Production of lip balm from stingless bee honey

Abstract

India Cosmetics is used daily by majority of the people worldwide. Nowadays, consumer demand for natural based product cosmetics as they are safe to use and environmentally friendly. Lip balm is a cosmetic or lip care product whose purpose is to prevent dry and chapped lips. The quality of lip balm is directly linked with the basic ingredients used in the formulation. This work involved the formulation of lip balm from natural ingredients. Various composition of beeswax, shea butter, stingless bee honey, oils and colorant were studied to obtain the best formulation. Stingless bee honey was added to the lip balm formulation as moisturizing agent. The physico-chemical properties of the formulations were determined including melting point, stability, moisture content, color intensity, sensory test for human acceptance and microbial test. From the results, the formulation of lip balm from beeswax, shea butter and oil with ratio 1:1:1 was the best formulation. It has high melting point and has stable condition in low and room temperature. The presence of honey in the formulation assisted to increase the moisture content in the lip balm. Besides that, for color intensity, natural colorant from fruit juice and extraction contributed the color to the lip balm but the color intensity was lower compared to powder colorant. Lastly, the formulation of lip balm from beeswax, shea butter and oil with ratio of 1:1:1 met the consumer acceptance as the highest sensory test score was obtained for this formulation.