Make | Chocolate & Peppermint Lip Balm

A simple project for a sweet-smelling Easter gift to make a change from a chocolate egg

Homemade lip balm is easier than you might expect. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you can experiment with different flavour combinations. This version is like mint choc chip ice cream for your lips.

Makes two pots of lip balm

1 tbsp coconut oil
1½ tbsp shea butter
1½ tbsp cocoa butter
1 tbsp cocoa powder
3 drops peppermint essential oil
2 x 30ml jars

1 Put the coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and cocoa powder into a jam jar or bowl.

2 Set the bowl over a pan of boiling water, taking care not to let it touch the water. As soon as they’ve all melted, remove from the heat. Alternatively, heat in the microwave for 60-90 seconds, or until melted.

3 Let the mix cool for a few minutes before adding the essential oil.

4 Stir well before pouring into your jars. Be careful not to spill the mixture around the top of the jar as this’ll make it difficult to open once cooled. To speed up the cooling process, put your jars in the fridge or freezer.

This recipe is just one of the creative projects by Lottie Storey that feature in our Heart, Body and Soul pages, which this issue focuses on chocolate (of course). There are also instructions for making a chocolate and rose petal salami, chocolate tagliatelle and a pain au chocolat miso pudding. Photography by Kirstie Young.

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More from our April issue…

More chocolate (because there can’t be too much)…

How to make a peg bag

Hanging out the washing is an unusual and surprising thing: a pleasurable household chore. If it’s a fresh morning and the sun is shining, the simple act of pegging clothes on a line before you can lift the spirits and blow away gloominess. As the days extend and there’s more likelihood of sun, it’s also a chance to get outdoors and away from everyone indoors. Doing something methodical provides the opportunity for a moment or two of peaceful reflection – just you, the breeze, a handful of pegs and some billowing sheets. The results are also worth it: the fresh, outdoor smell of line-dried laundry will have you burying your nose in the laundry basket and inhaling deeply. As a method of drying clothes, pegging out is 100% better than piling them in an energy-gobbling, clothes-battering tumble dryer, or heaping them on radiators and leaving them to steam.

Every washing line needs a bag full of pegs nearby for easy pegging out. How to cunningly create one from a child’s polo shirt.

Here’s a clever thing: peg bags are suspended from a hanger so, rather than create a new bag from scratch, why not use an item that is already the right shape and size? Buy a child’s polo shirt (the one above is £3.99, hm.com), or better still use one they have grown out of or no longer like. Turn it inside out, stitch the bottom of the shirt closed about half way down the length of the body, trim surplus fabric, and turn it the right way round. Insert a child’s hanger and fill with pegs. Job done.

Turn to page 111 of May's The Simple Things for more on pegging out.

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More from the May issue:

More weekend projects to make:

A project for the weekend

Peg out proudly with this burlap peg bag - made by you!

If you manage to even find your peg bag again after the winter, the chances are it's probably grown a bit of mould or acquired a rather unpleasant damp smell.  Before you go out and buy another one we've got the perfect project to get you ready for spring and that uplifting moment when you hang your washing outside for the first time. To make this stylish peg bag all you need is a coffee or peanut sack or rectangular section of a sack, some scissors, a ruler and sewing machine with a universal needle. Coffee sacks are available for rescue at most local roasteries, alternatively you could try garden centres or pet shops for peanut sacks. The result? A peg pag to be proud of and the great sense of satisfaction that comes from making something lovely (and useful!) from rescued material.

For full step-by-step instructions see Issue 21 of The Simple Things. For more similar projects check out Reinvention, Sewing with rescued materials by Maya Donefeld (Wiley).