Honey Lemon Lip Scrub

I have a special post lined for tomorrow that I am very excited about and in prepping for it, I realized that I needed to do a little side project first. Another way I can delve into this, is to explain how I was talking to Lilly about chap sticks  She discovered on her latest trip to Wal-mart that they have stopped carrying her favorite LipSmackers. She claims to go through about one a month. I was trying suggest alternatives for her and mentioned how much I love my Honey Trap lip balm from Lush. Going onto the Lush website resulted in me looking at a bunch of their products, as usual. In particular, I was intrigued by their Lip Scrubs. I tried making a lip scrub a long time ago, to limited success, and I wanted to give it another shot. In case you don't know, the benefits of a lip scrub are plentiful. The exfoliant helps get rid of all the dead skin cells hanging out on your lips and getting in the way (I especially have this problem in the winter or when my lips are dry). The oil will soak into your lips to leave them soft and hydrated (you can put on lip balm after, but you may not feel you need to). Together, they help smooth and moisturize your lips, something you really should do to prep them before applying lipstick.

I browsed through a bunch of different homemade lip scrub recipes to get some inspiration and ideas. One that I liked as a starting point suggested equal parts honey, sugar, and oil (either something cheap like olive oil, good for your skin like grapeseed oil, or a little outside the box like coconut oil). Last time I did a lip scrub I used olive oil and wasn't a fan of the flavor. I almost did grapeseed oil, since I have some in the house at the moment, but I ended up settling on coconut oil with the thought that it might help make it more solid. I mixed it up according to those instructions, adding a squirt of lemon for fun and flavor, but I wasn't really happy with it. The coconut oil kept trying to separate out and when I tried applying it, it was too liquid and you didn't end up with much sugar to actually do the scrubbing. And so I modified it until I was happy with it. The resulting scrub was this:

All ready to make your lips amazing!

Honey Lemon Lip Scrub
1 part honey
1 part coconut oil*
6 parts sugar**
squirt of lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients together in a separate, larger container to give yourself plenty of room. I began by stirring it, but ended up kneading it with my fingers in order to get it all to combine thoroughly. Once you're satisfied that it's sufficiently mixed, transfer it to a small container.  When making this batch, I used a teaspoon as my measurement (aka 1 tsp honey, 1tsp coconut oil, 6 tsp sugar) and pretty much filled a 2oz container, but you could adjust it to make as much or as little as you like.


To use, simply scoop out a pea sized amount (or really however much your heart desires). Use your finger to scrub it all over your lips. You can also rub your lips together to spread it around/scrub.

Best part about this lip scrub? All the ingredients are food, so after you apply it, you can simply lick it off! I know that sounds crazy, but you'll just be getting rid of the sugar granules and dead skin, leaving the oils and gorgeously smooth lips. If ingesting your skin cells icks you out, you can simply wipe it off with a warm, damp cotton ball or wash cloth (which is also an added exfoliant boost). What I like about this scrub is that it's not overly runny like others I've tried so it actually stays on your lips and doesn't try and drip all over your chin. I can't tell you exactly how long this scrub will last, since this is the first time I've made it, but I figure the shelf life should be decent. And honestly, it cost so little to make that if I don't use it all up before it spoils, I won't be tragically sad.


*Note: You can use any kind of oil you like. The cheapest would be olive oil, but I dislike the taste it adds to it. Any carrier oil (jojoba, grapeseed, etc.) is probably your best bet. Really, it's just whatever you have in the house and would like to use. Also, adding a few drops of a skin safe/okay to ingest essential oil for scent would not be amiss.

**Second note: You can use any kind of sugar or sugar substitute you like. I went with white sugar since I just wanted the exfoliating granules and none of the extra flavor something like brown sugar would have added. I could definitely see doing brown sugar, though, and instead of lemon, adding some spices like cinnamon and clove.

The most important thing about this lip scrub is for it to be perfect for your lips, so play around with the formula until it works for you! And tomorrow you'll see why I decided to whip this up. :)