When it came to making gifts this year, I decided I would go in a different direction with a few gifts for the family. So, this year I made lip balms/chap sticks in bulk for my husband and kids. The main reason there are so many in the photo above is that my son has taken a liking to eating chap sticks over the last year. I suspect it is because he won't eat...you know...food...so he craves the fat in the chap sticks as he keeps growing every time I look at him. I've been sourcing all natural options that contain coconut oil and things basically as a sneaky way to sneak "good" fats into his diet versus goodness knows WHAT that is in the good old chemical laden ones, but MAN that gets expensive fast. So, I decided to dust off of my "I need to make everything because my child is allergic to everything" gloves and ordered the materials to make my own lip balms in bulk for this year's Christmas gift to my family. And, bonus, this way I'll definitely know what the son is consuming whenever he eats one as there are three ingredients, basically.
I will link to the recipe that I used and to the materials I bought. Mind you, I went as cheap as I could to source the materials and I wanted a good volume for my buck, so this would give you enough beeswax and coconut oil to probably make lip balms for an army, so just be aware of that when you purchase.
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For this Christmas gift I went and purchased the following materials (over like four or five months so as not to break the bank):
- 105 Pack of Lip Balm Tubes (Assorted Colors)
- I also got these: Lip Balm Containers, but man they are TINY. I won't be buying those again, I doubt.
- BetterBody Foods Organic Naturally Refined Coconut Oil, 56 oz (I went with refined to avoid the coconut flavor as the son gets funky about these things and my husband prefers neutral flavors in chap stick).
- Howemon White Beeswax Pellets, 2 lb bag (Note on this: Some people were complaining about a chemical smell with the pellets and said they weren't true beeswax. I didn't have any of those problems. Mine smelled like nothing offensive and melted just like the refined beeswax pellets I've used in the past, but with shortages your mileage may vary on quality with different sellers on Amazon and things. I wanted white because I knew my son wouldn't even let me near him with a yellow lip balm. Anyway, use your own judgement on this product).
I used flavoring oils I already had in the house to flavor different lip balms. I have to say, if you have a choice, go with the essential oils as they are more powerful and I think work better. I ended up using at least 20 drops of flavoring oil per batch and the lip balms STILL barely taste like anything.
The recipe I used to make the lip balms is Coconut Mama's Recipe and I just made a recipe with each flavor. I found I got 16 lip balms out of each batch versus the yields she shared on her blog, but it might have been variances in materials that caused that to happen (or I'll find huge air bubbles in my lip balms when we go to use them, which would make me feel awful, but I doubt it). I used olive oil I already had in the house for the third oil :).
Overall, I made four flavors and got a ton of lip balms to put under the tree for the family this year and also have enough materials to make a ton more, so I'd say it was worth it :).
How about you? Making any gifts so far this holiday season? My family is going crazy with the home made gifts this year, which I'm loving. My daughter is making gifts for everyone in the family and some extended family too and even my husband has gotten into making gifts this year. It is cool :).
Oh wow, that's amazing! At some point, I'm likely going to have to break down and make my own as well- I can use the Chapstick brand and the store version of that (and Carmex, which, to me, smells like Cabbage Patch dolls...), but everything else has some sort of ingredient that my skin really doesn't like. So this is good inspiration for me that it can be done, so thank you! :) What flavoring oils did you go with?
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd also like to hear what flavorings you chose. Thinking this might be a cool present for my husband's coworkers next year. Mostly men, so I'd like to know what flavor your husband prefers.
ReplyDeleteI went with orange, strawberry, raspberry and mint, but honestly they all smell like said oils, but don't really taste like them. I'm kind of disappointed in the flavoring oils that I got.
ReplyDeleteThe BEST flavoring oil in my experience when it came to lip balm was peppermint essential oil. You don't need much to flavor a bunch of lip balm and the smell lingers and gives you a nice mint flavor. You can also look for essential oils safe for ingestion in different flavors like orange and things so you can try and find one flavor you like and get that :).