HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi All,

It's been quite awhile since my last posting, been a busy end of year for me. It's a new year and I hope this year brings more joy, happiness and learning for all!

I thought I should add a new recipe, so I'll give you an easy Lip Balm recipe. I use lipbalms every day as my lips and mouth area tend to be the driest part of my face. There are a lot of lipbalms that can be bought from the pharmacy, but most contain undesirable and inferior ingredients like mineral oil or some other petroluem by product, preservatives and fragrances. All these products do not help in healing the skin, as they only create a temporary barrier on the lips. Which is why you'll find that you need to keep re-applying the product and your lips keep feeling dry and chapped.

It's easy to make your own superior and healing lip balm with easy to find ingredients and tools... so here's the recipe!

Tools:

• a pot (for use as a double boiler)
• a glass/ pyrex jug/beaker (500ml or 1000ml in size)
• a wooden disposable chopstick
• a small glass jar or a lip balm container (from 360Beauty)

Ingredients:

• 5g Beeswax chips (360 Beauty)
• 20g of any oil(s) (you can use just one type or more, for example, virgin coconut oil, almond oil, etc)
• about 10 drops of Vit E oil (360Beauty or any pharnacy)
• 5 drops of peppermint essential oil (optional if you like the peppermint taste, from 360Beauty)

Method:

1. Put some water in a pot and heat it up until it is simmering (not boiling) and maintain it at that temperature. The level of the water should be about half the height of your glass jug/ beaker.
2. Put the beeswax in the glass beaker and place it in the pot of simmering water. The beeswax will start to melt, and when it has almost completely melted (about 5 - 8 mins) add in the oils. Stir the mixture until the beeswax has completely melted and has combined properly with the oils. Switch off the heat at this point.
3. Take out the glass beaker from the pot and add in the Vit E oil and stir until properly combined. Then carefully pour out the hot liquid mixture into your lipbalm containers. This recipe will make about 5 (5ml) lip balms. 
4. Let your hot lipbalm mixture cool at room temperature. It should harden in about 20 to 30 minutes. Once it has colled down and hardened, it's ready to use!

Tips:

• To add some colour to your lipbalm, you can add in a bit of your favorite lipstick into the mixture when it's still in the hot liquid form.
• If you find the texture of the lipbalm to oily/soft or too hard, vary the amount of beeswax to oils. This recipe has about 20% beeswax, so you can experiment varying it between 10% to about 30%. The more beeswax, the harder the lipbalm will be.
• You can also use this same recipe to make a natural oil-based cream! Just use about 5 or 10% beeswax.
• Make sure to keep your lipbalms away from heat or hot places as it will melt! If that happens, just let it cool down and harden again and its still good to use.
• Lipbalms make a great gift, so if 5 is too many for you, you can always give some away to your best friends.
• These natural lipbalms should keep well for about 6 months. When they start to smell funny, make sure to throw them away and make fresh ones.
• The 360Beauty website link can be found on the right hand side of the blog, under favorite links.