A simple luxury

Are you familiar with the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs? It has been going for years and the format is that of an interview where guests are asked to choose eight discs or music tracks that they would want to have with them if they were to be castaway on a desert island. They also get to choose a book and a luxury item.

After a week in rural Ireland earlier this Autumn - hardly a desert island I know, but bear with me please - where I lost the only lip salve that I had with me on day two and was unable to find a shop that sold any sort of replacement for another 5 days, I swiftly realised that my desert island luxury would have to be a lifetime supply of lip balm.

I am normally the person that has one in every coat pocket, every bag, as well as one in the car and one by the bed. Whilst on the ferry to Ireland I soon realised that the coat I had taken had no lip salve in the pocket (what do they say about making assumptions?) and it is the one that I had in the car that fell out of my pocket on the second day. It may seem ridiculous but I can't tell you how much I missed being able to give my lips a quick slather.

Anyway, after a couple of successful attempts to make my own body lotion I thought I would turn my hand to making some lip balm. The ingredients seem to be very similar to body lotion so it was just a case of adjusting the ratios and the volume. And if you had the ability to make the one thing you realise you really struggle to live without, then why wouldn't you at least give it a go?

Having had this mini project in mind for some time, I had been setting aside any small pot that I thought would be useful. One had contained lip balm, another was a small glass jar that originally contained an ointment and the rest had contained free samples of various beauty products.

The next task was to measure out the solid elements for the lip balm. This was 14g beeswax pastilles, 14g Shea butter and 7g of cocoa butter. These were melted together in a metal jug placed in a pan of water.

It's the beeswax which keeps the balm solid when the room temperature begins to rise, so this took quite some time to melt, but once I had a liquid I then added 26ml of apricot kernel oil, 6ml of caster oil and a few drops of vitamin E. As these oils were cold they instantly solidified half of the melted wax and butters but about a minute in the warm jug, still in the hot water, soon resulted in a clear runny liquid. Removing the jug from the hot water I quickly added 12 drops of sweet orange essential oil and poured the melted butters and oils into my prepared pots where they swiftly began to solidify.

With this new stock of lip balm and the ability to make more in minutes, I'm hoping I'm never going to be without again and will be all set to be castaway. Now I just need to decide on the eight discs and book I will be taking with me... would it be Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy or the complete novels of Jane Austin...? Hmmm, lots to think about!