I love making my own cosmetic products, like lip gloss, body butter, and bath bombs. Not only are they super easy to make, they are also better for me than many products that are available on the market. That’s because homemade beauty and body care products don’t have any toxic chemicals that are sometimes found in store-bought stuff. So my latest DIY recipe is one for lava lamp lip gloss. It’s groovy to look at and it keeps my lips lightly tinted and super moisturizing. The best part is lava lamp lip gloss is very quick and easy to make.

Nerd Out on Lava Lamp Lip Gloss

Why does the lava lamp lip gloss look so cool? So groovy? Well, it’s because it has two liquids, each with a different density. Actually, traditional lava lamp also uses ingredients that have different density to achieve that groovy, psychedelic look. You might remember hearing about density back in middle school. You might even remember seeing the following formula:

Density= Mass/Volume

Basically, mass tells you how much “stuff” there is in a liquid, while density tells you how tightly packed the stuff is in the liquid. Density of a liquid determines if it will float or sink when it’s added to a second liquid. For example, olive oil has a lower density compared to water. This means that when you add olive oil to water, olive oil will float, and water will sink. Once you know why lava lamp lip gloss looks as cool as it does, you can pretty much come up with your own recipe. All you need are two liquids and some color. Below is my favorite lava lamp lip gloss. But be creative, you can come up with many different recipes. Please comment below to share some of your favorite ones.

Lava Lamp Lip Gloss

Prep Time: 5 – 10 minutes

Yields: 5 ml of lava lamp lip gloss, enough to last me a month or two

Ingredients for Lava Lamp Lip Gloss

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1. Glass Roll On Bottle – I use a 5 ml glass roll on bottle.
2. Vegetable Glycerin – about 1/2 to 2/3 teaspoon. I use food grade, non-GMO vegetable glycerin.
3. Vegetable Oil – about 1/4 to 1/3 teaspoon. I use food-grade organic virgin coconut oil. Sunflower oil will also work.
4. Red Mica – about 1/8 teaspoon. Be sure to use cosmetic-grade mica.

How to Make Lava Lamp Lip Gloss

Here’s a YouTube video I posted on how to make lava lamp lip gloss.

1. Fill 2/3 of the glass roll on bottle with food-grade vegetable glycerine. I use a bamboo skewer to get the vegetable glycerin into the bottle. To use a bamboo skewer, insert it into the bottle, then pour vegetable glycerin onto the skewer. The bamboo skewer will guide the glycerin into the bottle. A pair of steady hands is a must. BUT you can also use a liquid dropper to add vegetable glycerin into the bottle. That’s probably the easier way.
2. Mix red mica with coconut oil or sunflower oil. Coconut oil is semi solid in room temperature, about 5-10 seconds in the microwave will turn it into a liquid. Be sure to mix the mica and vegetable oil well.
3. Added the pigmented coconut oil or sunflower oil to the glass roll on bottle. I again use a bamboo skewer, but a liquid dropper works very well too.
4. Pop the plastic ball and its holder onto the roll on bottle, and close the cap.
5. Flip the roll on bottle upside down and be mesmerized by how the lava lamp lip gloss moves in the bottle.

That’s it! That’s how you make lava lamp lip gloss. Super quick and easy, right? If you google “lava lamp lip gloss,” you will probably find some recipes and DIY kits that include castor oil as an ingredient. I tried a recipe that uses castor oil, red mica, and glycerin. The finished product looked pretty cool, but because it’s well-known that castor oil can also be used as a laxative, I decided to try another vegetable oil. My favorite vegetable oil for this DIY recipe is coconut oil, because it gives the lip gloss a sweet coconut scent and taste. Also, coconut oil is a great skin care ingredient because of its nourishing properties.

When you make your own cosmetic products, in addition to having complete control over the ingredients used, you can also customize them according to your preferences. For this lava lamp lip gloss, I used rose red mica. But mica comes in many different colors. This means that you can make lip gloss in many different shades. The absolute creative freedom of making my own products is one of the many reasons why I’m so into these DIY beauty and personal care recipes.

So will you be giving this quick and easy lava lamp lip gloss recipe a try? Please comment below to let me know what you think about this recipe. Please share and pin this recipe if you like it!