For Christmas this year, we decided to try our hand at making some things. It wasn't really to save money, because after the cost of essential oils and other things I didn't really save much. But I find it interesting to see what I can make myself. So this year for Christmas we made several things. I only have photos of a few of the ones I made. We made lip balm (tinted and untinted), solid perfume, Vick's shower discs, bath bombs, vanilla extract, tub teas, pocket hand warmers, mint chocolate, and some spice rubs.
Silas helped me make the lip balm and perfume, which were pretty similar. The lip balm had cocoa butter and coconut oil in it along with what the perfume had - beeswax and either almond oil or vitamin E oil. To tint the lip balm, I used alkanet root powder. I also added peppermint oil to the lip balm. I made three different scents of perfume, all using essential oils: rosemary and lavender, bergamot and grapefruit, and hyssop and lavender for the men. I love the smell of hyssop but it needs a bit of a softening from the lavender. Bergamot is one of the ingredients of earl grey tea, so it's a familiar scent.
Melting the beeswax and vitamin E oil. Next time I will definitely buy the buttons of beeswax. Christian had to strong arm it in order to cut some off for me.
After adding the tint to the lip balm. It looks darker than it is on the lips.
Homemade lip balm! It's really nice, too and lasts forever.
This is the perfume, with the beeswax in the background. The downside of using beeswax is that if the perfume gets cold then it's hard to rub on. I just set it on the woodstove for a few seconds to help it warm up.
A closeup of the solid perfume.
And some mint chocolate bark.
I don't have pictures of the others, but I will say that I like the tub teas. It's just a tea bag full of herbs (either lavender, rose, chamomile, and jasmine). I like to put either the chamomile or the lavender in the bath with the boys, to help relax and calm them before bedtime. The shower discs and the bath bombs didn't work too well as far as holding together, but I really enjoyed learning about the qualities of eucalyptus, rosemary, and lavender oils when mixed together (hint: they are the very ingredients of Vick's baby chest rub). I put some into Eli's humidifier when he had a cold and it really helped his cough and stuffy nose. The bath bombs fizzle a little too quickly but they are still a lot of fun to play with. And the vanilla extract was so simple it makes me shake my head! It's such expensive stuff, but actually really easy and pretty inexpensive to make. Prices of beans vary, but I found Bourbon vanilla beans for $1.29 a bean at our local natural foods store. You just add some plain alcohol such as vodka to a bottle, cut the vanilla bean in half and down the middle, and let the two sit for eight weeks. So easy I couldn't believe it.
