How To Make Yourself A Coconut Lip Balm

We've all heard about the various benefits of coconut oil by now. You can use it as a hair mask, as a face and body moisturizer, for shaving, for oral health, for cooking, and, if you hadn't guessed, for this DIY coconut oil lip balm. Since it has such powerful moisturizing abilities, it makes sense to use it as a beauty product. Unfortunately not everyone can join in on the coconut oil fun, either because it makes their face break out or because it makes their hair too greasy.

This lip balm, however, is for everyone. I love this DIY product because it has a great natural coconut scent, is incredibly hydrating, and gives my lips a really pretty tinted shine. It's also great because it's budget-friendly and allows you to have complete control over what goes into your lip balm. Obviously you can just smear some coconut oil on your lips all on its own to soothe chapped lips, but if you take five minutes and a few supplies that you probably already have, then you can bring it to a whole other level.

You'll need:

• Coconut oil, preferably organic, virgin, and unrefined.
• A clean, empty container, preferably opaque to protect the contents from sunlight. I recommend empty jars from used products for projects like this.
• A microwaveable bowl and a spoon for mixing.
• One or more additional oils; I used argan, avocado, and jojoba oil but you can use whatever you have, olive oil included.
• Optional: lipstick for a tint.

Coconut Oil, $13, Amazon

Once you've gathered all of your supplies, you have to prep your empty container. Make sure that it is clean and sterilized and completely dry.

Now you're ready to put your ingredients in the container. I filled it up most of the way with the coconut oil and then added a small amount of lipstick sliced off the top of one that I rarely use.

It's up to you if you want to add lipstick for some color; I personally like the tint that it adds. You can use any color lipstick you want and add however much you want. Just keep in mind that the more lipstick you add, the more opaque the tint will be.

Now you want to melt your coconut oil and lipstick so that it's easier to mix them. At this point I realized I was going to have to transfer everything to a microwaveable bowl, which I did. You don't need more than 10-30 seconds in the microwave to melt this.

Once the coconut oil and lipstick were mostly melted, I added a few drops of argan, avocado, and jojoba oil to the mixture for some extra hydration. Then I mixed it all together with a spoon until any lumps were gone and poured it back into my container, at which point it looked like this:

I let it sit in the fridge for a few minutes so the coconut oil would harden. Coconut oil melts at around 76 degrees, so as long as you keep your lip balm at room temperature you should be OK. (This means no leaving it in your car in the summer months.) To use it, just warm the surface up a little with a clean finger first.

Here's what my finished result looked like:

And here's what it looks like on my lips:

In the future I think I might add more of a darker lipstick, maybe even a red one, for a less sheer tint. The best part about this is you can scoop it all out into a microwaveable bowl to melt it down again and add whatever extra ingredients your heart desires; perfect for people like me who are always changing their minds.

Images: Kelly Dougher