DIY Fancy Lip Balm or Wood Butter

Before

I found this amazing recipe for Wood Butter by Creative Culinary & Bon Appetit Hon made from pure beeswax and mineral oil.  I’ve added Walnut butter to the recipe which allows a natural sheen to cover scratches.  (Update!  I did add walnut butter, but it just sank to the bottom.)  A bit leery, I made sure this recipe was food safe and yes wood butter is okay.  It’s also safe on humans and you can just as easily use this as a lip balm (think Burt’s Bee’s lip balm, it is decadence for your lips!)   This recipe produces so much, it would be a great idea for a wedding favor.  I don’t like to just post these crafts, I like to make sure that they actually work or deliver the benefits described.  

Pucker up for some homemade lip balm

I made the butter and am in heaven.  There is a gentle smell of honey that is wafting through my house which has now dissipated, but I can wave the jar under my nose and that subtle smell of sweetness rises.  I can’t help myself and brush my finger across the wax and smooth some on my lips.  It smells like a warm summer day, absolutely divine!  My spoons love me for it, my lips are in heaven and I’ve gone a bit crazy and treated my wooden cutting boards, rolling pins, and even a water stained & untreated Ikea kitchen island. 

This wood butter works on untreated wood.  You cannot use it on anything that was shellacked because the wax will not penetrate into the wood.  I did try adding walnuts to the recipe for additional sheen, but the walnuts settled at the bottom, so I would not recommend.  If you just want to make lip balm you can add some essential oil to complement the honey smell.  I would choose Rosemary essential oil.

This produces a LOT of ‘wood butter’ or ‘lip balm’ so you definitely want to have the extra small jars so that you can give them away as presents.  If I could go back, I would have made this for my wedding as favors.  It is incredibly easy to do, the packaging is relatively cheap, and labels would be fairly easy and cheap to do as well.

• 8 ounces pure beeswax
• I had a difficult time finding prepackaged beeswax in 1/2 lb or 8oz packages otherwise I would have suggested these items below. 
• Look for this product at your local farmer’s market.  If you can’t find it, talk to one of the vendors who sell honey or beeswax honey for additional resources.
• You can purchase beeswax at local craft stores (usually a solid block)
• Chopped up Beeswax Pellets Yellow 1-LB on Amazon 
• Solid block of Organic Beeswax Block Yellow 1 Lb on Amazon
  

  All the Ingredients

• 32 ounces (2 bottles) of mineral oil
• Drug store as a lubricant laxative (I know :, but it’s cheap $1.50)
• Purchase at hardware store, (Ace, Home Depot, Lowe’s)  (approx $9-10 
• Jars for filling
• Ball Quilted Jelly Canning Jar 4 Oz., Case of 12 on Amazon 
• You can buy these at any grocery store too, I thought the quilted jars were pretty.
• I did not like placing the wax in a large jar either, I’m afraid when I get low that it will be hard to get to the wax.
• Reuse tins for the lip balm like Altoid tins or you can buy them on Amazon (but please try to recyle and reuse first!)

Large pot with old veggie steamer

After