Kukui nut oil (pronounced koo-koo-ee) is a luxurious oil that comes from the kukui nut tree. The kukui nut (or candelnut) tree is the state tree of Hawaii, and residents there have used the oil for many years. It’s commonly used in massage and face oils because it’s lightweight and does not leave skin feeling greasy. Learn more about kukui nut oil here.
This simple lip balm combines kukui nut oil with another popular tropical ingredient – coconut oil! A bit of white beeswax gives the lip balm firmness. Depending on how firm you’d like the balm to be, you can increase or decrease the amount of beeswax. Read this post to learn more about creating your own lip balm formulas.
A touch of Coconut Flavor Oil gives the balm a light, tropical scent. If you’re unfamiliar with flavor oils, they are essentially lip safe fragrance oils. Interestingly, they don’t flavor the balm, but instead give it scent. If you’d like to “taste” the balm, you can add a touch of sweetener like Stevia or the Lip Smacking Sweet Flavor Oil. Learn more about using flavor oils here.
What You’ll Need:
10 Slidey Lip Tins
1 oz. Kukui Nut Oil
1 oz. Coconut Oil
0.5 oz. White Beeswax
1 mL Coconut Flavor Oil
Dropper
Click here to add everything you need for this project to your Bramble Berry shopping cart!
ONE: In a small heat safe container, add the kukui nut oil, coconut oil and white beeswax. Place the container in the microwave and heat the balm using 30-60 second bursts until completely melted. Beeswax has a high melting point and can take awhile to fully melt. Because of this, don’t use a glass container with too much head space. The container can actually explode if it gets too hot! Once melted, remove from the microwave carefully, as the container will be very hot.
TWO: Stir the ingredients together. Add the Coconut Flavor Oil and mix in with a spoon until fully incorporated.
THREE: Carefully pour the mixture into the Slidey Lip Tins. Allow the mixture to fully cool and harden before use. Enjoy!
Kukui Nut Lip Balm DIY
Ingredients
- 10 Slidey Lip Tins
- 1 oz. Kukui Nut Oil
- 1 oz. Coconut Oil
- 0.5 oz. White Beeswax
- 1 mL Coconut Flavor Oil
- Dropper
Instructions
- In a small heat safe container, add the kukui nut oil, coconut oil and white beeswax. Place the container in the microwave and heat the balm using 30-60 second bursts until completely melted. Beeswax has a high melting point and can take awhile to fully melt. Because of this, don’t use a glass container with too much head space. The container can actually explode if it gets too hot! Once melted, remove from the microwave carefully, as the container will be very hot.
- Stir the ingredients together. Add the Coconut Flavor Oil and mix in with a spoon until fully incorporated.
- Carefully pour the mixture into the Slidey Lip Tins. Allow the mixture to fully cool and harden before use. Enjoy!
Do we need to be concerned about people with nut allergies with the nut oil? Just curious. Never heard of it before.
Yes, depending on their specific nut allergy they could also be allergic to the Kukui Nut Oil.
Hi,
Could I use a combination of Shea and mango butter for this recipe? I will also be adding beeswax.
Thank you,
Nicole
You can definitely give that a try. The consistency may just be a bit different. You can test the consistency of your final balm to make sure you will like it while still working with the melted butters and oils with the frozen Spoon Trick.
Spoon Trick: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/spoon-trick/
I made this lip balm today as a treat for my personal use! 🙂 It’s got a great firmness in the BB 4 oz plastic jar I used. However, when I apply this to my lips it feels very oily and “thin” (for lack of a better word?). Would the addition of a butter make it thicker and maybe more… buttery? I’ve got both cocoa and shea butter. Which would be the best addition and how much should I add?
Yes, butter will help thicken the balm and add moisturizing properties. Cocoa or shea work well, shea has a softer consistency and cocoa has a harder consistency. Start with 0.1 ounce of butter, then dip a cold spoon in the balm. It will harden and you can check the consistency. Add more butter from there if you like.
Shea butter: https://www.brambleberry.com/Shea-Butter-P3220.aspx
Cocoa butter: https://www.brambleberry.com/Organic-Cocoa-Butter-Wafers-P6365.aspx
Learn more about formulating lip balm here: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lip-products/how-to-create-lip-product-recipes/
Thank you for the quick response and for this information! I do love the kukui nut oil, I just think this lip balm needs a little extra something for my preference. Is there any way to melt the lip balm in the BB plastic jar so that I can add the cocoa or shea butter? Thanks again! 🙂
They are strong enough to withstand hot liquids poured into them, but we recommend scooping the balm out and melting it in a heat-safe container.
I wanted to love this, I really did. I’ve followed plenty of SoapQueen’s recipes and usually they turn out great. Since I’ve been wanting to make my own lip balms for quite some time, I decided to try this recipe out. I halved the recipe (wanted to make a smaller batch), but did so exactly (aside from adding a tiny bit more beeswax since I like my lip balms on the thicker side). Not really sure what happened, but it was incredibly greasy and soft (despite adding more beeswax than called for), and the scent was almost undetectable. Sad that this didn’t work out for me.
This recipe is definitely on the softer side. If you prefer a harder balm, we have a few recipes you may like. I’ll link those below.
Winter Lip Balm: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lip-products/winter-lip-balm-recipe/
Shimmery Ski Lip Balm: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/shimmery-ski-lip-balm-tutorial/
You can also melt the balm you have now and add more beeswax or hard oil like coconut, cocoa butter, etc. This post has more on formulating lip balm: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lip-products/how-to-create-lip-product-recipes/
As for the scent, you can add up to 3% flavor oil. Right now it’s around 1%, so adding more should give that scent a boost. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Thank you very much for getting back to me! I definitely plan on trying some other lip balm recipes, since I love so many of your other recipes. I also appreciate you responding about the flavor oil percentage 🙂
Hello, since I can find in my country The kui kui oil, which one can I use to replace it? To combine with The coconut oil? Thanks
Sweet almond or avocado oil have a similar consistency to kukui nut oil, so you can use those as a replacement.
Sweet almond: https://www.brambleberry.com/Sweet-Almond-Oil-P3205.aspx
Avocado: https://www.brambleberry.com/Avocado-Oil-P3198.aspx
I can’t wait to make this! Can I add mica to this recipe? If so, how much should I use? Thank you!!!
You sure can, as long as those colorants are lip safe. Find all our lip-safe colors here: https://www.brambleberry.com/Lip-Safe-Colors-C679.aspx
If you just want to color the balm but not have any transfer on the lips, you can start with a small pinch. That will be enough to add a pretty hue. If you want to make a lipstick that transfers color, you can start with about 1/4 teaspoon and keep adding more until you get a color you like.
Learn more about creating lipstick here: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lip-products/how-to-create-lip-product-recipes/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I like this lip balm. It’s the first I have made.
My question is it seems a bit seems a bit
Greasy. What should I do next time?
If you like a firmer balm that deposits less oil on the lips, you can increase the beeswax. I would recommend starting with .1 oz. at first, then adding more from there if you want it more firm.
Learn more about formulating lip balm here: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lip-products/how-to-create-lip-product-recipes/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I would like to make some lip balm, but i’m allergic to coconut oil. what could I substitute for the coconut oil in my recipes?
A soft butter like avocado or coffee would be a good substitute for the coconut oil. If you find the balm is a bit too firm for your liking, you can add a bit more kukui nut oil.
Avocado butter: https://www.brambleberry.com/Avocado-Butter-Solid-P3207.aspx
Coffee butter: https://www.brambleberry.com/Coffee-Butter-P3444.aspx
Learn more about formulating lip balm here: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/lip-products/how-to-create-lip-product-recipes/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
I love this lip balm!!!! I want to make a large batch. What is the best way to calculate the correct amount of ingredients needed for 50 or 100 of these?
Thank you!!
You can find the percentage of each ingredient to resize it! To do that, add the ingredients up to find the total weight. Then, divide each ingredient amount by the total weight. That will give you the percentage. Then, find out how much you want the final recipe to weigh (the weight each container holds x the number of containers). Finally, multiply the total weight by the percentage. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Is there another oil other than Kukui that I could use?
Sweet almond and avocado oil are similar! You can use those instead. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Sweet almond oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Sweet-Almond-Oil-P3205.aspx
Avocado oil: https://www.brambleberry.com/Avocado-Oil-P3198.aspx
I get a rash when using lip products with beeswax, how much candelilla wax can I use to replace the beeswax.
I would recommend starting with the same amount as the beeswax (.5 oz.) Before you get started on your balm, pop a few spoons in the freezer. When the balm is melted, dip the spoon in. It will harden instantly and you can feel the texture of your balm. If it’s a bit too soft, you can add more coconut oil. 🙂
Read more about The Spoon Trick here: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/spoon-trick/
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Candelilla wax: https://www.brambleberry.com/Candelilla-Wax-P4207.aspx
I haven’t used my microwave for any product, I am more accustomed to using a Bain-marie. Should it work the same?
Yep, that will work just fine! Just heat and stir the lip balm until it’s melted. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
Can this be poured into a lip balm tube? Or modified to go in a tube? I only ask because I do not like putting my fingers into things and then smearing them on my lips. I prefer using tubes. Thanks in advance for your help! 🙂
I think this recipe should be just fine for tubes! To be 100% sure, you can make a small batch and test it in a tube. If it’s too soft, you can add more coconut oil or beeswax. 🙂
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry
How many lip tubes do you think it will fill? Can you provide a link to the ones BB recommends? I always have chapped lips and am excited to give this a try! 🙂
Absolutely! We have clear and white lip balm tubes. They hold about .13-.25 oz. of lip balm each, so this recipe would fill about 10 of them. 🙂
Clear Lip Balm Tubes: https://www.brambleberry.com/clear-lip-balm-tubes-p4750.aspx
Lip Balm Tubes: https://www.brambleberry.com/lip-balm-tubes-p3024.aspx
-Kelsey with Bramble Berry