Black Honey Lip Balm

This recipe is inspired by the beautiful sheer berry tones made famous by Clinique's Black Honey lipstick. It is not intended to duplicate the original formula but rather capture a similar look using ingredients suitable for homemade lip balm.

For decades, Black Honey has earned a reputation for being one of those rare lip colors that enhances the natural tone of many different lips rather than covering them with opaque pigment. Its sheer berry tint has made it a cult favorite for generations.

Recently, I decided to play makeup mixologist and stir up my own knock-off cocktail. And guess what? It was a cinch! My DIY recipe is as see-through and silky as a jellyfish in a ballet tutu, gliding on like a champion ice-skater, cheekily mimicking my beloved Clinique original.

I found myself sitting on a mountain of Essential Wholesale Vegan Lip Balm, weighing roughly the same as a newborn baby. So, I figured why wrestle with my beeswax and carrier oils when I've got this goldmine at hand? This lip balm base is the bread and butter for those of us who fancy ourselves lip color alchemists, cooking up all sorts of lipstick shades.

And if you're itching to make a truckload of your own lipstick base, hold onto your hats! I've got a tutorial brewing that's hotter than a jalapeno in a sauna. Stay tuned!.

I ordered this from Essential Wholesale.

Measure out 11 grams of the lip balm base into a glass beaker or measuring cup.

Place the glass beaker into a few inches of simmering water. Stir to melt (which happens pretty quickly).

For the colorants, I chose to use 1/4 teaspoon of Titanium Dioxide, 1/8 teaspoon of Red Oxide (blue shade) and 1/8 teaspoon of Red Basics Mica. You can order these from TKB Trading.

Pour the colorants into the melted base. Keep the glass beaker in warm water so the base does not harden up while you work the colors into it. You will spend about 4 to 5 minutes stirring to ensure that all the colors are smoothly distributed in the base and that there are no small gritty chunks of the minerals.

Once you get the beautiful color mixed up, carefully pour the hot liquid into lip balm containers. I filled two traditional 4.5 ml lip balm tubes and one 7 ml glass lip balm pot with the product.

So gorgeous! 

Here is the swatch of the finished lip balm. Pretty darn close to Black Honey!

Enjoy!!

-Shannon Buck