Cranberry lip balm in the middle of the pandemic

With this pandemic hanging around longer than anybody has expected or feared and with most of us wearing facial masks (mandatory or voluntarily), we hardly need as much lipstick as we did before. What all of us need, specially in the Northern hemisphere fall/winter is a nice and smooth lip balm with moisturizing properties and this is exactly what we show you how to make.

I kept this balm rather simple. Didn't even add any fragrance or essential oil because I wanted the scent of cocoa butter to be dominant. This is a hard product suitable for push-up lip-balm tubes or lipstick molds. You can not pour this product in a jar and apply it.

The key in making this product and any other stick formulation with a high melting point is the heating/cooling cycle. The wax phase is melted around 90 ^oC to melt the waxes to a smooth liquid. I deliberately added the squalane which is a heat stable hydrocarbon to the wax phase to reduce the melting point and accelerate melting to a smooth liquid. If you add such a hot wax phase to a liquid phase at room temperature, specially in winter and if you are working in a cold lab, the wax will immediately solidify and shrink. To avoid this, as the wax phase is melted, we turn the heat off but let the wax still remain in the water bath and then shortly heat the oil phase just before blending the two phases. This makes your life much easier and avoids freezing the wax phase as you blend two phases together.

The powder phase consists of allantoin (for moisturizing and anti-inflammatory properties) and cranberry powder (just to impart a beautiful colour to the product, it does not colour the lips). The best way to add a powder to such a formulation, as you have seen us do this several times, is to use a sieve to gradually add the powder and blend it thoroughly. Otherwise you will have lumps and a non-uniform distribution of the powder.

Now let's jump to the formulation and procedure.

Formulation:

Procedure:

1- Blend phases A and B separately in heat proof beakers. Have your lipstick molds or lip balm tubes ready

2- Heat phase A in a water bath around 85-90 ^oC.

3- Using a sieve, gradually add the powder phase to the oil phase. Blend after each addition.

4- When the wax phase is melted completely, turn the heat off and put the container with the oil+ powder phase in the water bath for a short while.

5- Blend the phases. It is less messy if you add the wax phase to the oil phase but it works the other way as well

6- Immediately pour into mold cavities and tubes and let them cool in the freezer for 5-10 minutes (keep a small amount for later)

7- The wax in the balm tubes will shrink a little bit after cooling. To make it optically intact and more appealing melt the rest of the blend (from step 6) and pour over the balm.

The balms are ready for use

Watch the video here

Stay safe and creative