# Stevia in Lip Balm?



## tinycyclops (May 21, 2015)

Hi!  I'm going to try my hand a lip balm in the next little bit and I had a few questions about using stevia.  I bought some packets from Nature's Garden a couple months ago, and I opened one up today and the grains were larger than I expected.  I'm worried this will make my lip balm grainy.

I know that the stevia doesn't dissolve in oil because it is water soluble.  I have read about infusing stevia in coconut oil and wondered if anybody had tried this.  If I infused the stevia in the coconut oil, how much would I use in my recipe? Are there any other/better ways to use the stevia in lip balm?

For reference, this is the recipe I would like to try:
25% beeswax
25% shea butter
8% coconut oil
40% sweet almond oil
2% flavoring oil

Also, this is what I purchased from Nature's Garden:
http://www.naturesgardencandles.com...s/item/stevia/-powdered-stevia-sweetener.html

Thanks!


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## girlishcharm2004 (May 21, 2015)

Is there a particular reason for stevia?  If you just want something that's natural, you could use honey.  While honey doesn't mix with oil, it does mix with lanolin.  Although, this wouldn't be good for someone who's diabetic or for someone who is allergic or otherwise detests lanolin, so I'm wondering if stevia is needed for some reason.  I haven't heard of infusing stevia, but that's a great idea that I never thought of!  If you do try it, I would love to know how it goes.


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## tinycyclops (May 21, 2015)

I would like to use the stevia just because it's what I bought originally.  I'm not opposed to using something synthetic, the stevia is just what I have on hand.  I'm thinking maybe I should have done some more research before buying it. At least it was pretty cheap. :/


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## new12soap (May 21, 2015)

Yes, stevia works well in lip balm. If you have a mortar and pestle grind it as fine as you possibly can.  On the NG page you linked to (the stuff you bought) it says 1-2 packets to 8oz of balm. I would use one and see how you like it. I never infused it in coconut oil, I just stirred stirred stirred it into the melted lip balm.

I would not recommend honey. Yes, lanolin (or lecithin) will act as an emulsifier and hold it in suspension, but IMO you would then need a lip-safe preservative.

HTH


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## girlishcharm2004 (May 21, 2015)

A preservative is not necessary with honey.  

I can't attest to the grittiness of stevia, but work fast and cool so the balm cools immediately and doesn't allow time for the stevia to settle.  Good luck!


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## new12soap (May 21, 2015)

As I said, In My Opinion, the moment you mix anything water based with anything oil based, you absolutely do need a preservative. It is up to the individual whether they want to use one or not, but I do not want moldy lip balm.

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/lipbalmmold.asp


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## kchaystack (May 21, 2015)

Honey is VERY hydrophilic.  It will absorb water from the atmosphere and once it gets enough it will allow bacteria/mold to grow.  

Trust me, I also make mead, and have seen this myself.


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## tinycyclops (May 21, 2015)

Finally, an excuse to buy a mortar and pestle!  I'll give it a shot in the lip balms and see how it turns out.  Thanks.


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## IrishLass (May 21, 2015)

I used to use stevia in balms when I first started making them, and it worked really well for me as long as the stevia was really fine, and was dispersed well in a carrier oil first. For what it's worth, I used either castor oil or fractionated coconut oil as my dispersing/carrier oil. 

Re: infusing: if by 'infusing' you mean soaking the stevia in an oil to extract its sweetness and then straining it out of the oil before adding to your balm, I was never able to get it to work that way for me. The oil never became sweet no matter how long it was infused with the stevia.

Instead, this is how I went about it: I made up a mixture of .5g of the stevia powder (weighed out on my lotion scale) per every 3 mL of carrier oil, and I stored this mixture in a small tub-like container in my fridge. When I used it in my balm, I would first stir the mixture real well, and then I'd use a toothpick to pick up the equivalent of a single pipette-drop on the end of the toothpick and stir it really well into my melted balm. I used the equivalent of a single pipette-drop per every .15 oz. amount of melted balm. 

And then I'd cool down my balms quickly by placing them in the freezer until solid (which only takes about 2 to 3 minutes). This helped to freeze the stevia in animated suspension and give me a sufficiently sweet balmy without any graininess.

The trick, though, was in finding stevia whose grain was really fine and powdery. Happily, I was able to find just such a fine grade at the time at my local health food store without having to resort to a mortar and pestle, but when all the new and different brands of stevia started flooding the shelves, they no longer sold that particular brand of stevia any more. 

I now use MMS's Sugar Baby liquid sweetener, which is wonderful by the way, but just for fun, I have it on my list to try out the honey and lanolin method that GirlishCharm mentioned. MMS has a recipe for it on their blog. 


IrishLass


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## tinycyclops (May 21, 2015)

Thank you so much for the info! I guess I'll avoid  the infusing and just mix it in a carrier oil, and try that out.  If the stevia doesn't work out for me, I'll look into buying a liquid sweetener.


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## DeeAnna (May 21, 2015)

I use an essential oil blend in my lip balm. It has a pleasant odor that lasts for a few minutes after application, but doesn't have an obvious taste or long-lasting odor. The balm is a nice product as-is and I get a lot of compliments about it. The commercial products I've used don't have a sweetener either. Am I missing something?


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## IrishLass (May 21, 2015)

DeeAnna said:


> The commercial products I've used don't have a sweetener either. Am I missing something?


 
Only if you were able to make it through adolescence without trying LipSmackers brand lip balms.  They were packaged in thick tubes and were very flavorful and sweet. They were all the rage when I was in high school and I always carried a grape one in my purse. It was either that or plain old Chapstik brand original flavor. As an adolescent sugar junkie, guess which one I chose. lol 

Nowadays, I don't like my balms to be as super sweet as LipSmackers, but I do like a hint of sweetness to be present. 


IrishLass


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## DeeAnna (May 21, 2015)

Ohhhhhhhhh...... Yep, my adolescence was sadly deprived of Lip Smackers. :wink:


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## cm4bleenmb (Jul 25, 2015)

Several of the suppliers mention in their descriptions that most of the lip safe oils for balms don't actually have a flavor--instead they are strongly scented and when you add a little sweetener it tricks your brain into thinking it tastes like whatever the scent implies.

Of course, if it tasted yucky you probably wouldn't lick your lips as often . . .


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## Trix (Jul 27, 2015)

Is this for personal use, or are you going to be giving it to your friends and family to?
 I was out of my usual resources, and made a 'temporary' lip balm this weekend.
I really wanted to flavour it, and with nothing else around, I ended up adding strawberry syrup (the one you mix with drinks)...and now I can't stop tasting my lips, and they remain soft.

With a preservative I guess it should last longer than the 3-7 days I intend to use mine up in. Just another idea....


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 7, 2021)

new12soap said:


> As I said, In My Opinion, the moment you mix anything water based with anything oil based, you absolutely do need a preservative. It is up to the individual whether they want to use one or not, but I do not want moldy lip balm.
> 
> Eos Lip Balm Mold Problem | Snopes.com


I know this is an old thread, but i was wondering if i was to use food grade hops extract which contains purified water, i take it i'll need a preservative?  And if so, what do i kind? I have no idea!


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## Quanta (Apr 7, 2021)

Soaparonie said:


> I know this is an old thread, but i was wondering if i was to use food grade hops extract which contains purified water, i take it i'll need a preservative?  And if so, what do i kind? I have no idea!


You would have to use an emulsifier, first of all, otherwise the oil and water wouldn't stay mixed (lanolin can be coaxed into providing this function in certain conditions, one condition being a very, very small amount of water). And yes, you'd have to find a lip-safe preservative. And just in case you didn't already know, things like essential oils are not preservatives. Neither are rosemary extract, vitamin E, and grapefruit seed extract. Rosemary oleoresin and vitamin E are antioxidants, which protect against oxidative rancidity, and grapefruit seed extract on its own does nothing. It goes bad almost immediately after extraction, and so a preservative is added to it. It is the action of that added preservative that has the antimicrobial effects that people ascribe to it. However, you aren't going to be able to know for sure what has been added and whether it's enough to preserve your product, so I would advise you to not even think about putting it on your skin at all, especially the lips which are very sensitive.

You would need a broad spectrum antimicrobial preservative that is specifically approved for a leave-on product intended for the lips.

May I ask what would be the purpose of adding hops extract to a lip balm? What are you trying to achieve?

Also, usually, if you have a question like this, you will get more responses if you start a new thread with a title that has to do with your question, instead of using another thread that has an unrelated title.


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 8, 2021)

Quanta said:


> May I ask what would be the purpose of adding hops extract to a lip balm? What are you trying to achieve?


Im a beer enthusiast and do beer tastings for my blog. Then i got into soap making and more recently lip balm making, so ive decided to make beer related products. Wither there are any health benefits or not, the oils and butters i'll be using will have health benefits regardless. 



Quanta said:


> Also, usually, if you have a question like this, you will get more responses if you start a new thread with a title that has to do with your question, instead of using another thread that has an unrelated title.


I done a google search to get to this thread, relating to emulsifiers, so just thought i'd ask my question here. Thanks for the advice.


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## Quanta (Apr 8, 2021)

Soaparonie said:


> Im a beer enthusiast and do beer tastings for my blog. Then i got into soap making and more recently lip balm making, so ive decided to make beer related products. Wither there are any health benefits or not, the oils and butters i'll be using will have health benefits regardless.


If you want my advice, try to find a beer-related flavor oil instead. It's difficult to make an emulsified lip balm. It's just not worth the hassle. Any ingredients that are botanical in nature are particularly difficult to preserve as well.


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 9, 2021)

Quanta said:


> If you want my advice, try to find a beer-related flavor oil instead. It's difficult to make an emulsified lip balm. It's just not worth the hassle. Any ingredients that are botanical in nature are particularly difficult to preserve as well.


Thanks. Most flavour oils ive found have water, alcohol, or propylene glycol in it. Ive been trying to find a proper 100% hop oil, and ive contacted two beer brewing companies, but not heard anything back yet. I thought about crushing hop pellets into powder and mixing with oil, but im not sure if this would work. Sierra Navada beer company brought out a hop & mint lip balm years ago.


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## kasilofchrisn (Apr 9, 2021)

Could you perhaps infuse some hops into an oil?
I infuse alaskan fireweed flowers and rose petals into sweet almond oil that I then turn into lip balms.
I add vitamin E oil and peppermint EO into the recipe.
I'm guessing very little if any of the flowers flavor carries over but other good properties of them seem to.
No rancidity or other noticeable issues over a year after the balms being made.


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 9, 2021)

kasilofchrisn said:


> Could you perhaps infuse some hops into an oil?
> I infuse alaskan fireweed flowers and rose petals into sweet almond oil that I then turn into lip balms.
> I add vitamin E oil and peppermint EO into the recipe.
> I'm guessing very little if any of the flowers flavor carries over but other good properties of them seem to.
> No rancidity or other noticeable issues over a year after the balms being made.


I thought about crushing hop pellets into an oil, but not sure how it would turn out or if it will colour the lip balm green. Maybe you could tell me how i could infuse dried hop cones into sweet almond oil?


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## kasilofchrisn (Apr 9, 2021)

just for the record let me throw this out there and that is that I don't drink alcohol and the actual smell of beer turns my stomach so I certainly would not want to use hops myself.
But it's your lip balm, not mine and since you asked I'll explain things.
First I had to do some investigating into whether or not hops is okay to leave on your skin.
And apparently it's very good for your skin. So you're okay there.
You always need to verify that a plant is okay to leave on your skin before using for something like this.
To infuse an oil is very simple.
Honestly I would prefer to use whole hops instead of hop pellets but I guess you've got to use what you've got.
If using pellets you're going to want to crush them up a bit first in a mortar and pestle. You need to expose the oil to the hops and the pellets in their compact form are not going to do that very well.
Once they're crushed you're going to want to place them into a canning jar and fill it 2/3 to 3/4 full.
Then you're going to fill the jar nearly full of your chosen oil and attach the lid and ring.
For a lip balm I prefer sweet almond oil because it's less greasy on your lips and works well in a lip balm.
Now you have two options: to hot infuse it or cold infuse it.
For a cold infusion you going to put the jar on the shelf somewhere where you have easy access to it and flip the jar once or twice a day for a minimum of 6 weeks. At this point your oil is infused and you will strain out your hops completely from the oil. Your oil is now ready to use.
To make a hot infusion you will take your jar of oil with the hops in it and place it in a crock pot. Now put water in the crock pot until you are approximately halfway up the level of your jar.
Turn the crock pot to the low setting and let it infuse for a minimum of 4 hours or, as I do, leave it overnight.
Once it is done remove it from the water allow it to cool and then strain out your hops.
You now have hot infused oil that is ready to use.
Like I said using raw hops is going to give you a much better infusion than using the hop pellets but if all you can get is the pellets then be sure to crush them up well first to expose as much of the hops to the oil as possible.
Good luck with your lip balms they are fun to make and a very useful product.
If you don't have one I recommend getting a lip balm filling tray as that is the easiest and most simplest way to fill a bunch of tubes.
I have a friend who designs and prints all of my labels if I buy the blanks. You can buy label blanks for lip balms online at places like Amazon etc.
That way you can add a list of ingredients so people will know what's in your lip balms and you can have your logo on it and all that kind of thing.
My lip balms have a picture of the flowers I used on the label and you can easily do that for your hop infused lip balms as well.


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 17, 2021)

What people don't understand is that beer related cosmetics don't smell like alcohol, so you won't smell like you've just walked out a brewery! And even if beer is used in soap making, the alcohol is boiled off. The end product wouldn't smell much like beer either, unless you added a beer fragrance oil. In non-alcoholic beers, the smell is sweet and grainy because of the natural sugars that come out of the barley during brewing.

As for hops, they are natural and don't smell like beer either, they should smell kind of piney in their natural state. And like you said, it can be good for the skin, aswell as barley in beer can also be good for the skin.

I homebrew myself, so i have whole hops aswell as hop pellets, so i'd be able to infuse either.

Thanks for the tips, and i didnt realise that sweet almond oil was less greasy, so that's good to know. And i think i'll try infusing the hops the cold way, even though it takes a longer time. I recently bought the lip balm filling tray and empty tubes. Ive also bought some oils/butters, and beeswax. I got blank labels with the millards set i bought from amazon, but im not exactly sure how to print on them. Im from Scotland, so i think if i could find a company that could do it for me, that would be easier.


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## earlene (Apr 18, 2021)

My (no-added-fragrance) beer soap definitely smells of hops for quite a long time.  It may be my sensitive nose, of course, but the smell of hops definitely persists.  No, it's not the smell of ETOH, but that's not what matters.  And it is not what I would call pleasant for someone who feels sickened by the smell of beer.  Even if hops doesn't smell like beer per se, it is what I do associate the smell with, so in that sense it is reminiscent of beer. And because scent is closely related to memory (for me, and for many people) my brain links the smell to beer.  Many strains of hops also smell like marijuana (they are in the same _Cannabacae_ family) because they share some of the same chemical makeup (terpenoids or terpenes). What I am saying by this is that not all hops necessarily smell pleasantly piney.

In any case, if the scent of beer nauseates someone and they have a sensitive nose and associate the odor of hops with beer, then I would suggest it is quite possible having that scent near their nose in a lip balm would quiote likely be unpleasant for them.



Soaparonie said:


> What people don't understand is that beer related cosmetics don't smell like alcohol, so you won't smell like you've just walked out a brewery! And even if beer is used in soap making, the alcohol is boiled off. The end product wouldn't smell much like beer either, unless you added a beer fragrance oil. In non-alcoholic beers, the smell is sweet and grainy because of the natural sugars that come out of the barley during brewing.
> 
> As for hops, they are natural and don't smell like beer either, they should smell kind of piney in their natural state. And like you said, it can be good for the skin, aswell as barley in beer can also be good for the skin.
> 
> ...


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 18, 2021)

Most people can't smell or taste the hops in a commercial lager unless they drink an IPA or an overly hopped craft beer. People usually associate the smell of beer with a savoury alcohol smell. It also depends on which beer you're using in your beer soap for it to smell really hoppy for a long time. If you used a non-alcoholic budweiser, i doubt you'd smell anything at all, because the beer to drink is bland. 

No strains of hops smell like marijuana even if it is a close relative. I brew with hop pellets and whole hops. Dried whole hops smell floral at most. Virtually all pellets are maybe pungent, but smell resinous and piney or floral. Its only when you brew with them that impart the real aromas and flavours, like citrus, tropical, spicy, floral, etc. 

I get that beer isn't for everyone, and neither is using hops in a lip balm, but it depends on what type of beer you use, how much hops you use, and wither or not you add another essential oil, like peppermint.


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## earlene (Apr 19, 2021)

Soaparonie said:


> No strains of hops smell like marijuana even if it is a close relative. I brew with hop pellets and whole hops. Dried whole hops smell floral at most. Virtually all pellets are maybe pungent, but smell resinous and piney or floral. Its only when you brew with them that impart the real aromas and flavours, like citrus, tropical, spicy, floral, etc.


Well, maybe that is true where you live in Scotland, but you won't convince some brewers and growers, who say otherwise. *Here* is just one example of discussions on the topic.  Oddly, the  Sierra Nevada Beer Company's beer is one such beer that is discussed in that link.  

Good luck with your lip balm.


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## HoppyCosmetics (Apr 19, 2021)

earlene said:


> Well, maybe that is true where you live in Scotland, but you won't convince some brewers and growers, who say otherwise. *Here* is just one example of discussions on the topic.  Oddly, the  Sierra Nevada Beer Company's beer is one such beer that is discussed in that link.
> 
> Good luck with your lip balm.



Im not trying to argue with you or tell you that you're wrong, but i read the forum posts on your link above and they say that the already brewed sierra nevada can smell like weed. That's usually classed as a dank aroma or taste. Whole hops does look alot like marijuana buds though. The hops i get in Scotland are imported from other countries, like the czech hops Saaz. Sierra Nevada is one of the companies that made a hops & mint lip balm. It's still available on their website. Ive not tried it yet.


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