This formulation is the creamiest, simplest, most flexible lip mask I’ve ever formulated. You’ll need just five ingredients (three of which can be substituted), it works in a tin or a tube, it’s easy to customize, can be fully vegan, and makes brilliant gifts. Let’s get making!

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What is a lip mask?

As someone who has struggled with dry lips for her entire life, it’s not a surprise I became a lip mask fiend as soon as I discovered them.

Lip masks are sort of like super-charged lip balm; they’re generally thicker, richer, and more moisturizing. They’re usually marketed as an ‘overnight’ thing—a thing to be slathered on directly before falling asleep so you can wake up with soft, moisturized lips.

Because of this ‘overnight’ thing, lip masks are usually stickier than a lip balm so they stay on for a long time. The first lip mask I tried was the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, all the way back in 2017. It was lovely and rich but not terribly sticky, so (unsurprisingly) it moved slowly from night duty to all-day duty.

I recently purchased the Etude Ginger Sugar Overnight Lip Mask after a very enthusiastic recommendation from my patron Samantha. It is much stickier than the Laniege mask, and because of that, it noticeably stays on all night. When I wake up the next morning I can still feel a trace of tackiness on my mouth! I love it and treat is as a true “overnight” lip mask—as much as I seem to enjoy stickier lip things more than many people, this is definitely too tacky for daytime wear.

Anyhow—my love of lip masks has inevitably led me to digging into their ingredient lists and making some of my own.

How do lip mask ingredients differ from lip balm ingredients?

Lip balms are usually mostly liquid oils with some butters, thickened up with a firm wax like beeswax. Lip masks tend to be a bit different. They are usually softer, jarred products, but the lip masks I love aren’t just a lip balm with less wax. Within the first few ingredients, you’ll find some sort of thick, sticky, gooey, unctuous thing.

Laneige and Ginger Sugar both use Plandool™-H (Phytosteryl/Isostearyl/Cetyl/Stearyl/Behenyl Dimer Dilinoleate), which is an amazing vegan lanolin alternative. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find it for sale to home crafters anywhere—it turns out it is really expensive.

Polybutene, a rich, tacky lip product favourite of mine also appears within the first five ingredients, along with diisostearyl malate, an ester that is described as a good castor oil alternative.

Both products contain waxes as well (each has at least three: microcrystalline, carnauba, beeswax, candelilla, ‘synthetic’), but they don’t need very much compared to a lip balm because 1) they aren’t supposed to be quite that hard, and 2) they are mostly made of of ingredients that are a lot more viscous than something like almond oil is.

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How is this lip mask structured?

I’ve formulated several lip masks with varying levels of complexity over the years, and I’ve learned that I like a lip mask to be about half gooey stuff (refined lanolin, vegan lanolin alternatives, polybutene, and even Versagel ME 750 lip gloss base). That’s where we get enough sticky richness and structure that we don’t need much hardening wax to get a jar-friendly consistency.

For this formulation I tried both HPA (highly purified anhydrous) lanolin and pomegranate sterols—a new-to-me ingredient readers have been encouraging me to try for years as a vegan lanolin alternative. Both work; I prefer the pomegranate sterols as it is stickier and gooey-er than HPA lanolin, but HPA lanolin still works beautifully and is cheaper and easier to get. While unrefined lanolin would technically work, I really don’t recommend it. Unrefined lanolin reeks (it quite literally makes me gag), so I don’t want high concentrations of it anywhere near my mouth and nose.

If you have a different ingredient marketed as a lanolin alternative you could definitely try that. My Skin Recipes sells several that I haven’t had a chance to try yet. (Side note: I did order a big bag of their “deodorized” lanolin and I can smell it through the sealed bag… so I’d disagree with the “deodorized” part…)

A blend of rich, slippy castor oil and lighter cranberry seed oil counter the stickiness. I do recommend keeping the castor oil as it’s quite a unique ingredient (unless you have diisostearyl malate, I suppose), but please feel free to play with the cranberry oil. I mostly included it to make this a Cranberry Lip Mask for Christmassy gifting purposes, but you could very easily swap it out for all sorts of other lovely liquid oils to create different themes. Jojoba, apricot kernel, argan, blueberry, blackberry, plum kernel, and sunflower would all be good choices.

Up next, we need some wax to firm this up a bit. I started with 12–15% wax but that made product that was too soft and oily, so I bumped it up to 20% and that worked beautifully.

My top pick is cera bellina as this modified beeswax makes oil gels, and that gel-y-ness is really great for a a lip mask. If you’d rather use beeswax (which is a bit more potent of a hardener), I’d drop it down to 18 or 19% and increase either the gooey sticky thing or the castor oil, depending on how much you like stickiness in your lip products.

For a vegan option: I tried myrica fruit wax and it works really nicely. Unlike the more famous vegan “C” waxes (candeililla and carnauba), myrica fruit wax is creamy! It’s not quite as potent of a thickener as cera bellina, so a 1-for-1 swap makes for a slightly softer lip mask. I didn’t find this to be a big enough change that I wanted adjust the level, but you certainly could use 2 or 3% more if you wanted to.

The cool down phase includes a bit of vitamin E to extend the shelf life of the lip mask as both castor oil and cranberry oil are relatively prone to oxidization.

And lastly, for a bit of sparkly, colourful fun: some mica. This is completely optional, but I think it’s a fun way to round out the theme. I tried a variety of different pink & red micas throughout the development process. The Sparkle Rose I used in the video ended up being more apricot-y than cranberry-y than I’d hoped (oh well). My favourite result was actually using red 33 dye dispersed in castor oil instead of a mica—this gave the product a lovely rich cranberry-y colour.

Anyhow, please have some fun with the mica if you use it. The mica I chose would’ve worked so well with apricot kernel oil for an apricot lip mask. A deep plummy purple with plum kernel oil? Gold mica with sunflower oil? A deep blue with blueberry oil? Oh, the possibilities!

A reminder: when purchasing micas, always ensure they are ethically sourced. You’ll also want to check the INCI to see what they’re coloured with to make sure those ingredients work with your formulation ethos—some micas include carmine (not vegan) and/or synthetic dyes (not natural).

If you don’t want to include a mica, simply replace it with more castor oil. Or…

I intentionally didn’t include an essential oil or flavour oil in this formulation as the cranberry seed oil I used has a nice fresh, fruity scent to it that comes through in the finished product. You definitely could, though! You could swap the mica for a lip-safe essential oil or flavour oil, or reduce the castor or cranberry oil to make room for one. Be sure to follow IFRA guidelines; this is a category 1 (lip) product.

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Relevant links & further reading

• Lanolin in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Cranberry Seed Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Cera Bellina in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Castor Oil in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Coloured Mica in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• Tocopherol (Vitamin E) in the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia
• More lip formulations:
  • Nourishing Lip Mask
  • Moisturizing Overnight Lip Mask
  • DIY Moisturizing Lip Oil: 3 Ways
  • Hot Chocolate Lip Butter
  • Candlelight Lip Butter with Hyaluronic Acid
• More cranberry formulations:
  • Frosted Cranberry Bath Bombs
  • Frosted Cranberry Face Cream
  • Cranberry Orange Facial Gel Cream
  • Frosted Cranberry Butter Balm

Creamy Overnight Lip Mask

Heated phase
11.25g | 45% pomegranate sterols (USA / EU) or HPA (highly purified anhydrous) lanolin (USA / Canada / UK / Aus / NZ)
4.75g | 19% cranberry seed oil (USA / Canada / UK)
5g | 20% cera bellina (USA / Canada / UK / Aus / NZ) or myrica fruit wax (USA / Canada / UK / EU / Aus)
3.75g | 15% castor oil (USA / Canada)

Cool down phase
0.125g | 0.5% colourful mica
0.125g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)

Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a small saucepan.

Weigh the heated phase ingredients into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.

After about 20–30 minutes everything should be completely melted through. Remove the water bath from the heat, remove the measuring cup from the water bath, and dry it off with a dishtowel. Set the measuring cup on a towel or hot pad to insulate it from the counter and stir the mixture with a flexible silicone spatula to combine everything.

Quickly add the cool down phase, stir to incorporate, and pour the lip mask into its container. This formulation works in both jars/tins and twist-up tubes, but is much to firm for a squeeze tube.

Leave it on the counter to set up.

Substitutions

As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the formulation, you will get a different final product than I did.

• As I’ve provided this formulation in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams, this formulation will make 25g, which will fill approximately 5 regular lip balm tubes.
• To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list or the post above, please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
• Please read the “How is this lip mask structured?” section of this post for more information on substitutions and alternatives; there are quite a few!
• If you’d like to incorporate an essential oil, please read this.