Homemade Lip Balm

Now I have been obsessed with the idea of making my own natural products for a while now.  My little pinterest board has been growing will several home made concoctions. 

Now, I love lip balm. I'm not a huge lipstick wearer but I always have some type of moisturizing lip balm on me. I mean, there is nothing worse than chapped peeling lips, especially in the winter.
This was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but the containers that I wanted to order would not be back before Christmas.  I also couldn't find any other containers anywhere.   So I did make this sample one for myself.   It's easy and really doesn't take that long at all.





  This recipe makes a softer oiler lip balm.   Here's what you'll need:   4 tsp. coconut oil 3 tsp. sweet almond oil 2 tsp. grated beeswax a few drops of essential oil (optional - I used Lavender)
Grated beeswax

 Put everything into a small bowl and melt. If you don't have a double boiler, like me, sit the bowl in a pot of boiling water to melt. This is what it looks like when it's all melted.


  I found a small plastic container to pour it into to cool.  You'll have to find something to do or eat while you wait for it to set.  This is what it looks like after an hour.  Because I made this late at night, I just let it sit for a few hours.  3 total.


Of course, I stuck my finger in to test it.  Just ruined it. lol

The longer you let it sit, the more it sets. I left it over night just to see.

 

Without lip balm




With lip balm. When you put it on, it is like an oil. It looks like a light lip gloss. I use it throughout the day and will definitely be making more. I think I'm going to play around with the ingredients too, just to see what I can come up with.

We Survived The First Week Back To School

I'm back!  I know it seems like I have completely abandoned my blog and I really felt kind of guilty about that.  I really couldn't decide what to blog about.  Due to all of our December emergencies, I have about 10 really late posts on my homemade Christmas gifts, kid crafts and so on that I never finished.  But anyway...








School started back for us on Monday and being that today is Friday, I can thankfully say we all made it through the week in one piece after the break.  I was honestly more worried that I would oversleep on the first day rather than the kids.  You know they were up at the crack of dawn every day over the break.  I made it clear to them that I didn't care how early they got up in the morning, I was NOT getting out of bed.  LOL.  I have to take advantage of these morning breaks. 




Aj was not ready to go to school at all.  Typical tween boy, I guess, but Cate has been talking about it for the past week. 






Tuesday it was really cold, but not as cold as I thought it would be.  I guess because we didn't get much wind. The kids were all excited just because it was "about freezing to death." 








After dropping the kids off, Caleb and I came home and made our very first YouTube video .  I've been daring myself to make one.  Now, do I know how to make videos?  Nope.  Did I make one anyway?   You bet I did.  Fear ye not...lol.  I'd probably like to apologize in advance, though.  I'm also not suffering from Jaundice either.  (bad lamp lighting).  But a fair warning -  There will be more, hopefully less horrible.  My computer is acting crazy so I can't upload it here.  I have to drop it off to get fixed this weekend.  We seem to have a pop up ad problem.  Hate it.












I have been trying to skate through the week on my and Cate's hair.  I had twisted her hair the week before school and did a twist out on the Saturday before school started in hopes of washing it.  Well, that didn't happen.  It started out in pretty little twist outs but now they need help.  The both of ours.









Fresh twist outs


We made it to today!

Caleb and I have also managed to get back on some sort of routine.  This week we've been learning numbers, lines and which one is different in a line of objects.  This is a pretty frugal idea of saving bottle caps and using flashcards.  I used to save them in college for math manipulatives for when I graduated on a little to nothing income going into teaching. 

Just a dose sibling love.  Cate reading her reading story to Caleb.

My DIY Natural Hair Oil

 So I've been getting a lot of questions about our hair products and routines. I'm fairly cheap  frugal so I really don't buy a lot of products but there are two that I have been wanting to try.  If I get them, I'll make sure to write a review.    A while back,  I started experimenting and mixing different things together to work in our hair after trying to figure out what to do with Cate's hair.  I started watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading a lot of articles.  Many of the mixtures use like 8-10 different oils in one mix.  I didn't want to buy all of those, so we initially started out just using three oils and just recently added grape seed oil.     This is one of the oil mixtures that I put together that works well with our hair.        It's fairly easy to make.  Here are the oils that I use together.

  Organic coconut oil ($6), grape seed oil ($6), extra virgin olive oil ($4), and Castor oil (probably a dollar or two- I don't remember)  All of these oils were bought from Walmart.    I'm very resourceful too.  My oils travels from the kitchen to the bathroom.  If I'm going to buy it, I might as well start cooking with it too.

I don't measure anything.  I just eyeball it and add try to add equal amounts of each oil in the bottle.  This is all the oils except the coconut oil.

  I like to mix the coconut oil up separate to make it softer before I add it to the other oils.

  This is what it looks like when you add the coconut oil to the bottle.  By the way, this is just a recycled hair oil bottle.  I like to keep containers to mix hair products together in. This one is like a pump which makes it easier for me to use and makes less of a mess.

  Shake. Shake. Shake.     Now you're ready to use it.  Before you put any oil of any of your hair, spritz hair with water first.  I work the water into the hair, add the oil and then work it into the hair.  Lastly, we'll seal it all in with the Cantu Shea butter.  This is the famous LOC method -Liquid, Oil, Cream that helps hair seal and retain moisture.  However, the products you use for each letter depends on what you like to use.   Let me know if this helps!