I turned 3 ColourPop lip balms into buttercream-frosted cookies

Strawberry Milk, Chocolate Milkshake, and Watermelon Sugar were my inspiration for these bakery-style cookies.

Makeup brands and dessert themes are the ultimate mashup. When I was in Target, I found three new ColourPop lip balms that totally gave me dessert recipe ideas. The flavors were Strawberry Milk, Chocolate Milkshake, and Watermelon Sugar. I almost went with ice cream, but decided on cookies instead. It felt like more of a challenge.

I’ve loved ColourPop for a while, so it gave me an excuse to get new makeup. Naturally, I brought all three home and turned them into bakery-style cookies. The goal wasn’t to recreate the lip balms exactly. Instead, I wanted something that felt like the edible version of the product.

The result was three completely different buttercream-frosted cookies that got rave reviews from my taste testers.

Strawberry Milk

Of the three, Strawberry Milk felt like the easiest concept to translate into dessert. The balm is described as sweet, creamy, and strawberry-forward, so I started with a thick vanilla cookie dough and added crushed freeze-dried strawberries for concentrated berry flavor. White chocolate chips gave it that creamy milk-and-strawberries touch. The buttercream was a fluffy strawberry frosting made with strawberry Nesquik powder. It added sweetness, color, and that familiar taste of strawberry milk.

The finished cookie tastes like a cross between a strawberry milkshake and a bakery sugar cookie.

Strawberry Milk Cookie

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• Author: Taryn Camp

Ingredients

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Cookie ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup crushed freeze-dried strawberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Strawberry Milk Frosting

• ½ cup salted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons strawberry Nesquik powder
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
4. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
5. Fold in freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate chips.
6. Scoop 3-ounce portions and gently flatten.
7. Bake 11 to 12 minutes.
8. Cool completely.
9. Beat frosting ingredients until fluffy and pipe onto cookies.

Notes

Makes about 12 bakery-style cookies

Chocolate Milkshake

The Chocolate Milkshake balm sounded like pure chocolate perfection. For this version, I wanted something that felt like an old-fashioned diner milkshake. The cookie itself starts with a chocolate dough, but the ingredient that really changes everything is malted milk powder. That classic malt flavor gives the cookies a milkshake quality that plain chocolate cookies just don’t have.

Chunks of milk chocolate melt into the dough, while a chocolate malt frosting doubles down on the theme. This was probably the most universally loved cookie of the three. If you’re a chocolate fan, this is the recipe you’ll save.

Chocolate Milkshake Cookie

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• Author: Taryn Camp

Ingredients

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Cookie ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons malted milk powder
• 1 cup chopped milk chocolate

Chocolate Milkshake Frosting

• ½ cup salted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon malted milk powder
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
4. Add flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and malted milk powder.
5. Fold in chopped milk chocolate.
6. Scoop 3-ounce portions and gently flatten.
7. Bake 11 to 12 minutes.
8. Cool completely.
9. Beat frosting ingredients until fluffy and pipe onto cookies.

Notes

Makes about 12 bakery-style cookies

Watermelon Sugar

This was the cookie I was least sure about because watermelon in desserts can be a bit tricky. Instead of trying to create a realistic watermelon cookie, I leaned into the candy-inspired direction.

The dough gets tinted bright pink and packed with white chocolate chips and chopped watermelon gummies. After baking and cooling, each cookie is topped with a watermelon frosting made with watermelon syrup. (We’ve recently become obsessed with watermelon syrup, and use it in lemonade all the time.)

This cookie tastes like a sweet white chocolate sugar cookie with a punch of watermelon flavor from the frosting. Then you get a chewy, sugar-coated piece of watermelon gummy that adds an extra burst of watermelon candy flavor. It was the most unique cookie of the trio and such a great surprise.

Watermelon Cream Cookie

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• Author: Taryn Camp

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Cookie ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Pink gel food coloring
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped watermelon gummies

Watermelon Cream Frosting

• ½ cup salted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 to 3 tablespoons watermelon syrup
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
3. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
4. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
5. Tint dough light pink.
6. Fold in white chocolate chips and watermelon gummies.
7. Scoop 3-ounce portions onto lined baking sheets.
8. Gently flatten the tops.
9. Bake 11 to 12 minutes.
10. Cool completely.
11. Beat frosting ingredients until fluffy and pipe onto cookies.

Notes

Makes about 12 bakery-style cookies

This ended up becoming one of my favorite baking experiments of the year. Turning makeup into sweets is incredibly fun. Keep an eye out for more makeup-dessert combos coming up soon!