What are you making?

[Bakersdozen]

Is anyone making any lotions, balms, salves, etc in preparation for winter?  Tell us what you are working on.

[tedh]

I'll be making more lip balm soon and have already made four dozen 3" votives and four dozen 8" hand dipped tappers but the project I'm most excited about is my Advent Wreath.  It'll use four 1.5" X 9" pillars and one 3" X 9.5" pillar.  I'm experiencing a learning curve on both but think I've got the smaller candle worked out.  The large candle contains 2 pounds of wax and presents more of a challenge.  I'm super excited about it and think I'll have it worked out soon.  My intention is to post a pick when its lit and burning in all it's glory.  Thanks for the post Bakersdozen!  Ted

[Bakersdozen]

FYI if you use avocado oil for your lip balm, it will turn out green.  Back to the drawing board.


I am also hoping to make the tops of the lip balm look more professional.  Advice?  Anyone?

[tedh]

Maybe, when i can quit laughing! Ooh ahhhahahah!  God that's funny!

[tedh]

I'm sorry bakersdozen.  Not sure why that struck me so funny but it surely did.  I haven't got any suggestions as I'm still plugging along myself, but i do want to thank you.  It's comforting to be reminded that none of us where born knowing about this stuff and trying new things often leads to, unforseen outcomes.  I appreciate you sharing your unforseen outcome with us.  Thank you, Ted

[tedh]

On second thought, and it is just a thought, do you over fill the tubes then scrape the excess off after it sets up before removing the filled tubes from the tray?  I sometimes do more than one pour, similar to candles, as the balm sinks/shrinks as it cools, from time to time anyway. HTH  Ted

[Bakersdozen]

Chalk it up to a learning experience.  I have over 20 tubes of green lip balm.  I used yellow beeswax and I wonder if that made a difference in the color of the finished product.  I am going to pick up some white beeswax this weekend, so I will try again with a different recipe.
Instead of pouring, I used a pipette to fill the tubes.   I try a pour over with the next batch.
I am so glad I started with a small batch instead of a large batch.
Tedh, have you tried a sweetener oil?  I thought about making a cotton candy flavor or watermelon flavor and adding some sweetener oil so the flavor would match the scent.

[tedh]

I've talked with Her Royal Majesty, my wife, about making "flavored" lip balm aimed towards a younger crowd but haven't gone there yet.  I'd like to make a half a dozen or so tubes of a half dozen or so flavors to see how well and which flavors sell the best.  But again, I haven't yet.

[Bakersdozen]

Small batches take extra time.  At the state fair, our state honey bee organization always sell 3 flavors.  I think we would sell more if the flavors were geared towards younger people.  I was looking at a display of Burt's Bees lip balms and they had many different flavors and combinations of flavors.

[Bakersdozen]

I finished these wedding favors.  There are 75 of them.  Thanks to etsy it was easy to have someone else make the labels for me and the organza bags.  Next step is to get them to the post office and they are off to Japan.

I used my sous vide device to de-crystallize my honey.  As you can see the honey remains a light color after being heated to 110 degrees.

[Jen]

Frankly I wouldn't care if the lip balm was green, especially if the label shows clearly that it has avocado in it.

As a matter of fact I make and use CBD marij/hem oil, which is a golden green color. I see a cool product with your combined with mine...

"Try this wonderful Avocado Canna lip balm! It will make you Hempy!" 

[Bakersdozen]

Frankly I wouldn't care if the lip balm was green, especially if the label shows clearly that it has avocado in it.

As a matter of fact I make and use CBD marij/hem oil, which is a golden green color. I see a cool product with your combined with mine...

"Try this wonderful Avocado Canna lip balm! It will make you Hempy!" 

  

When you get that all figured out, send me some!
I do have some CBD oil that I want to make a lotion with.  It will probably have to wait until after the new year.  Too many irons in the fire already.