DIY Small Batch Natural Lip Balm

**This post contains affiliate links.

We've made natural lip balms over the years and one thing I've learned is that most recipes on the internet make a huge batch. Seriously, the last one I looked at made 18! Unless you are making lip balms for Christmas gifts (good idea!), you  probably don't want that many. This recipe will make 3 tubes of lip balm, which is likely all you need for a while. But by all means you can double or triple the recipe if you want to make a larger batch. 

What I particularly love about making my own lip balm is knowing exactly what is in a product that is going directly on my mouth. Most lip balms you buy are petroleum based and that's pretty nasty stuff to be on your mouth. Also, it is rumored that petroleum based lip products dry out your lips more than they actually help. My anecdotal and somewhat scentific evidence is: When I was 16 I had to have my jaws wired shut for 6 weeks, and as a result my lips dried out terribly. My doctor told me to find a lip balm that did not have petroleum in it because it would make my dried and cracked lips even worse. So do with that with you will :) Now onto making your own lip balm...


Ingredients & Supplies: 
- 1/4 Tbsp. Beeswax pellets ** if you want a firmer lip balm you can add a few more pellets 
- 3/4 Tbsp. Shea Butter
- 1/4 Tbsp. Coconut Oil
- 2 Drops Vitamin E Oil

Fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stove. 

Measure out all your ingredients except the essential oil and put them all in a glass heat safe bowl. 

The amount of ingredients used for such a small batch seem insignificant, but I promise it's enough to fill 3 lip balm tubes with a little to spare.

Place your glass bowl on your pot and you now have a double boiler! Let all the ingredients melt then turn off the heat and add your essential oil drops. Stir to combine.

Use a pipette to squeeze the liquid from your bowl...

and then release into your lip balm tubes. The liquid should go right to the top of the tube.

The lip balm will start to harden up pretty quickly. If you're really impatient you can put them in the freezer. And voila! You've made your very own lip balm. 

If you like making your own self-care products you should check out our blog posts where we make calendula salve and a hand scrub that leaves your hands feeling so soft (and also makes a great gift). 

DIY Nourishing Calendula Salve

**This post contains affiliate links.

Calendula salve is a great herbal remedy to always keep on hand and it would make a great gift for anybody! It's not overly complicated to make and has lots of benefits. It has anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties. Which make it great for applying it on minor cuts, scrapes, and burns but it's great for many other things too like chapped lips. 

Speaking of chapped lips... if you are looking for a way to make your own lip balm, look no further

Ingredients & Supplies:
- 2 Tbsp. Calendula Oil**
- 1/4 Tbsp. Shea Butter
- 1/2 Tbsp. Beeswax pellets
- 1-2 drops Essential oil(s) (optional)
- 1 oz. Tins

**If you want to make your own calendula oil, you will need to make it at least 3 weeks before you wish to make your salve. You can buy some already made if you don't have the time to wait. Our preference is to make it ourselves so we know exactly what is in it.  Making the calendula oil  is very simple, but you do have to think ahead a little. All you do is steep dried calendula flowers in a carrier oil. You can use sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, olive oil, or argan oil. We used sweet almond oil in one and argan in the other. We made a very large batch in a 32 oz. mason jar for a class we were teaching, but you can do something smaller like the 8 oz. jar we did on the right.

Add dried calendula flowers so that your jar is 3/4 full of flowers and then pour over your oil. You can use whatever size jar you want. The key is to fill it 3/4 full and then add your oil of choice. No heat is necessary and it's great for this oil to get some sun as it will help the calendula infuse into the oil better. Let this flowers soak for 3 weeks to a couple of months. If you are really thinking ahead, you can grow and dry your own calendula. 

After you have let it sit for the appropriate time, then you will run the oil & flowers through a cheesecloth to strain out the flowers and be left with only oil. No big deal if a few calendula bits are left. Now your calendula oil is ready to use! 

Melt the beeswax, shea butter, and calendula oil over a double boiler. You don't need a special double boiler, we just used a glass bowl over a pot. Add water to a deep enough pot that a glass bowl on top won't touch the bottom and then put the glass bowl on top. Bam- double boiler. Let the water get up to a boil and the mixture will start to melt. The beeswax will take the longest to melt, but stir as it melts to keep everything incorporated.

Once the mixture is melted, turn off the heat. At this point you can add whatever essential oil you would like to use and then mix it in.

Pour the mixture into whatever container you would like to use. We love these metal tins but you can also use these glass jars. We also used a pipette which made "pouring" less messy and more accurate. If you are making multiples, you could pour the hot mixture into a measuring cup with a spout and then pour from there. 

We made these stickers to put on our salve tins. This is great if you want to give this as a gift. You can get these printed at a print shop or office supply store and it's a nice little touch. If in the end you feel like you'd like your salve to be a little softer, reduce the amount of beeswax and if you want it to be a little more solid, add a little more beeswax. 

Store your salve in a cool, dark place. If stored properly the shelf life of the exact recipe in this post is up to 6 months. Your salve will smell like an old box of crayons if it has gone rancid. 

If you like making your own self care products, check out our blog post on making your own lip balm and making your own hand scrub

Thanks for stopping in :) Happy DIYing! 

DIY Small Batch Natural Sugar Hand Scrub

**This post contains affiliate links.

Making your own hand scrub at home is so easy and you likely already have the ingredients at home to make it. You can easily make a large batch for gifts or you can use our recipe for a small batch just for yourself. You can easily use all organic ingredients if that's something that interests you, but whatever you already have works just fine!

There are so many great tins and jars to store the scrub in and you can even print out your own labels like we did to add a little something special to the end product.

Ingredients & Supplies:
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
- 3 drops of any Essential Oil (optional)
- 1 drop Vitamin E oil (also optional)


First pour the sugar into the bowl. If you want to make more than one tin, just multiply the ingredients.

Then pour in the olive oil and whatever essential oil you'd like. We find that 3 drops is enough to provide scent but you could do a couple more if you don't feel like 3 drops is fragrant enough. And again, essential oils are optional and not needed for the scrub to do it's job.

And all you do to combine everything is stir. It may seem like there isn't enough oil at first, but trust me, it will all blend together just fine.

Just keep mixing and then scoop your mixture into your tin.

And add a label if you have one...

And just like that you have yourself a hand scrub that rivals expensive ones that you can buy in the store. This will leave your hands feeling so soft and moisturized, no lotion needed.

We like to keep ours by the sink for anyone to use. This hand scrub should last up to 6 months, and adding a drop of Vitamin oil when mixing can help preserve the scrub for longer. 


A Curated Collection of Cutesy and Spooky Halloween Decor

 

** Products linked are affiliate links. 


Since moving off grid, we haven't been able to decorate our home because we've been deep in all kinds of infrastructure projects. If you've been following along for a long time, you may know that we spent a lot of time on here renovating and decorating our home (and some others too). We are FINALLY getting to the decorating stage which means we can finally decorate seasonally. How exciting!


We've been perusing the internet for things we'd like to put in our own home and have found more great things than we could buy for our own home, so we figured we'd share what we've found with you.

1. Halloween Bow Wreath / 2. Snake Candle Holder / 3. Double Snake Candle Holder / 4. Spider Bone Candle Holder / 5. Bat Tumbler / 6. Skull Terrarium Art / 8. Spider Garland / 9. Ghost Art Collection / 10. Black Glass Pumpkin / 11. Crows / 12. Blood Taper Candles / 13. Spider Web Candle / 14. Skull Glasses / 15. Let's Get Spooky Hand Towel Set


We will have some Halloween Decor DIYs coming soon and some of them are inspired or use some of the items in this post. Our goal is to reuse some things we already have at home and use things that we gather from around our land. Hopefully we will have some great results our first time decorating for Halloween in 4 years! Stay tuned.

Outdoor Bath House Tour

Last summer we built an outdoor bathroom in our woods and it honestly became the nicest place on our property. It was like our own little outdoor spa in a sort of wild period of our lives. I've always enjoyed the experience of an outdoor shower and I now can't imagine not having this option in my life. So let's talk about all the details in our bathroom.

**These are affiliate links to products and similar products that are in our bathroom. 1. Outdoor propane water heater / 2. Watering can / 3. Composting toilet / 4. Amber soap dispenser / 5. Sink valve / 6. Copper pipe for sink faucet / 7. Solar lantern / 8. Shower Valve / 9. Large Amber Shampoo & Conditioner Bottles / 10. Sink drain / 11. Gate hardware / 12. Black toilet paper holder / 13. Dough bowl / 14. Black shower head

I tried to link all the products here that I predict folks will be asking about. If I missed anything, check out our other blog where we talk more in-depth about each step we took to build this bathroom. HOW WE BUILT AN OFF GRID BATHROOM THAT IS FUNCTIONAL & BEAUTIFUL
Our bath house is built with wood that was milled on our land from trees on our land. It was actually the leftover "throwaway" pieces that we were able to make use of.
 

We love the raw rustic look and we let that look kind of steer the decor direction for the inside.

This area is where all of our bath products go and is directly across the shower head. We have plenty of space for multiple people's products and even places for plants, which is awesome since our house doesn't really have space for plants yet. The shelf brackets in this photo came from an antique store but they were so perfect and precious for this space. It really adds to the rustic charm.

This is the sink area. This is a shelf that Casey has had for many years and it has traveled with us to all of our houses and have had a place in all of the homes. The little floral holder next to it came from the same antique store as the previous shelf brackets.

When we knew we were going the rustic charm route, I knew immediately what kind of mirror I wanted. I did not want the mirror to have any frame but to be raw edged. I spotted this mirror in an antique store somewhere along the way on this build and I couldn't believe it. It was everything I wanted and only cost about $20. Not only is it raw edged, the edge is uneven and there are places where the mirror has rubbed off and just looks like glass. In some people's eyes this would be a piece of trash, but to me it was the perfect fit for this bathroom. I guess somehow I wanted this bathroom to seem like it's always been here but perfectly preserved. 

This is the toilet area and above the toilet there is a little storage area. This toilet is a composting toilet that we made ourselves. If this is something you would be interested in learning, check out our other blog for more FAQs and in depth resources on composting toilets.

This photo explains the layout of the bath house. The toilet area is on the right and the shower is on the left. The sink area is in the front left corner and the doorway is in the front right corner. The footprint of this bathroom is about 50 sq. ft. which isn't large for a bathroom, but I think we made great use of that space.

Of course, we can't shower in here on the coldest days of the year, but we do still shower in here in the winter. If you would like to know more about how we built the bath house and all the nitty gritty about cost and supplies, you can check out all the details on our other blog here. 

Now even though we have this beautiful vibey outdoor bath house doesn't mean we don't want an indoor bathroom. That is actually a project we will start working on in a few weeks, so stay tuned! Thanks so much for reading.