When formulating the recipe to be made into lip-gloss there are several things to consider. If you’re using the formula of oil and wax, you need to keep it soft enough to allow the mica minerals to show up. If the wax is hard, the color is unable to shine through. We suggest creating your color shades using a combination of different cosmetic micas. The iron oxides will make beautiful purples, and deep reds depending on the amount of oxide you use, the more used, the more dramatic the finished color will be. Only use a tiny amount of oxides, to keep the lip formula from feeling gritty.
The three ingredients that are not approved in the USA to be used in lip products are Chromium Oxide, Iron Blue and Ferric FeroCyanide, however are fine for any other toiletries application. All the ingredients on each color are listed on the Sweetscents website under the heading of INCI info. If you are outside of the United States of America, you will have to check your particular countries approved ingredients.
Many folks like to use the petroleum jelly type products, and simply add mica to it, and mix well, which will provide a nice over coating of the lips. Also very reasonable to make or to buy is oils such as vitamin E, shea butter, or mineral oil. Many folks make a liquid by simply blending all these together well, and adding minerals, which will also gives lots of shine to the lips, and with the vitamin E and the shea butter oil, also moisturizes the lips. The clearer the solution you add the mineral micas to, the more the sparkly tone it will give off. Mica needs to have light refraction in order to shimmer. Dip a clean lip brush into your clear lip gloss/lip balm and then into loose powder. Apply the mix to your lips and blend well.
Here is a great tip from one of our customers Cindy, in Utah that you may find very helpful. She graciously allowed us to post it:
Just thought I’d pass on this little tip for keeping the micas suspended when making lip butter as it works better than anything else I’ve tried (I teach lip butter making so I’ve made A LOT of these babies over the last few years- made over 150 just today).
I buy those little plastic condiment cups from a restaurant supply place- I get the 1/2 oz. size and I buy a package of lids while I am at it. I will prepare my lip butter base and have it melted, ready to go, in a pyrex measuring cup. I sweeten my base after it’s melted.
I place the mica I need for one lip butter pot into the condiment cup- this is your chance to mix colors etc. before you are committed. Next, add the flavor and fill the condiment cup about 1/2 full with base. I stir it with a popsicle stick making sure to scrape the sides as I go. When the base cools to the point that it starts to harden a little on the sides but is still liquid in the middle, I know that I can pour it without the mica sinking to the bottom. I’ll scrape the little bit that has set up into the middle to remelt it then pour it quickly and cleanly into the lip butter pot. Don’t put the lid on until it cools.
The result is a smooth top and evenly mixed mica- no sinking. You’ll also have a perfectly clean container since you did the mixing in the condiment cup. You might have to try this a few times before you can recognize the perfect pour point. If you don’t get it quite right, put the condiment cup in the microwave for 15 seconds to remelt and try again. If it is lumpy and you’ve already poured it into the container, put the container in the microwave for 10 seconds or so. Not enough to completely remelt it but enough to make it soft. Then tap the soft mixture on the counter to settle the contents. Again, wait until the product cools completely to put on the lid.
If you have extra lip butter in your condiment cup when you’re done pouring, just put the plastic condiment cup lid on it and you can save it for later or use it to refill the lip butter pot when it is empty.
One customer also used her hair dryer to re-melt the top of the lip butter that was lumpy. It worked like a charm she said. Thanks for the great idea!
It actually happened because I do a lot of birthday parties for girls and they always made such a mess mixing in the containers. I did it initially to cut down on the mess but ultimately found it kept the mica from sinking as a bonus!
If you are making lip glosses, an easy formulation to use is to add melted lanolin into your oil in a water bath, if you don’t want to use lanolin, substitute glycerin or honey, however the latter ingredients sometimes separate out. You can use beeswax in the formulation to harden it; however too much will make it stiff and hard. When your oil & wax preparation is melted, stir in your micas & pour into your lip-gloss tubes or jars when still just slightly warm. If you pour it into your jars or tubes when to warm, the micas and oxides will tend to sink to the bottom, so do it as late as you can in the process.
You can keep the mica color suspended if you pour the warm lip preparation into your lip tube, or jar, and immediately cover the tube or jar with a small piece of plastic wrap such as Saran wrap, and place the lid on, and invert it till it cools. You can also apply lip color when you apply a good lip gloss base, and blend your mica minerals over the lip gloss. Add more powder for a darker look, then wait about 10 minutes before blotting, and then lightly blot as its sets itself on your lips and wont come off till you remove it. To keep the glossy look, simply apply more lip gloss during the day. It is removed easily with soapy water or makeup remover or a baby wipe.