One of my must have essentials for the winter months is a good lip balm. In fact, my house is practically littered with them to the point that almost every room has its own designated tube. I also like to have a variety of flavors for different seasons and this winter it’s Candy Cane lip balm!

How to Make Delicious Candy Cane Lip Balm

This simple lip balm is both tasty and deliciously fragrant. It’s made with cooling peppermint essential oil with a sweet hint of vanilla absolute. You can leave out the vanilla flavor if you like, but I think it’s rather nice because it really gives this recipe that candy cane feel! Adding in a drop or two of peppermint extract/vanilla extract will give it bit more flavor as well.

When I decided to make this recipe, I dreamed of it having the perfect red and white swirl just like a candy cane. Unfortunately, that isn’t how it turned out at all as you can see from the photos below.

The red portion of the lip balm turned the rest of it a very light pink with random blobs of darker pink. Not at all what I was hoping for!

But ya know, I’m not one for wasting a good product no matter how ugly it gets and I’m too much of a stickler to make extras of things in the name of perfection. It’s something I’ve been working on, so no matter how much I WANT to make this lip balm look perfect, I just have to let it go.

I know you’ll forgive me!

At any rate, I would not recommend trying to make a swirl yourself as it’s pretty difficult to add the color at the right time. And, despite having used a toothpick to swirl things around, it just didn’t stay a nice red and white like I was hoping. If you do manage to get a nice swirl in this recipe, please share your techniques in the comments below.

Despite the technical difficulties I had with making things look pretty, this candy cane lip balm is such a lovely gift to give to friends and family, sans swirls.

It has a refreshing feel, a slight sweetness, and feels great on the lips.

I hope you give it a try!

Here’s what you’ll need to make my candy cane lip balm:

• An accurate kitchen scale
• A pyrex measuring cup
• A flexible spatula
• One 1oz tin or about 6 empty lip balm tubes
• 5g white beeswax (this gives the balm a nice white color but you can use regular beeswax if that’s what you have on hand)
• 6g coconut oil
• 4g mango butter (can sub cocoa butter but note that the balm would be better suited for lip balm tubes and not tins)
• 10g sweet almond oil (or other medium bodied carrier oil of choice)
• 8 drops peppermint essential oil
• 4 drops vanilla absolute in jojoba oil
• 1-2 drops peppermint or vanilla extract if desired for more flavor

Loving Preparation – DIY Candy Cane Lip Balm

1. Begin by measuring out all your ingredients except the essential oils and the extracts if you’re using them into a small pyrex measuring cup.

2. Bring 1 inch of water to a gentle simmer in a small sauce pan and place the pyrex in the center.

3. Allow all the ingredients to melt, stirring on occasion.

4. Once melted, remove from the heat, wipe the bottom of the pyrex with a kitchen towel, and place it on the towel on the counter to prevent it from cooling too quickly. (if you want to try and add swirls, you will need to pour a small amount of the melted mixture into another glass container that is warm to the touch to prevent hardening. Next add a small amount of red mica and mix well. Add blobs of red lip balm to the tin and use a toothpick to swirl it into the rest of the uncolored lip balm mixture)

5. Let the melted ingredients sit for a moment, then add in the essential oils and the extract and stir to mix. This will help keep them from evaporating too much.

6. Pour the final mixture into a 1oz tin and allow it to cool completely before use.

Have you made candy cane lip balm before? What ingredients did you use?

You may also enjoy reading:

DIY Smith’s Rosebud Salve
How to Make Homemade Carmex
Homemade Medicated Lip Balm
Chai Rose Lip Balm
How to Make Lip Balm

    This post contains affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Please read my full disclosure and disclaimer.