Ran out of lipgloss? Need some natural color? Want soft, kissable, oh-so-yummy lips?
Here’s how you can do it – without store-bought makeup.
Use these natural lip color and care hacks in a pinch, or all the time. Either way, pucker up, baby. I’m comin’ in.
Originally, I was going to do an entire post full of makeup hacks (including eyes and face). However, the sheer number that I came up with kept me from posting them all at once. When I realized this was about to become a 10,000-word manifesto, I decided to break it up into bits.
That’s good, though, because now you have a reason to come back.
(See the genius in this?)
Natural Makeup Hacks for Lips
Create a Kissable Stain with Beets
Beets. They stain everything. Including your lips. They’re just about the quickest and easiest way to add completely natural – and lasting – lip color. You can use beet juice of any type – canned, fresh, mashed – and just apply it very carefully to your lip line. Carefully, because the juice will stain anything it comes into contact with. A beet-juice stain trailing up your nose might get you some attention–but not the kind you want.
PS – Let the juice sit on your lips for 5 minutes before blotting, for extra staying power.
Alternatives: You could also use blackberries or raspberries in the exact same way for a lighter, more diminutive stain. (Other people recommend red Kool-Aid for the same purpose, but because I like to keep it natural, I’m not going to mention it. I mean, if you just so happen to have red Kool-Aid and you don’t care about the icky stuff in it … hmm … still, no. I shouldn’t mention it at all.)
Make Your Own Lip Plumper with Cinnamon
I just did this one and am now the proud owner of two plumped lips. Fiance even noticed when he came home from work tonight. Woo-hoo!
What I did? I scooped out a bit of lip balm on my finger and sprinkled cinnamon on top, then rubbed over my lips. You could do it that way, or you could apply the lip balm first and then rub a bit of the cinnamon in on top of it. Smush your lips together well and wait. It doesn’t take long. I could feel mine naturally puckering up within 5 minutes.
Alternatives: Cinnamon essential oil or peppermint essential oil will actually be a bit more effective than just straight cinnamon (which I offered as the main tip, because it’s so gosh-darned easy to do).
If you have cinnamon or peppermint essential oil, all you have to do to achieve a more dramatically phat (that’s right … I went there) effect is put one single drop of oil on your fingertip and apply it to your lips. Let your lips absorb the oil for 3 or so minutes before applying a lip gloss or balm (something moisturizing is best).
Which actually brings us to …
Vitamin E Doubles as Nourishing Lipgloss
I. Love. To. Do. This.
It’s so nourishing and good for your lips, but it adds shine like you wouldn’t believe. And it lasts just as long as any natural lipgloss I’ve ever used.
All you have to do is poke open a vitamin E capsule (or get yourself a small bottle of liquid vitamin E) and rub the shiny goo all over your lips. You could even use this in conjunction with the beet or berry lip stain to give your lips color and shine.
Handy Tip: Pack a small pillbox with vitamin E capsules and put it in your purse. Then, whenever you need lip shine – or hand moisturizing – you have ’em handy at a second’s notice!
Ready Your Lips for Lipstick with Baking Soda
Want to know an easy secret for getting your lipstick to stay on and not bleed into cracks?
Exfoliate them once or twice a week with a little baking soda.
Here’s how you do it: Add 1 tsp baking soda to 1-1/2 tsp olive oil (or sweet almond, or jojoba) and scrub lightly over lips. Rinse off. Alternatively, you could use water instead of oil – it just won’t give you as much softness, but it WILL make your lips even smoother (because it’s more exfoliating). Be sure to scrub lightly, though, or you risk tearing your delicate skin.
Bonus! If you want more ideas for lips (including this tip), you can go here to read up and watch a very, very, overwhelmingly entertaining vlog I did about the subject.
Make a Seriously Easy and Effective Lip Balm with One of These
You don’t need to rush out and grab lip balm or Chapstick every time your lips feel a little on the dry side. Just jump into your kitchen or bathroom cabinet and slather on one of these puppies:
There. I think that should be enough for now.
This should see you through your tough makeup-less times and into the spring nicely.
Don’t forget to come back next week for Part Two of this serious series of salubrious suggestions.
In adorable-kewpie-lip crunch!
Crunchy Ways to Keep (or Make) Your Teeth White
Do you think it would work to mix vitamen E, Shea butter, cinnamon oil an raspberry juice and stuff it in an old tube for an on the go multi purpose chapstick?
I am a new crunchy convert and I absolutely love this site!!! I bought the book (love it!) and made one of the cleansers and moisturizers. I am looking into natural cosmetics now–just eyes and lips mostly. I wonder if I could use a lip balm recipe I found and tint it with beet root powder and maybe cocoa to mellow out the pink (I prefer lip color with more brown undertones). What do y’all think? Can you use a powder to tint a lip balm like that?
I tried two of the ideas here, and had great success with both of them! I will continue to exfoliate my lips with baking soda and jojoba oil, and use beet juice as a lip stain. Thanks so much, Crunchy Betty! I found your wonderful blog and community through this posting about lips. :^D
Very glad to have discovered Crunchy Betty. Have made some lip gloss for my little granddaughters this afternoon. Two failures and one semi successful. Quite disappointed . Tomorrow I will have a go at lavender and honey lip gloss .Looking forward to trying other recipes.
Love all this natural stuff!
Bethanne
The kids and I have actually enjoyed making lip balms. We started with a vegan, lemongrass balm which turned out great, and made great Christmas gifts.
Thanks for these tips!
Yay for lip balm as gifts! That’s probably my favorite thing to give – so many different things you can do with it.
And I’m kinda obsessed with the idea of making a lemongrass balm.
Going in my book of things to do. Thanks, Jean!
I totally agree with you, Betty about Skin Deep. You have to take it with a grain of salt, because some of the things they consider toxic are not so toxic (such as coffee!) And I adore all your natural lip tricks! They’re so simple! I juice beets and I noticed how richly pigmented they are. In my favorite book, Babushka’s Beauty Secrets, she gives a great recipe for a natural coconut lip gloss, with the exception of one ingredient. Check it out:
1 tsp aloe vera gel
1/2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp petroleum jelly (I don’t like this ingredient! What else can we use instead of this…beeswax??)
Haha. It became apparent, Robin, when I read this that I REALLY look up to you. When I read that you felt the same way about Skin Deep, I felt this GIANT sense of relief. Heh.
And, hmm … I think instead of the petroleum jelly, you could use shea butter. Or castor oil – that’ll add TONS more shine (just like the petroleum would’ve). What do you think?
I don’t know if it counts as natural but I like to use paw paw ointment to moisture. Also vitamin E is genius, I used it on a scar. I really need to buy a new bottle of it because in chemists in Australia we just have bottles of the stuff straight and formulated for the skin. Do you have the same thing in the US?
Am so going to exfoliate my lips right now.
Whoo hoo! Wht a great post full of wonderful ideas! You are brilliant. Love, love, love the peppermint/cinnamon oil idea for natural lip plumping. Fun!
A long time ago, back in my non-natural days, I bought this pumpkin plumping lip gloss that burned the holy crud out of my lips. But, MAN, were my lips BIG!
The cinnamon EO reminds me of that feeling – just not quite as, um, torturous.
Tell me what you think if you try it!
I am going to try the cinnamon trick. I have a big weekend celebration and I could use some plumping. Love vitamin E as a lip moisturizer. I use it before bed.
Remember that bargain mart I was on about earlier?
They had bottles of vitamin E (name-brand, all-natural) for, like, $1.50 per big bottle.
I almost picked some up to send to people.
Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow. It is the best thing, yeah? Lips and wrinkly eyes – it fixes ’em SO well.
Wow! Just wow! These are great, thank you.
When you do part two (and three) can you suggest any commercial products we can use? I love these natural solutions but it would be great to know of at least a few that are commercially available 🙂
Okay. See. This is the kind of feedback I LOVE.
Honestly, I have been SO reticent to recommend products, because I didn’t want it to seem EVER like I was trying so smarmy sell something to any of you.
You know what I mean?
I just wasn’t sure if that was something anyone would want to see at all.
This gives me much to think about, Yuliya.
Much.
Thank you!
If it means I don’t have to spend hours reading ingredients while searching the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database (http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/) I would be ever so grateful.
Shoot, woman. You just gave me another great idea for a blog post.
For the record, here’s the gist: Skin Deep Database is NOT my Bible. They lost me when they arbitrarily started changing the ratings for natural products. And I’ve read some horror stories about how they raise and lower companies’ ratings without rhyme or reason.
There’s another less hysterical website devoted to the opposite end of the spectrum, and they’re a little more level-headed, but I disagree with some of the things they say, as well.
I think there’s a middle of the road, and I stick to it by staying away from things I (after much research) believe are real “bad” culprits (like sodium lauryl sulfate, pthalates, parabens, petrochemicals, etc.).
Anyway, I’ll expand more on that later. But THANK YOU so much for your insight!
I think I prefer you to very overwhelming entertaining vlogs.
Beets? Really?
*sigh*
I don’t care for beets.
But I LOVE strong lip color.
Quandry quandry.
Except, um, it was me in the overwhelmingly entertaining vlog. I mean, sorta. Tongue-in-cheek.
Unless … are you saying … that you prefer me (underwhelming) to overwhelming?
I can’t decide whether to cry or … not cry.
Maybe I’ll just play Word Racer instead.