Five New Fabulous Christmas Gifts you can Make with Essential Oils

I love giving homemade gifts! Below you will find all the details on how to make these five fabulous natural gifts with essential oils. These are such wonderful gifts to give and so easy to make!

Layered Lavender Hot Cocoa:

You know chocolate fixes everything! Well now its lavender and chocolate fix everything. Relax and warm up with this wonderful blend. For this project follow these steps:

1. Measure 1/2 cup sugar into a separate bowl and mix with 5 drops lavender.
2. Using a canning funnel, put sugar/lavender mix in bottom of canning mug.
3. Tap to get it all level and packed
4. Then add in order to layer 1/2 cup cocoa powder
5. 1/2 cup powdered milk
6. 1/4 tsp salt
7. 1/4 cup chocolate chips
8. Push down on the chocolate chips with your hand to pack the jar well
9. Then pack the top with mini marshmallows
10. Add lid and label. For the label add the instructions: Empty contents into a large bowl. Mix well. To make cocoa add 1/3 cup of mix to 1 cup hot water. Store mix in a sealed container. 

Super cute, fun with a lot of yum!

All Natural Glitter Body Spray with a Silver Diffuser Necklace: 

This all natural body spray has some shimmer and some sass. Use your favorite essential oils or try the suggested ones below. Pair it with a fun diffuser necklace for a perfect combination! For this gift you will need:

4 ounce spray bottle
1/3 cup witch hazel
your choice of essential oils 

• Beautiful- 8 drops ylang-ylang essential oil and 8 drops orange essential oil

or

• Energizing- 5 drops grapefruit, 6 drops lime, and 5 drops lemon essential oils

1/2 tsp all natural mica powder (glitter)
1 tablespoon glycerin
1 tablespoon oil (like sunflower, grapeseed or almond)

Once you have added all ingredients to the bottle, replace the spray top and make a cute label for your bottle. Shake well before using.

Diffuser Necklace: for second part of this gift you will need a rope or chain for your necklace, a spiral pendant and lava bead or wool ball. Put the wool ball or bead inside of your pendant by gently pulling the wires apart, then add pendant to your chain. Super simple and really cute. We gifted this with a small sample bottle filled with essential oil blends we made to match the spray.

Eucalyptus Mint Bath Oil: 

A wonderful addition to any bath. Pour one tablespoon of this into your bath as you are running the water.  Improve your concentration, boost your energy, ease sore-achy muscles and oh yeah, kills germs on the side.  For this gift you will need:

4 ounce glass bottle
10 drops eucalyptus essential oil
5 drops peppermint essential oil

Approximately 4 ounces of olive oil

Add essential oils to the bottle. Then fill to neck with olive oil. Screw on the cover, shake well and add a cute label. We gifted this oil with a super fluffy white spa towel.

Peppermint Foot Rub: 

A great treat for tired and achy feet! We wrapped this up with a pair of fuzzy socks for a super cute gift. To make this gift you will need:

• 2 ounce glass bottle
• 4 Tablespoons of oil (like sunflower, grapeseed, or sweet almond)
• 2 Tsp of Vinegar
• 15 drops of peppermint essential oil

Add all the ingredients to you bottle, cover & shake. Add a cute label and wrap it with your favorite fuzzy socks.

Whipped Body Butter: 

This is not just lotion, it's butter! It is a wonderful blend of all natural oils to sooth your body. A little goes a long way.

1/2 cup sweet almond oil
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup mango butter
1/2 cup shea butter
1 tsp vitamin E (preservative)
Essential oils of your choice (we used 2 drops of joy and 3 drops of orange for each 1/2 cup)

Melt the coconut oil and butters in a double boiler until combined.

Remove from heat and add sweet almond oil and vitamin E. Then place in refrigerator to cool down for 2-4 hours. When it is almost solid put it in your mixer to whip it up. If it is not whipping well you may need to refrigerate it a little longer.

Once whipped add your essential oils to your preference and whip another minute to incorporate. Spoon into your jars and add a cute label.


Looking for more ideas? You can view previous years projects here:
Five more DIY gifts for Christmas using Essential Oils
5 Easy DIY Christmas Gifts with Essential Oils
Mens All Natural Bath and Body Products Using Essential Oils

I hope you enjoy creating these wonderful natural gifts for your friends and family. Do you have a favorite homemade gift you make? Share some of your favorites with us below. In the meantime have a wonderful holiday season and a very merry Christmas!

Blessings!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

Everything is better with glitter! Lip balm with attitude

My daughter always asks for those flavored lip balms. You know the ones, marketed for kids. The ingredients list always makes me cringe. So over the years I've made her some lip balms and she accepted them-reluctantly. However she still wanted those "cool" ones. So recently we made tinted balm with sparkle and she is head over heels!!

Here is the recipe we created:

You will need:
6-7 lip balm tubes
1/2 tablespoon beeswax
1 tablespoon Shea butter
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 capsules or 1/2 tsp vitamin E oil
1 teaspoon mica powder- approximately
10-15 drops essential oils of your choice (like lavender, or lavender and peppermint)

First melt your beeswax, coconut oil and butter in a double boiler.

Once melted remove from heat and add vitamin E, mica powder and essential oils. Stir the mica powder in really well! It does sink to the bottom. 

Gather your lip balm tubes with a rubber band for ease of filling. Slowly pour the balm into your tubes. Let it cool completely before capping.

Add cute labels or use decorative tape.

This is seriously so much fun. There are so many natural color combinations and essential oils you can choose from. If you try it out, let me know what you make. I hope you have fun with it!

Blessings!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

Five more DIY gifts for Christmas using Essential Oils

This years "Christmas Make and Take" was a ton of fun. I took it up a notch with some of our projects. We made gifts which were a little more time intensive but overall are fairly easy and truly make great gifts for everyone on your list.







Comfort and Joy Lotion Bars: First up is my all time favorite lotion bar. I have been gifting these for years and I always get tons of compliments. These bars were seasonally scented with Joy and Orange essential oils to create a fun and luxurious bar. They are great for dry cracked skin. Rub them in your hands and the heat from your body will melt the oil. These bars are very moisturizing. I get cracked skin along my finger nails in winter and I will rub my lotion bar on the cracks at bedtime. By morning the crack will be gone.

You can use lots of options to make this with different molds. I use a small loaf silicone mold but you could make hearts for Valentines, silicone muffin mold for round shapes as well!

You will need:
1 cup beeswax
1 cup mango butter
1 cup coconut oil
1-2 tsp vitamin E oil or about 5 capsules of vitamin E
50 drops of essential oil- for this project we used 25 drops of Joy EO and 25 drops of Orange EO

In a double boiler melt the beeswax, mango butter and coconut oil. Once melted, remove from heat and add Vitamin E and essential oils. Then pour into molds. Let completely cool before removing from mold or if using deodorant containers make sure it is cooled completely before adding the cap.

Using the mold above I generally get 10-11 bars.

Essentially Infused Sea Salt Trio:Second we made Essential Infused Sea Salts in Rosemary, Basil and Oregano. I found some super cute jars (wedding favors) and some great coordinating stickers and boxes.

1. Rosemary bowl combine: 2 level Tablespoons sea salt with 1 drop of Rosemary EO
2. mix well then add 1 level Tablespoon dried Rosemary
3. mix in bowl and then scoop/pour into jar with a funnel
4. place the cover and label it, repeat with each herb, (keep separate bowls for each herb)

Diffuser Bracelet:Third up is diffuser bracelet. Using natural stones, Amazonite and Lava we created super cute bracelets and paired it with a mini dropper bottle so each person could share their favorite scent with the receiver.

1. Cut 9-10" of magic cord (1mm)
2. use 16 amazonite stones (8mm) and 3-5 lava stones (8mm or 10mm) to make your bracelet (don't fill the string or you won't be able to tie it!!!
3. triple knot it (hardest part)
4. put one dab of superglue on the knot
5. once dry, cut ends.

White Christmas Bath Bombs:These Luxury Bath Bombs with White Angelica EO and Lavender EO were like heaven....oh they smelled sooooo good. When you are ready to use them, fill your tub, climb in and drop in the bomb!

1. Combine in a large glass or stainless steel bowl until well blended: 

• 8 ounces Baking Soda for your skin and the bathwater
• 4 ounces Corn Starch
• 4 ounces Epsom Salts

2. Add the following ingredients and blend well: 

• 2-3 tsp. witch hazel
• 15 drops of Essential Oil for scent (more or less depending on how strong you want it and what scent you are using)
• 2 tsp. almond oil for your skin
• Food coloring if you want colored bombs and water.

3. At this point, your mixture should resemble wet sand.  Adding the food coloring helps you figure out if it’s well-mixed, an even color means a good mix.  When you squeeze some in your fist, it should hold together.  If it doesn’t, add witch hazel a teaspoon or less at a time until desired consistency is reached. ***Don't add too much liquid or it expands... a lot.

4. Add 4 ounces Citric Acid (this is what gives you the fizz). Mix well, but use a spoon for this because the pure citric acid can irritate your skin.

5. Once well mixed, tightly pack it down into your mold.  Let it dry 24 hours in the mold before removing.

Christmas Spirit Scented Soap: Finally we made Christmas Spirit Scented and swirled soap. I have wanted to do a soap for a long time. We used a glycerin melt-and-pour soap with shea butter. Its important when shopping for soaps that you look at the ingredients and choose one that you are comfortable with. 

1. Chop the soap into cubes and melt slowly in a double boiler or microwave. 
2. Once melted, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. 
3. Add your essential oils and mix well. (We used approximately 5ml bottle of Christmas Spirit for 2 1/2 pounds of soap.)
4. Pour into molds.
5. Let it set slightly, when a skin starts to show on the top is the best time to add liquid soap colorant. I used 5-7 drops in each muffin cup. stir slightly with a popsicle stick.
6. Spray with rubbing alchohol to break surface tension and pop a y bubbles. Leave to cool and harden. Do not place in fridge to speed it up- this will result in sweaty soap.
7. Once completely cooled wrap in saran wrap.
8. This recipe made 12 bars of soap, but will vary depending on molds you use and how much you fill them.

Looking for more ideas? You can view more projects here:
Five New Fabulous Christmas Gifts you can Make with Essential Oils
5 Easy DIY Christmas Gifts with Essential Oils
Mens All Natural Bath and Body Products Using Essential Oils

Let me know what you are making this Christmas. I would love to hear about it!

Blessings!!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

Green Your Clean Series! Your body products

So far, we looked at a few areas of the home: the bathroom, the laundry room and the kitchen. Now lets wrap this up and take a look at how you may green up your personal body products.

When you look at all the things you put on your body, the chemical load can really add up. Lotion, shave gel, soap, shampoo, conditioner, mousse, hairspray, foundation, eye shadow, toothpaste, deodorant... I could go on and on. Look at the ingredient list on just one of those products...pretty crazy huh? 

I do not recall exact order I took when changing over products. It was one thing at at time. Taking the first step. Mostly I looked for stuff I could replace (and still be satisfied with it) without paying a ton of money for. This is how I ended up making most of my stuff (much cheaper) and ultimately what led me to Young Living.

Here is a little list of things I have done and hopefully you will find some you can try crafting. You can change the essential oils used for the scent or benefit you desire.

Foaming Shave Soap - love this stuff!

Sugar scrub - great exfoliant

Foaming Hand Soap - this can also be used in the shower or bath

Deodorant - no stink here!

Bath salts also here - so many options!

Roll on Perfume

Lotion Bar

Face Serum - replaces my face moisturizer

Pillow mist 

Magnesium Oil - great way to get your magnesium

Baby wipes - not just for babies, works great for clean ups of many kinds!

Waterless Hand Sanitizer - oh, this stuff is the bomb!

Here are two new things I have done that I have not talked about before:

Thieves Toothpaste: I made this one last year. Pretty simple to make. If you try it let me know what you think. This recipe makes a small amount which is nice, since you do not need much.

What you will need:
1/2 tablespoons bentonite clay
1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt - finely ground
1/2 tablespoon hot water
4-5 drops Thieves essential oil



Stress Away and Lavender Whipped Body Butter: This is awesome for all over lotion. I have made it with a few different essential oils but I think stress away and Lavender are my favorite combinations.

What you will need:
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup mango butter (or shea butter or cocoa butter or a mix or each)
1/2 cup sweet almond oil
1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
essential oils of your choice! (I put in 10 of each stress away and lavender but I do love my oils!)

Melt the coconut and butters in a double boiler. Remove from heat and add almond oil, vitamin E. Chill in fridge for 1-2 hours until it starts to solidify. Then mix in a stand mixer with the whip attachment to get it a whipped consistency. It will take several minutes. Add essential oils and mix them in. Store in a jar on your counter. (If your home it really warm it may melt but you can always whip it back up.)

So what do you want to replace? What have you tried? What is missing from this list?

Where ever you decide to start, have fun playing and enjoying all your chemical free body products.

Blessings!

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Keeping Up With the Bees- 3 weeks since install

It has been three weeks since I installed the package. The bees have been busy and we have had some fun spotting them all over the yard. Our girls are working hard in the hive.

Here is the timeline so far:

• December- I received my hive and some beekeeping supplies for Christmas.
• January- I ordered my three pound bee package from a local supplier out of Stillwater.
• March through April we prepped for the bees arrival.
• April 18- Bee Day! My daughter and I drove to Stillwater to pick up and then installed the bees.
• April 19th- went to check on the feeder pail to be sure it was dripping properly. Found some bees locked out of the hive and I put them inside. Removed the grass plug in the entrance.
• April 26th- My first time using the smoker and opening the hive since I installed them. I checked on the bees and removed the queen cage. Later that day, I also visited my daughter's kindergarten class to share about our bees. 
• April 29th- I went up to add 1:1 sugar syrup in the feeder pail and was happy to see eggs- one per cell that is good!

Today (May 9th): I took a camera along so I could share more!

My daughter came up to observe when I opened the hive. She was very excited (and my husband was jealous). I know very soon she will be working with the bees too. She was not scared at all and did very well. I need to get her some leather gloves. Her garden gloves were too small so I had her wear mine for today.

Removed the telescoping and inner covers. The feeder pail was still pretty full so I did not refill it yet. Here you can see the busy girls from the top of the main part of the hive. 

Removed frames to inspect for eggs and larve. You can see some dark cells. Those are filled with pollen.

They are going a little crazy building wax in the center on the green frame.

Look close in the cells and you can see the larvae!

Here is a close up. The blue circle is the larve. The red circle is an egg... tiny! The green cicle shows you some capped cells. When the pupae is fully developed the bee will chew its way out of the cell.

One of my pretty girls!

My son is getting in on the bees too. He watched them gathering nectar and pollen on the azelea through the window. He said, "the bees are making me honey."

So there it is. I will be going back weekly throughout the summer. As summer progresses we will be moving frames around, adding more boxes (deep hive body) and possibly a honey super if the girls really get going. I will also be checking for different diseases and pests along the way to be sure they are healthy.  I hope you enjoyed the visit.

Blessings!!

How many are your works, Lord!

In wisdom you made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

~Psalm 104:24 (NIV)

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Mens All Natural Bath and Body Products Using Essential Oils

I was at a loss for ideas for the men on my Christmas list so I started to dabble in essential oil ideas. I tried out a few things and had my husband test them to see if he approved. Below is what I came up with in a pinch. Great for gifts for Birthdays or Fathers Day too! 

Merry Christmas & Enjoy!

1. #2 Spray, Stink away, Poo-pourri or Stink no more spray. 

A spray made up of essential oils that you spray into the toilet bowl before you go, it will trap the smell in the water and there will be no stink. My husband really went to town with this one... he ended up coming up with personalized names for each person he was gifting it to.

In a 2 ounce glass bottle combine:

2oz. Distilled water

3-4 drops glycerine
1/2 teapoon epson salts

20-30 drops of essential oils of choice (see list below for ideas)

Shake well.

Have fun with it & Make up some fun labels.

2. Men's Muscle Bath

 
Using the benefits of magnesium,baking soda and essential oils to help with soreness, fatigue and stress (and so much more!). 

1 cup epsom salts

1/2 cup baking soda

6-8 drops essential oils, I used 4-6 lemongrass and 2-3 cedar wood (or other oils based on your preference)

3. Men's Foaming Shaving Gel 

This has a nice lather and great smell. My husband gave this one a thumbs up.

1/2 cup aloe gel (I have this kind)
1/2 cup liquid castile soap (I use this kind)
2 Tablespoon Almond oil (I used my calendula infused)
A few drops of vegetable glycerin
4 capsules or about 1/2 tsp vitamin E
10-15 drops essential oils (I used 8 of Cedarwood, 8 Lavender and 4 Lemon)

Put in a 10 ounce or larger foaming soap container. 

4. Men's Super Magnesium Oil 


Magnesium oil is a great way to get more magnesium, adding essential oils can give you more benefits. Spray the magnesium oil on your body after you get out of the shower. Let it absorb into your skin a few minutes before getting dressed. The fist time you use it you may notice a tingle or itchy sensation. This will subside the more it is used. Start with a few sprays and work your way up to 10-15 sprays a day.

For a 16 ounce spray bottle or larger. Boil 1 cup water and 1 cup magnesium flakes (like this) until flakes are dissolved completely. Let cool. Pour into spray bottle. Add 8 drops Valor essential oil and shake well (see list below for other essential oil ideas)

Essential oils to try with your guys: this is not an all inclusive list and everyone had different likes/dislikes but here is what I have found to be popular with the men I know. Please note if you are using any citrus oils you should use glass bottles or containers as the citrus will eat away at plastic. Also citrus oils can increase sun sensitivity and should be avoided when you will be in the sun or exposed to UV rays.

Cedar wood

Citrus Fresh

Lemon, Orange, Tangerine or any citrus oil

Lemon grass

Idaho balsam fir

Ginger

Vanilla

Vetiver

Sandalwood
Evergreen Essenece

Cypress
Pine
Shutran

Looking for more ideas? You can view moer projects here:
Five New Fabulous Christmas Gifts you can Make with Essential Oils
Five more DIY gifts for Christmas using Essential Oils
5 Easy DIY Christmas Gifts with Essential Oils


New to essential oils? Check out my post on how to buy oils and learn more!

Blessings!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

Creative fun with scraps around the house- hair clips and ties for school

So my girl is starting kindergarten this year.... I KNOW! Its going to be a tough day in our house.

Since she will be wearing uniforms, her tutu and make believe style will be halted.  Anticipating some difficulty, I'm committed to find a way to help her still have her "style". With the strict dress code policy it seems hair will be our only option (and there are restrictions there too). 

We have been and will continue to try new hair styles. I have not found any hair clips or ties I thought would really work so I decided to start to dig through some scraps at home and do what my mother used to do.... make some!

Here is the first of many more....

This one was made from some cream material I found in my closet. I will add the technique I used later as I did not take any pictures while making it. 

This one was made with some wired ribbon I had. I used my bow maker. 

Playing around with some navy blue felt, same technique as the first one just different medium.

This flower clip was an from scrubs in the donate pile.... going to work on flower clips more. I think I could have added more petals.

Next up, ribbon clips and hair ties! 

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Winter in Summer

Quite honestly, creating a winter wonderland in August did not sound like a good idea to me when my daughter first requested it. However I took the challenge and did the best I could. If a five year old's opinion means anything- I did good.

Creating games based on the Frozen theme....A few of which included... coloring sheets, face painting, pin the nose Olaf, Frozen Freeze dance, Do you wanna build a snowman?- using marshmallows, pretzels and raisins (the missing nose led up to the Olaf game) and the much requested pinata.

I forgot to take pictures of many things I had put in place prior to the party starting. But here are a few of the pre-pre photos. What I love the most about this is these three pieces did not cost me anything to make. I had all the materials on hand, most of which are reused or donated from other people or places. I had a great magic maker in my mom who finished up Elsa for me and made her come to life.

As we are still eating our sparkling snow cupcakes and cleaning up from the snowstorm, my daughter is already planning her next party. As long as she does not change her mind I love having the extra time to plan & create!!!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.