Rescue Bad Lipstick!
Make your own lipstick at home
I love lipstick and can't resist buying new shades when they come out. I'll by any brand as long as the color looks intriguing. Unfortunately the new lipstick is often disappointing. No doubt you've had the same experience I've had where the color isn't what I expected. It was too light or too dark - nothing like it looked in the packaging when I fell in love with the color.
Or maybe like me you love the color of the lipstick but the texture is wrong. It's either too waxy and makes your lips feel gritty or it's so sheer that it slides off your lips and leaves a ring of color around you mouth like a circus clown. Or the lipstick is so matte and dry it feels like your rubbing a crayon across your lips. Ouch!
I've had these annoying experiences so often that I decided to do something about it. I give my lipsticks extreme makeovers!
How? By melting them down and combining them. I'll mix and match colors and slice sections off the lipstick and melt it until I get a color and texture I like. Let's get down to details.
What you'll need:
- A small paring type knife or disposable plastic knife
- Liquid medicine cups (You can order them online at Amazon.com or if you have one left over from you cough medicine use that)
- Wax paper or aluminum foil - too protect your counter top in case you spill the melted lipstick - it's a nightmare to clean up!
- A paper plate - I put the medicine cup on it in the microwave in case the cup melts.
- An empty lip balm tube or jar. (These can also be ordered online but it you have an empty used one clean it out and reuse it with your new color - recycle!)
- Lipsticks you want to make over
- Access to a microwave
Optional:
Flavors or extracts to give your creation a new smell. You can use extracts you buy at the store or buy special flavors online from manufacturers.
Steps to giving your lipstick a makeover:
1) Cover the counter you'll be working from with the wax paper. Believe me it's worth the small effort. The first time you have to clean up melted lipstick you accidentally spilled you'll be wishing you covered the counter with the wax paper.
2) Lay out all your supplies on the counter including the lipstick you'll be doctoring.
3) Choose your first lipstick to makeover.
4) Slice the lipstick from the tube with the knife and put it into the plastic medicine cup.
5) Scoop out what's left in the tube and put that into the medicine cup or save it for a different lipstick makeover.
6) Chose another lipstick and add some to your medicine cup. Either a darker or lighter color depending on what effect you want. Or even something creamier or less creamy to fix a texture issue.
7) When you're done adding the extra colors slice the big chunks in the cup up so they will melt easily. Now's the time to add the flavoring or extract.
8) Make sure you have the empty lip balm tube or jar ready to be filled once everything is melted. The process goes quickly.
9) Now put the cup on a paper plate and put the plate into the microwave.
10) Depending on how hot your microwave gets set the cooking time at 20 second intervals until you figure out how long it takes to melt the lipstick without melting the plastic cup. (If you melt the cup just dump it all in the trash and start over.)
11) Once the lipstick is melted carefully take it out of the microwave. The cup may be hot, so be prepared so you don't drop it when you burn your fingers and make a huge mess of melted lipstick all over everything. (Can you tell I've done this before? Then you have burned fingers and an aggravating mess to clean up!)
12) Put the cup with the melted lipstick on the counter.
13) Stir it a little with your knife to make sure all the colors blend but don't take so long it starts to harden or you'll have to melt it again.
14) Pour the new color in the empty tube or jar you already set out.
15) Let the new color sit for several hours. If it's in a lip balm tube wait over night before trying to twist up the color so it doesn't crack.
16) If there is anything left in the medicine cup after you fill up your container you can use what's left as the base color for your next lipstick makeover. Add more lipstick to the medicine cup and start the steps over.
Soon you'll have all new lipstick in colors hopefully you'll like better than the original shade. I've made some really awesome colors and some not so great colors this way. And the colors you don't like%u2026well give them an extreme make over with what's left of your other lipstick mistakes.
I like making my own colors so much some times I buy the really cheap stuff just to have extra lipstick to melt the mistakes with for a new creation. It gets really exciting when people admire your lipstick and you can tell them you made it! No one else will be wearing you shade of lipstick! Around Halloween you can get black and really dark reds to use for blending your problem lipsticks into fabulous new shades.
Have fun. Let me know if you make some cool colors.
Or maybe like me you love the color of the lipstick but the texture is wrong. It's either too waxy and makes your lips feel gritty or it's so sheer that it slides off your lips and leaves a ring of color around you mouth like a circus clown. Or the lipstick is so matte and dry it feels like your rubbing a crayon across your lips. Ouch!
I've had these annoying experiences so often that I decided to do something about it. I give my lipsticks extreme makeovers!
How? By melting them down and combining them. I'll mix and match colors and slice sections off the lipstick and melt it until I get a color and texture I like. Let's get down to details.
What you'll need:
- A small paring type knife or disposable plastic knife
- Liquid medicine cups (You can order them online at Amazon.com or if you have one left over from you cough medicine use that)
- Wax paper or aluminum foil - too protect your counter top in case you spill the melted lipstick - it's a nightmare to clean up!
- A paper plate - I put the medicine cup on it in the microwave in case the cup melts.
- An empty lip balm tube or jar. (These can also be ordered online but it you have an empty used one clean it out and reuse it with your new color - recycle!)
- Lipsticks you want to make over
- Access to a microwave
Optional:
Flavors or extracts to give your creation a new smell. You can use extracts you buy at the store or buy special flavors online from manufacturers.
Steps to giving your lipstick a makeover:
1) Cover the counter you'll be working from with the wax paper. Believe me it's worth the small effort. The first time you have to clean up melted lipstick you accidentally spilled you'll be wishing you covered the counter with the wax paper.
2) Lay out all your supplies on the counter including the lipstick you'll be doctoring.
3) Choose your first lipstick to makeover.
4) Slice the lipstick from the tube with the knife and put it into the plastic medicine cup.
5) Scoop out what's left in the tube and put that into the medicine cup or save it for a different lipstick makeover.
6) Chose another lipstick and add some to your medicine cup. Either a darker or lighter color depending on what effect you want. Or even something creamier or less creamy to fix a texture issue.
7) When you're done adding the extra colors slice the big chunks in the cup up so they will melt easily. Now's the time to add the flavoring or extract.
8) Make sure you have the empty lip balm tube or jar ready to be filled once everything is melted. The process goes quickly.
9) Now put the cup on a paper plate and put the plate into the microwave.
10) Depending on how hot your microwave gets set the cooking time at 20 second intervals until you figure out how long it takes to melt the lipstick without melting the plastic cup. (If you melt the cup just dump it all in the trash and start over.)
11) Once the lipstick is melted carefully take it out of the microwave. The cup may be hot, so be prepared so you don't drop it when you burn your fingers and make a huge mess of melted lipstick all over everything. (Can you tell I've done this before? Then you have burned fingers and an aggravating mess to clean up!)
12) Put the cup with the melted lipstick on the counter.
13) Stir it a little with your knife to make sure all the colors blend but don't take so long it starts to harden or you'll have to melt it again.
14) Pour the new color in the empty tube or jar you already set out.
15) Let the new color sit for several hours. If it's in a lip balm tube wait over night before trying to twist up the color so it doesn't crack.
16) If there is anything left in the medicine cup after you fill up your container you can use what's left as the base color for your next lipstick makeover. Add more lipstick to the medicine cup and start the steps over.
Soon you'll have all new lipstick in colors hopefully you'll like better than the original shade. I've made some really awesome colors and some not so great colors this way. And the colors you don't like%u2026well give them an extreme make over with what's left of your other lipstick mistakes.
I like making my own colors so much some times I buy the really cheap stuff just to have extra lipstick to melt the mistakes with for a new creation. It gets really exciting when people admire your lipstick and you can tell them you made it! No one else will be wearing you shade of lipstick! Around Halloween you can get black and really dark reds to use for blending your problem lipsticks into fabulous new shades.
Have fun. Let me know if you make some cool colors.
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