QUICK SUMMARY
This DIY lipstick recipe is really a jazzed-up lip balm: 2 teaspoons sweet almond oil, 1 teaspoon beeswax, 1 teaspoon cocoa butter, 4 drops of essential oil, and natural food coloring, melted together and poured into tubes or tins. Beet, cacao, maca, spirulina, or turmeric powder lets you make nude, pink, red, or plum shades. Because lipstick is swallowed a little at a time all day long, what goes into it matters: Berkeley researchers found lead in 75 percent of the lip products they tested, along with aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese.
My DIY Lipstick recipe solves an age-old problem. Every day, women worldwide apply synthetic ingredients to their faces. The most sensitive parts of the face are near mucous membranes, such as the eyes and mouth, where chemicals are blinked into eyes, seeped into pores, and accidentally licked into mouths.
Cosmetics near the eyes and lips are many women’s “must-have” items. There’s a better way to look your best!
Table of Contents
Make DIY Cosmetics
Don’t let this recipe intimidate you. It’s simply a jazzed-up lip balm! Mix and match until you find your perfect go-to shade.
DIY Lipstick Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons sweet almond oil OR coconut oil, extra-virgin AND unrefined
- 1 teaspoon yellow OR white beeswax pellets*
- 1 teaspoon cocoa butter OR unrefined shea butter
- 4 drops essential oils**
- Natural food coloring***
Supplies
Instructions
- Set a large glass jar in a saucepan filled with an inch of water.
- Add the wax, carrier oil, and shea butter to the jar and melt over medium heat.
- Stir in optional coloring.
- Finally, remove from heat and quickly stir in a drop or two of essential oils. Pour into lip balm tins or sticks.
- Let cool.
Step One: Melt the Moisturizers
Fill a saucepan with 1-2 inches of water and place over medium-low heat. Add the sweet almond oil, beeswax, and cocoa butter to a double boiler or glass jar. Place in the saucepan.
Step Two: Add Coloring
After the mixture has melted, stir in your coloring. Start small, and work your way up.
Step Three: Add Essential Oils
Remove from heat and add the essential oil. Stir until the coloring and EOs are distributed evenly. Carefully pour into tins or lip balm tubes. Let cool before using. Enjoy!
There is no water in this recipe, so it keeps well. Use clean tools and containers, don’t share a used tube, and toss it if the smell or texture changes.
DIY Lipstick Recipe Ingredients
Many people wouldn’t think of making their own cosmetics. There’s a common belief that a DIY lipstick recipe takes a lot of time and money. That’s not the case! Here’s what you need to add to your shopping cart.
Sweet Almond Oil or Shea Nut Oil: Carrier oils are a must when using essential oils! They help the EOs disperse evenly and keep the oils gentle on sensitive lips.
Sweet almond oil is one of my favorite lightweight emollients for lips. Almond oil is one of the plant oils researchers have reviewed for skin barrier repair and soothing, anti-inflammatory effects when applied topically. (1)
Beeswax: Beeswax gives this homemade lipstick its structure and helps it stay put. It works as an occlusive, a humectant, and an emollient, locking in moisture and softening the lips. (2) Plus, it has that heavenly light honey scent!
Cocoa or Shea Butter: Both of these rich butters help heal chapped lips. Shea butter will always be my favorite DIY moisturizer, but cocoa butter smells like chocolate! Together with the oil and wax, they add a protective layer that comes in handy in an extremely hot, cold, or windy climate.
Essential Oils: If you’ve never used lipstick that contains essential oils, you’re in for a treat! EOs take a DIY lipstick recipe to a whole new level. I love using these in my lip care products:
- Peppermint: A fresh, cooling tingle. Stop if the tingle turns into burning or redness.
- Lavender: A soft floral that is soothing on chapped lips.
- Lemongrass: Smells like a day at the spa! Lemongrass is one of the oils most likely to cause a skin reaction in patch testing, so choose another oil if your lips are sensitive. (3)
Safety Tip: Stay away from “hot” oils such as cinnamon bark and clove essential oil on the lips; cinnamon has been reported to cause allergic contact cheilitis. (4)
Citrus: Expressed citrus essential oils can burn skin that sees the sun, and lips see a lot of sun. If you use citrus, use only 1 drop and pick a non-phototoxic oil: bergamot FCF, steam-distilled lemon or lime, mandarin, tangerine, sweet orange, or yuzu. (5)
A lipstick is a topical product, not a way to take essential oils internally. If you want to learn about internal use, start with how to ingest essential oils here.
Natural Food Coloring: This is the fun part! With a bit of experimenting, you can develop a beautiful shade that complements your skin tone: nude, pink, red, and plum. The sky is the limit!
Natural food coloring and simple food-grade powders like beet, cacao, maca, spirulina, and turmeric are the way to go. Skip craft or soap pigments; under FDA rules a color approved for “externally applied cosmetics” may not be used on the lips. (6)
Toxins in Lipstick
Lipstick and gloss are swallowed a little at a time all day long as we eat, drink, talk, and lick our lips. Over a lifetime, that adds up to quite a bit of lipstick. Here are the top offenders in store-bought lip products.
Lead and Other Heavy Metals
No, I’m not joking. When researchers at the University of California, Berkeley tested 32 lip products, they found lead in 24 of them (75 percent) and manganese in every single one. (7)
Most products also carried high levels of titanium and aluminum. At average daily use, a woman’s intake of aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese from her lip products alone reached more than 20 percent of the acceptable daily intake, and 10 of the products would push chromium past it. (7)
Parabens
Parabens are preservatives added to many lipsticks to make them last longer. In 2004, researchers at the University of Reading measured parabens in 20 human breast tumors, mostly methylparaben, intact in the tissue. (8)
Their follow-up review reports that parabens penetrate human skin intact, act like estrogen, block androgens, and show genotoxic activity, and calls for a detailed evaluation of their potential to increase breast cancer and interfere with male reproductive function. (9) That is reason enough to keep them off our lips.
Synthetic Dyes
Synthetic dyes are in nearly every lipstick. The amount of artificial food color the FDA certifies has grown more than fivefold since 1950, to 68 milligrams per person per day, and in double-blind challenge studies the higher doses produced behavioral reactions such as hyperactivity in more children. (10)
There’s a better way to get gorgeous lips. Natural, plant-based colors create brilliant shades, as you’ve seen above.
If what you really need is a simple everyday balm for dry lips without added color, use our extra-moisturizing homemade lip balm recipe instead.
Keep reading: Mama Z’s Essential Oil Base · DIY Sunscreen with Essential Oils · Safe Natural Beauty Products: 20+ DIY Swaps
References
- Lin TK, Zhong L, Santiago JL. Anti-Inflammatory and Skin Barrier Repair Effects of Topical Application of Some Plant Oils. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2018. Source.
- Nong Y, Maloh J, Natarelli N, Gunt HB, Tristani E, Sivamani RK. A Review of the Use of Beeswax in Skincare. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2023. Source.
- Geier J, Schubert S, Reich K, Skudlik C, Ballmer-Weber B, Brehler R, Weisshaar E, Uter W. Contact Sensitization to Essential Oils: IVDK Data of the Years 2010-2019. Contact Dermatitis. 2022. Source.
- Bernaola J, Valverde-Monge M, Otal-Buesa M, Cullen D, Heras-Mendaza F. Cinnamon Allergic Contact Cheilitis. Contact Dermatitis. 2023. Source.
- National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy. Safety. NAHA. Accessed 2026. Source.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Color Additives and Cosmetics: Fact Sheet. FDA. 2022. Source.
- Liu S, Hammond SK, Rojas-Cheatham A. Concentrations and Potential Health Risks of Metals in Lip Products. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2013. Source.
- Darbre PD, Aljarrah A, Miller WR, Coldham NG, Sauer MJ, Pope GS. Concentrations of Parabens in Human Breast Tumours. Journal of Applied Toxicology. 2004. Source.
- Darbre PD, Harvey PW. Paraben Esters: Review of Recent Studies of Endocrine Toxicity, Absorption, Esterase and Human Exposure, and Discussion of Potential Human Health Risks. Journal of Applied Toxicology. 2008. Source.
- Stevens LJ, Burgess JR, Stochelski MA, Kuczek T. Amounts of Artificial Food Colors in Commonly Consumed Beverages and Potential Behavioral Implications for Consumption in Children. Clinical Pediatrics. 2014. Source.
