So many blogs and posts – DIY this season! Make your own gifts! First off, I don’t have time to print out every Instagram photo and make coasters. Nor do I have time to try and crochet a scarf again this year. (I can never remember how to start.) However, I figured I would try to make lip balm. Simple enough. You can make a bunch in a short amount of time, and awesome. You have lip balm that’s cheaper than $4 a tube at Target.. You can buy everything you need at Amazon.com and Whole Foods. Again, Amazon prime this, and you’ll be ready the next day.

First – buy some tins. Or plastic containers. Whatever you want to put the balm in. You’ll also need:

1. Beeswax! I bought the small pellets – it’s easier to melt, and cheap!

2. Oil – I made two batches, the clear one has coconut oil, the rose tinted has a mix of olive and vegetable oil

3. Raw honey

4. Essential oils – for the clear one, I used rosemary, lavender and peppermint. Ha – kind of a weird mix, but it worked out well. For the rose tinted balm, I used rose essential oil and peppermint. About 40 drops of each

5. Pipettes! You can buy 100 for $5 on Amazon – They make pouring the liquid balm into the tins a whole lot easier.

6. I also took a couple Vitamin A liquid pills, sliced em open, and added them to the mix. Good for your skin. I added Vitamin E, but naturally forgot to photograph. These were just in my medicine cabinet – as were the oils.

Next you’ll want to use a double boiler. Since I don’t have one, I used a frying pan, and then put a glass pie dish on top. Pour water into the pan, and let it start to boil. While waiting, in the pie dish, add all of the ingredients. Depending on how much you want, you will want a 3:1 ratio of oil:beeswax. A tablespoon or so of honey. And 30-40 drops of each essential oil. If you want to add color, buy a tube of natural lipstick, and add half of it to your mix. When the water is boiling, put the pie dish on top, and let everything melt. No sense in starting to stir, because everything will just stick to your spoon. So wait, and use the time to remove all the tops to the tins.

When all of the ingredients are melted, take the pie dish off the burner, and use a spoon to stir everything together. Then, use the pipette to put the liquid mix into each tin. About three squeezes per tin.

The mix cools and solidifies super quick, so if it hardens before you finish, just put the pie dish over the boiling water/pan and let it melt again. And there you go! I am going to give the balms away in pairs – it will be a nice little gift. Everything total – and I still have more than half of what I originally purchased – cost under $75. And I made 50 tins of balm. Boom.