were a bit tough.  Also labels!!!  I bought waterproof labels that I (of course) lost before making the containers.  I had planed some super cute holiday labels that I never added.  I think that these would be great for bridal/baby showers, etc.  I will post again if I add labels, because I feel like it will be a bit interesting with coming up with sizes.  I also found a really interesting website which may be my source in the future.