Hit or Miss? Cherry Cherry Lip Balm

by Alli

I’m always on the lookout for new recipes or projects I want to try, but often times I never get around to trying them at all.

Then there are those times when I try a new recipe or project that I found on Pinterest, Food Network, HGTV, a magazine or cookbook and the results are disastrous!  And you rarely get a peek into those failures.

Well, that’s about to change!  I’m starting a new series (probably weekly) called Hit or Miss!  If it’s a hit, I will gladly share the source so you can try it, too.  If it’s a miss, I won’t.  I don’t want to be dissing anyone’s recipe or project. The failure could be completely my fault for not following directions correctly.

Ready for my first project?

Hit or Miss?  Cherry Cherry Lip Balm

I’ve been intrigued by all of the homemade all natural lip balms out there, so I finally had to take the plunge and jump right in.

First of all, I had to order the beeswax pastilles since I don’t usually have beeswax hanging around in the pantry.  I also had to order cherry essential oil and vitamin E oil.  At least I had the coconut oil.  (At this point, I was thinking it would have been much cheaper to just go buy lip balm.)

I came up with the cherry flavor on my own because I thought it would go well with spring – you know, cherry blossoms, etc.  And I had some all natural red vegetable dye on hand.

Let’s Get Started!

cherrycherrylipbalm

cherry cherry lip balm

 What’s wrong with the above picture?

First of all, my cherry cherry lip balm is yellow, yellow lip balm!  I stirred and stirred, but the cherry vegetable coloring sank to the bottom.  Note to self:  You can’t call something cherry if it’s yellow.

And when the directions said that it hardens very quickly, they were not lying.   So hard and so fast, in fact, that none of the lip balm will come out when I swipe my fingertip into the little containers (which I bought at Hobby Lobby in the paint section and thought they were oh, so cute).

The clean up was beyond difficult!  Trying to get the beeswax off of the inside of my glass measuring cup was a nightmare.

My Cherry Cherry Lip Balm was a big fat miss!

And what am I going to do with all that leftover beeswax?  Any suggestions?  The thought of trying to make lip balm again almost gives me nightmares!

Did you try anything new this week?  Was it a hit or miss?  Do share!

17 comments

Paula@SweetPea March 5, 2014 - 5:59 am

Oh goodness! This must have been an expensive experiment to end up as a miss.

This is going to be a fun series. I look forward to reading about the hits and misses!

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Alli March 5, 2014 - 7:15 am

Very expensive, Paula! I pray I have more hits than misses! 🙂

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Crystal March 5, 2014 - 10:26 am

Love the new series. I’ve always wondered about making lip balm….now I know to pass on the idea 🙂 Thanks so much!

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Alli March 5, 2014 - 12:32 pm

Thanks! All the homemade lip balm pictures are always so cute. Oh, well. 🙂

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Sarah @ Sarah Cooks the Books March 5, 2014 - 1:15 pm

I mean, people get away with calling things “raspberry” that are blue! :0)

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Alli March 6, 2014 - 4:17 am

Hey, maybe I should have just called it cherry. It did smell good. Of course, that was the only thing going for it. 🙂

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Renew Your Space March 5, 2014 - 2:24 pm

Make candles? That’s a bummer – I was really hoping it would be a hit… I think it would be fun to practice. ~Renee

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Alli March 6, 2014 - 4:13 am

If at first you don’t succeed . . . I guess I could go back to the drawing table. Or I could just try making candles. That sounds fun. 🙂

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Shirley Wood March 5, 2014 - 2:30 pm

I love the idea of your new series! Looking forward to reading those. I googled Uses for Beeswax and found this link, apparently there are plenty of uses! My first thought was either candles or soap! Yes, your little containers are cute!
http://craftingmontana.com/101-uses-for-beeswax/

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Alli March 6, 2014 - 4:11 am

Maybe I will try making candles. I wonder how many other supplies I will need? 🙂 Thanks for the link!

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zan March 5, 2014 - 6:31 pm

I always have hit or miss over here. In fact, I have a sub-page on my blog called Homemaking Failures! I had a miss this week with my homemade yogurt. I do not know what went wrong but it just was not yogurt! And to think, I have made it before and it came out perfect!

Sorry about the lip balm:( I have not used beeswax, so have no idea!

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Alli March 6, 2014 - 4:11 am

I was thinking about how a novice cook or craft person may think we have it all together with our nice little recipes and projects, all dolled up in their own photo shoot. So I decided to show the flip side. I haven’t tried to make my own yogurt yet. But I will make sure I check out your Homemaking Failures, for sure.

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Cindy Eikenberg March 5, 2014 - 7:12 pm

Alli, what a great series idea and I”m going to love this! You have laughing so much right now. Well, guess I can safely cross trying to make lip balm OFF my list! 🙂 How about making candles with the beeswax? I a win and a failure this week – I completely destroyed fabric using the wrong kind of Heat and Bond PLUS without my glasses, I was ironing the wrong side….ruined iron, ruined ironing board cover, fabric and the lovely lingering smell of burned paper and plastic. 🙂 Thanks for sharing and can’t wait until the next post in the series!

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Alli March 6, 2014 - 4:03 am

I’m laughing about the glasses. Sometimes I try to text on my cell without my reading glasses and when I put them on, I’m like, “Oh gosh, they are going to think I’m illiterate.” Actually I read your post yesterday on my phone and was going to reply, but I thought I would wait until I could actually see what I was writing.

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Kristen from The Road to Domestication March 6, 2014 - 11:32 pm

Aw 🙁 I’m disappointed because you’re disappointed 🙁 But it sure does make me feel better to know that ALLI doesn’t get everything perfect, either! As for all that beeswax…Pinterest? I don’t know 🙁

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Alli March 7, 2014 - 6:14 am

I’m far from perfect, Kristen! 🙂 I’ve had lots of misses over the years. Maybe I’ll take the advice from others who have commented and try making candles with the beeswax. Who knows? Maybe it will be a hit! 🙂

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