I know it has been months since I have last posted here. I couldn't think of a creative way to convey how much physics homework I was buried beneath, and since that's basically what my life has been like this past semester, I haven't written a post.
Now that it is officially the Christmas holidays, I have more time to get back to crafting! Most of my crafts have been Christmas gifts, thus the continued lack of posts. But today I did a quick DIY which thus far I don't plan on gifting out.
All you need is some crayons, some Vaseline, olive oil, and in less than 10 minutes (or at least, that was the plan) you can have a customized colored chapstick/lipstick!
Most people use coconut oil and if you happen to have that then go ahead and substitute that in. I do not own coconut oil, and it's too expensive to pick up for this craft, so I just grabbed my handy-dandy Vaseline. ((Okay, technically it was my lovely mother's handy-dandy Vaseline that she lent me))
Can we just take a second to appreciate the little photo set-up I have going here? I took advantage of the light that was temperamentally streaming through my window, and grabbed some white paper to reflect the light onto my subjects.
I decided to go the normal route, and grabbed a red make my lipstick. I didn't want my lipstick to be too blood-red dramatic, so I grabbed a pink crayon to soften the color.
I used two inches of red crayon and one inch or pink crayon.
Tip: Use disposable everything. Cut the crayons with a plastic knife, put them in a disposable (but microwaveable safe) bowl. You don't have to, but this will make your life better. Crayons have a nasty habit to sticking to something-- say a knife edge-- and never letting go, which makes clean up a mess.
I ended up using (after much trial and error) 1 1/4 teaspoons of Vaseline and probably 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil with my crayons.
Put your crayon pieces,Vaseline, and olive oil, in a microwavable safe bowl and start to microwave. I did 30 second intervals. I read one tutorial which said only do 5 second intervals or your mixture will explode. They must have been working with a restaurant grade microwave because my little microwave took much longer to melt the crayons. It took me maybe 5-6 minutes for my crayons to finally melt.
Another way to melt your mixture is set up a double broiler (just put a bowl over some boiling water on the stove). I never have much patience to set up a double broiler, so I stuck to my microwave.
Every 30 seconds I used toothpicks to mix up my slowly melting crayons.
The hardest part of this craft is finding the right crayon:Vaseline:olive oil ratio. I first made a batch using 1/4 teaspoon per inch of crayon and no olive oil. This seemed to work fine, but after sitting on the counter for five minutes the mixture was hard and unusable. Since I had used the last of my Vaseline in this attempt, my craft was put on hold until I bought some more Vaseline.
I reheated my last attempt and threw in more Vaseline and slowly poured in some olive oil. The olive oil seemed to help liquify the crayon mixture. Also, it feels great on your lips, even if I began to feel like a rotisserie chicken ready to be broiled after slathering the mixture onto my lips.
Once you've heated your mixture until it is liquid, pour it into a small container.
And the award for the sketchiest chapstick container goes to me for this pill container I picked up at Dollar Tree.
Hey. Whatever works, right? I twisted off the top container and it looks like a perfectly normal little chapstick holder.
Et, volia!
I put some on my hand to make sure that I had not diluted the color too much with all my Vaseline and olive oil. I like the color! It turned out more vibrant than I had expected. It goes on the lips quite smoothly, thank you olive oil.
This craft is great for make Halloween/stage makeup where you need odd colored lipstick. As far as safety goes, as long as you don't wear this everyday you'll be fine. This definitely won't replace any cheap lipstick I buy at the drugstore, as it is annoying and messy. However, if you want weird/cheap colors for costumes, this is a fun craft which actually works.
I have a couple more crafts in the works, so be sure to check back!
Thanks for reading :)
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