This article, entitled Thrifty Tip - Make Your Own Lip Gloss comes from Dawn Wells at partner site slopswap.com.

I love to find little DIY ideas and try them out. I try, try, try again until I get it right! It’s a fun little hobby but it can also be a money saver, especially if you have little girls that LOVE lip gloss. My kids made lip gloss in their homeschool group class and from that day on, I just had to try it!

There are a TON of recipes out there for DIY Lip Gloss. I have not gotten into the complex recipes. The easy ones are just fine for me.

Here’s one of those easy ones:

• Grab a tub of Vaseline or petroleum jelly – make sure you grab the unscented…my first tub I picked up was baby powder scented and did not work well for lip gloss.


• A tube of lipstick.


• Some containers – you can use old lip gloss containers you have at home or look for some at a craft store. I found pill type containers at Walmart, 2/$1, that work great.

You can start out with however much jelly you have containers for. Each time I made a batch, I only made enough for 1 or 2 containers. I wanted to play around with different colors, mixes, etc. so I made small amounts each time. Here’s what I did to fill a pill size container:

• Scoop out 1 rounded spoonful of jelly into a microwave safe bowl


• Heat in the microwave in 30 second increments. Stir after each increment (1-1 1/2 minutes is all it took).


• When the mixture is almost completely melted, take out of the microwave and just stir to finish the melting.


• CAUTION: Liquid and bowl will be very very hot. Please be careful!! Use pot holders or oven mitt!


• Wait for the liquid to cool a bit, almost until it starts to solidify again.


• Add a bit of lipstick to the mix to add color, stir. I had some Mary Kay samples that I added to mine. Add more until you get the desired color.


• Pour into your containers and let sit until solid. You can also put them in the freezer for a couple of hours.

I tried adding a little flavor using Kool-Aid but it didn’t go so well. Since then, I discovered why. Any powder that I tried putting in the mixture was not dissolving and then would sink to the bottom of the container. The solution – when you take out the bowl of jelly, the bowl and mixture is super hot…too hot for powder to dissolve. You need to wait a bit for the liquid to start solidifying again before you add any powder to it. Then it should dissolve and work great.

Other options that you can try: use eye shadow or blush to add a tint of color, add honey for flavor, add fruit juice for flavor, sprinkle some corn starch in for a thicker gloss, add cocoa powder for flavor.

Have fun! Let me know what you try and how it turns out!

Read more great articles from Dawn at slopswap.com.