Valeriana

Lip Balm Recipe + Trials
Food coloring lip balm

During this trial, I tested out how food coloring would do in lip balm. I forgot that lip balm was oil based and that food coloring was oil based so it ended up like the photo above. I think that emulsifiers would help combine them together since emulsifiers can combine water-based and oil-based properties together, but since the school might not have emulsifiers, I found another procedure for adding lip balm in online, so I will be trying it online. For the scent, I think the scent of the rose essential oils doesn’t stand out as much as the lavender one so next time I will be adding two drops more of the rose essential oils then the lavender one so the rose scent can stand out.
Next time, I am going to try adding food coloring to lip balm using the procedure linked above (letting the lip balm base solidify, then adding in the food coloring and heating it up again to put into the container), substituting the lip balm base in the article with my own.

Lip Balm Recipe + Trials

For this trial, I used the same lip balm base as the one before, from last year, since I wanted to experiment with the scent and temperature and what temperature does to the scent. Compared to the lip balm I made last year, this batch smelled better probably because I had added the scent in at 50 degrees instead of 60 degrees or higher and also because I added four drops of scent total to get this effect. From this trial, I found out that the hotter the temperature is, the lighter the scent would get, but if the solution is too cold, then it would solidify, so putting the scent in at around 50 degrees is most ideal. I personally am very happy with the scent that I got and I will be testing other scents and food coloring next with the same lip balm base and temperature.

Lip Balm Sharing Sheet

Lip Balm Recipe + Trials
For this trial, I changed the amount of beeswax and coconut oil, I dialed the coconut oil down from 2g to 1.5g and beeswax up from 1g to 1.5g.
I personally like this trial and trial 2 the best, currently, because I like their textures more, trial 2 is creamier and trial 4 is overall thicker when put on my hand but not oily or watery.
I think I will be changing the amount of beeswax from 1.5g to 1.25g and shea butter from 1g to 1.25g in trial 5 to see what it might do to the texture.
During this investigation, I accidentally added too much of the lemon essential oils to the lip balm (approximately 5 drops) so I reheated it and took it out until I liked the scent more and that it was more subtle.
We had also shared and received feedback from other people for the trials we individually made. This feedback affected my final decision for what I am going to change in trial 5 because I had noticed that people liked trial 2 and 4 best so I combined the recipes together to see what it will do to the consistency and texture of the lip balm.

Lip Balm Recipe + Trials
For trial 3, I changed the amount of coconut oil to 2 grams to see what it would do to the texture of the lip balm, I thought it turned out too creamy. This time, for trial 4, I am going to change the amount of beeswax to 1.5g and the amount of coconut oil to 1.5g to test whether I like the texture or not.
During investigations 2 and 3, I found out that around 47-50 degrees Celcius is a good temperature to add in the essential oils since it would not solidify and is not warm enough to take away too much scent from the essential oils.
My mom tested out my third trial and compared it with my 2nd trial and said that my 2nd trial was better since my third trial was a little bit too thick and creamy.

Lip Balm Recipe + Trials

For this lip balm trial, I changed the amount of coconut oil and grapeseed oil, I increased the amount of coconut oil and decreased the amount of grapeseed oil.
I took 2 classes to finish making this lip balm since, in the first class, the hot plate didn’t heat up well even when I turned it up to full heat. The hot plate in the second class worked especially well, it heated up in less than a minute.
I asked my mom to try my first lip balm and she said it was pretty good but was kind of rough and smelled really nice since I used the lemon citrus essential oils. But the first lip balm felt watery and kind of oily when I applied it to my lips so in the second trial I tried dialing down the amount of grapeseed oil and increased coconut oil because I thought it could make my lip balm more creamy. For the second trial, my mom liked it better since it was creamier and smoother than my first trial lip balm.
For the second trial, I used rose essential oils which had a lighter smell than lemon citrus so I used four drops of it.
For the next trial, I want to try to increase the coconut oil amount into 2g and decrease the shea butter amount to 1g to test out what difference it would make compared to the trial 2 lip balm. (Beeswax 1g, grapeseed oil 1g, shea butter 1g, coconut oil 2g, rose essential oils, 4 drops)