If you look at actual medical suuply providers, you’ll see gelatin capsules are designed for liquids as well. It’s the stomach acid that break them down, generally, not the contents. Commercial “Gel-caps” with liquid contents for many pain killers and digestive-related medications are mostly gelatin-based as well.
Thanks for your kind comments everyone!
@bwente, I do have Cuttle, but not the pro subscription.
@rvogt, it stays liquid for a short while, but solidifies pretty quickly. And because it contains beeswax, which you never want to put down a drain, it would be hard to clean a small funnel. At least for me.
@trually and @Aloha : here’s my recipe that I use:
8 *buttons beeswax (4 teaspoons, melted)
1 teaspoon shea butter
1 tablespoon almond oil
1 teaspoon jojoba oil
1 teaspoon cocoa butter
1 Vitamin E capsule
5 drops Rosemary essential oil (or whatever you want)
Makes approx. 12 tubes
*I use a candy mold to melt my beeswax to make the “buttons.” We have bees, and I use a solar system to strain the beeswax from our hives whenever we take honey. That involves stretching a black knee-high nylon over a cheap, small, Dollar Tree aluminum pan, which I then place in a black cement-mixing tub covered with a sheet of plexiglass. The beeswax drips through the nylon as it heats up and melts, and all the gunk is left on top. Then I just peel off the nylon and throw it away. The beeswax is left in the pan, and I just pop it out when it’s cooled (having a little water in the bottom of the pan helps, but isn’t necessary), leave the wax in sheets until I feel like melting it down into my buttons. Any impurities left in the wax settle to the bottom of the little double boiler and don’t go into the buttons. I love having our own beeswax (and it smells so good - like honey! Imagine! ), because I also use it in a muscle balm I make. Here’s a pic of some of my wax sheets, the little buttons, and my double boiler for melting. The other advantage for the double boiler is that because the wax sets pretty quickly, I can put it back over the hot water and it remelts pretty quickly as well, which is great for pouring either into the molds or the tubes.
@Aloha, but chapstick is also good for sun-drenched lips as well! I used to buy several tubes of Mike’s chapstick whenever we’d go to Maui. I even ordered it online when we quit going. And then I learned to make my own.
@kelley1 - I use “VeggieCaps” that I bought off Amazon. You can get them in different sizes. I opt for the “00” size, because the other ones just seemed huge.
Thank you for your details and secret recipe! one day I hope to go down the bee rabbit hole.
I asked chat gpt if you could add zinc to get some sun block, and this it what it recommended:
How to Add Zinc Oxide for SPF
- Use: Non-nano, uncoated zinc oxide (the safe kind that sits on top of the skin instead of being absorbed).
- Amount: Add 10–20% of the total weight of the lip balm mixture for SPF 10–20 (approximate).
- For your recipe (roughly ~20 grams of base), that’s 2–4 grams of zinc oxide.
- Mixing tip: Stir it in very thoroughly at the end, when everything is melted but still liquid. Zinc oxide can clump.
Important Notes
- No guarantee of exact SPF unless lab tested.
- Too much zinc oxide can make the balm chalky or feel drying.
- Avoid inhaling zinc oxide powder—wear a mask or mix carefully.
Optional: Replace Oils to Boost SPF Naturally
Some oils have low, natural SPF (though not officially approved):
- Raspberry seed oil: ~SPF 25–50 (anecdotal)
- Carrot seed oil: ~SPF 35–40 (questionable data)
- Coconut oil: ~SPF 4–6
trying to prevent basal cell ca.
Great info, thanks! I might try substituting the almond oil with coconut oil next time. I do other recipes that have coconut oil in them, I just haven’t tried those. This was the first recipe I tried and really like the way it feels, so have stuck with it. I’ll have to check out the zinc oxide for sure.
Local pharmacists have them and are usually happy to sell you a box…
I would think taking a pot of hot water outside with your funnel and just running it through would be enough to clean it out and drain it into the bushes or something. A little bit of beeswax in the environment isn’t going to hurt anything.
Thanks for the recipe! Making homemade personal products is fun!
I have an amazing recipe for “owie cream” which has been a total lifesaver for severe chapped lips or any skin issue like that or other skin irritation. I need to make some more because I haven’t made it for a long time. I used to make it and share with friends.
1 tbsp beeswax
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
Use a wooden skewer for a stir
melt together stirring
add 1/4 cup EVOO add that in
and 1/4 coconut oil
low or low medium heat
Remove from heat and then add in:
lavendar 20 drops
frankincense 12 drops
lemon 10 drops
tea tree 8 drops
helichrysm 6 (If you don’t have helichrysm, add more frank and lavender or more tea tree or copaiba. However, in my experience, helichrysm is the absolute BEST - just amazing.)
I poured (using a small funnel) into little 1 oz plastic tub containers with lids usually. (Got them in bulk from Amazon.) But you can also use lip balm tubes (the roll type or the squeeze type).
@Aloha As a person who had basal cell (at age 30), I would never trust any homemade sunblock, honestly. I just can’t risk it. I usually google ratings each year to see which is the best sunblock that year. Adding it in to lip balm is not a bad idea though. I use Supergoop products daily on my face, and have several lip balms with SPF but forget to use it some days.
I love Supergoop though! (and if anyone wants to get a discount let me know, I think I can send people a referral or something)
Well, this was more in the vein of, better than putting absolutely nothing on.
Definitely better than nothing!
One of my worst sunburns (and the one that did me in the most) was scuba diving in your neck of the “woods” (um I guess “islands?”) lol It was about 6-7 months later when I was diagnosed with basal cell. I know it was probably a coincidence, but I attribute that as the nail in my coffin. LOL
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace.
I’ve had literally dozens of skin cancers and the best way to avoid them is to not get burned before you turn 18. That ship having sailed, I recommend zinc oxide ones. I actually use the Oil of Olay 15 SPF daily moisturizer which has zinc oxide in it, but it soaks in.
This look not required
The idea that any oil could possibly have an SPF seems like a LLM hallucination (probably drawn from one of those sites where people think sunscreen is what causes cancer).
Coconut oil was my Mom’s go-to when she was a kid trying to get a tan! She has just as many skin cancers as I do
Adding zinc oxide to lip balm, presuming non-toxic, etc. seems like a win
*I wonder if I could add zinc oxide to my beloved Carmex…its certainly happy enough to go liquid at higher temps, and resolidify when it cools off…
It seemed weird, I was asking about zinc but then it went off on a tangent.
Although I worked AI to come up with an amazing japanese curry recipe. and it was really tasty… unless I was hallucinating.
Putting this in my EO recipe section. I have all kinds of recipes for allergies, salves, respiratory, etc. But I don’t have one for owwies!
I do have a fantastic one for sore muscles. My husband uses it daily because of his hip and back, and even before bed when he has trouble with leg cramps (it even seems to prevent them - he can usually tell by the way his legs feel if he’s likely to get a cramp, long before he gets one). He calls it our miracle cure. The only thing better is China Gel (which is pricey, but we always have it on hand).
I used to use the Roman Chamomile, but in trying to find some this last time I made it (last week), I discovered that German Chamomile is supposed to have better healing qualities than the Roman. Just beware that it has a blue tint, which didn’t matter, because all the other ingredients counteract it. Oh, and the cayenne and ginger are also oils. We tried using just powdered, and while it worked, it doesn’t dissolve so makes it messy rubbing it on.
Anyway, here’s the recipe for anyone who wants it. Let me know if you try and like it.
Frankincense keeps coming up.
This looks pretty neat.
Sourcing all of the ingredients would probably be pretty up there just to test this!
Where do you get all of this stuff from?
I think you need to start selling samples
I order almost all of my essential oils from bulkapothecary.com and usually order it in 2oz or larger sizes, depending on what I can afford at the time. Things like jojoba, shea butter, and cocoa butter I order off Amazon. Once in a while I go to a local health/vitamin store and get an oil I need if I’m in a pinch and need it “now.” I’m not good at selling, or I’d think about it.
Last year I started buying from Simply Earth. You can place orders or subscribe. They have affordable kits that come with recipes and all the stuff you need for the recipes. It’s pretty cool. Prior to that I was spending more money on oils from another company.