Edwardian Lip Balm or Lip Gloss Made at Home

Some time back I posted a few old recipes for a tinted lip moisturizer. I decided to try it out for myself.

I decided the Vaseline recipe was probably the cheapest to try out (tempted as I was to have a stab at the benzoinated lard one... just didn't have enough tincture of benzoin at hand to mix that up.) I could not foresee any use for the full recipe yield of 3/4 lb of lip moisturizer, so I substantially scaled down the measurements -- about 1/16th of the original. However, I may have gotten the quantities a little off because of this, since I didn't have a very precise scale. I also didn't have "white wax" but figured some natural beeswax from the local farmer's market would serve just as well.

I rigged up a bain marie on the stove to do the melting -- you do this by just filling one large pot with water and putting it to boil, then into this boiling water you set the smaller pot in which you'll do the melting of the actual ingredients. It's a good idea to use a bain marie if you're melting oily things that might burn or catch fire over a direct flame (such as this.)

I just eyeballed the alkanet and tossed in a few large pinches. It went to work pretty fast.

Once it looked like it was as red as it was going to get, I strained it through a tea-ball into a glass jar I had bought for the purpose. I scented the mixture with some orange and cinnamon oils to make an "Orange Spice" fragrance. The end result actually smells exactly like the Celestial Seasonings tea by that name.

The lip gloss started hardening almost immediately. As I said before, the quantities are a bit dodgy in my particular mix, but it came out at kind of an "old frosting" consistency when cool.

And how well does it tint the lips? Well...

BEFORE.

AFTER.

Very subtly is the answer, though I suppose more alkanet could intensify that effect. Applying it heavy-handed also increases the color, of course. A teenager with a Victorian mother could definitely still make it out of the house with a dab of this on. The mixture is thin enough to apply with a finger like most any lip balm. Vaseline is a famous moisturizer (Model Me Up says so!) and actually means this is a decent little balm for general hydration. I came to prefer this stuff to my commercially made lip balm... hmm, maybe that 3/4 pound batch really is what I should have made ;)