10 DIY Gifts with Essential Oils

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November 12, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 6 Comments

Want some DIY gift ideas using natural ingredients and essential oils?

Someone into natural health and beauty would love these items!

Check out these 10 DIY gifts with essential oils:

1. Simple Homemade Cleaner.

As simple as baking soda and essential oils in a pretty jar. I like the oily combination of Thieves, Peppermint, and Citrus. Perfect for cleaning the bathroom and scrubbing your nose. Super safe and smells great! For really good cleaning, add some vinegar.

2. Scented Play Dough.

Add essential oils (or even dry spice blends like Apple or Pumpkin!), glitter, and natural food coloring for pretty fun!

Simple play dough recipe: Mix in warm nonstick pan.

2 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup salt
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cream of tartar

Add essential oils, glitter, and natural food coloring and knead until desired consistency. Store in pretty jar with a ribbon. I like Cinnamon, Lavender, Citrus, or Peppermint. I’ve also added Magnesium oil for calming.

3. Beauty Serum.

Great for all skin types and smells amazing. Check out the recipe here. What lady wouldn’t love to find this in her stocking? Great way to get teens into a good skin care routine. Another super easy skin recipe is whipped coconut oil with Lavender.

4. Bath Soothers.

Add about 10-15 drops of any of these essential oils: Eucalyptus, Melaleuca, Rosemary, Lavender, Clove, Cinnamon, Peppermint (decide what scents you love) to a baking soda paste (about 1-2 cups of baking soda with about 1/2 c water until it’s pasty like putty). Place in a pretty silicone muffin tray to dry for about 30 minutes. Pop out and store in a pretty bag with a ribbon. (Beware use with children. These are “hot” oils and could irritate lungs.)

5. Roll-on Blends.

Add essential oils to a carrier oil like Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Almond Oil, fractionated Coconut Oil, or V-6 for personalized blends in pretty and easy roll-on bottles. Some of my favorite oils and blends are Cedarwood and Lavender, Frankincense and Lemon, Thieves, Valor, Pine and Orange.

6. Scented Bath Salts.

Super simple!

1 c Epsom Salt, 1/2 c baking soda, 10 drops of a soothing essential oil like Lavender.

Mix and place in a pretty jar! Add a sprig of dried lavender or crushed rose petals and a little scoop to the ribbon for a pretty and useful present.

7. Scented Salt Dough Ornaments.

Pretty and fun for the whole family. Great for an ornament exchange party!

Recipe for salt dough ornaments:

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Add essential oils and natural food coloring to dough. Cut out in pretty shapes. Acrylic paints and glitter (optional). Bake at 225 F for 3-6 hours. Seal with lacquer (optional) but they will last longer and be shiny. Not sure if they will smell as great though. Add a hanging ribbon.

8. Pretty Soap.

You can get a goat’s milk soap base and melt it down. Add essential oils and oatmeal or dried herbs for extra oomph. Place in a pretty soap mold or silicone muffin tin to harden. Pop out and wrap up in pretty paper! See this soap recipe my kids use!

9. Sugar Scrub.

A great pampering gift for anyone! Makes skin smooth and smell great!

Recipe:

Melt coconut oil in a double boiler (I often just use a glass jar). Stir in white or brown sugar until desired consistency. Add essential oil and 1 drop of natural food coloring, if desired.

½ cup coconut oil
1½ – 2 cups white sugar
5-10 drops Peppermint oil

10. Lip Balm.

Pamper those lips!

Recipe: Melt wax, honey, butter, and oil together in a glass jar or double boiler. Remove from heat and add essential oils. While still liquid, pour into a lip balm containers and cool until hardened. You can also use old mint tins or little balm jars.

1/4 Cup Beeswax
2 Teaspoons Honey
1/4 Cup Coconut Oil
1/4 Cup shea or cocoa butter
10 drops of essential oil (whatever you like – Peppermint, Lavender, Citrus)

These fun and easy DIY items are great for a “make and take” party too!

What’s your favorite way to use essential oils?

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Homemade Sunscreen

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March 31, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert 13 Comments

It’s ironic to make sunscreen when it’s snowing outside. The end of March and we get snow all day long! I am getting depressed with winter.

I long for sunny days and warmer temperatures and the need for sunscreen! I’m preparing and wishfully thinking.

I love the scent and texture of this natural homemade sunscreen.

It works great, smells great, moisturizes, doesn’t break our skin out, and doesn’t have any of those nasty unpronouncable ingredients.

It’s pretty water-resistant too.

Water Resistant Sunscreen Recipe:

1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Coconut Oil (natural SPF of 10+)
1/4 cup Beeswax (try to get some locally for even more health benefits!) This makes it water-resistant.
2 Tablespoons Zinc Oxide powder (natural SPF of 20+)
1 teaspoon Vitamin E oil (I love the scent of this stuff!)
2 Tablespoons Shea Butter (natural SPF of 5+)
40-50 drops of Essential Oils (I use about 10 drops each of Lavender, Helichrysum, Myrrh, Roman Chamomile, Carrot Seed)

Melt the oils (except vitamin E and essential oils) over medium heat in a double boiler or in a glass jar and fill the pot halfway up the side of your jar with water. Stir with a wooden spoon. I sometimes just use a disposable plastic spoon or even wooden chopstick! I typically don’t use metal spoons when dealing with essential oils in case they react.

Let the oil mixture cool to almost room temperature, but not yet solidified, then add the vitamin E oil, zinc oxide, and essential oils. After an hour or so, it will solidify to a nice creamy lotion. If you keep it really chilled, you could put this into pretty shaped molds and have a lotion bar.

I found this glass jar in the container section of Walmart. Craft stores have a nice selection too. I love pretty glass jars with good sealable lids!

This homemade natural sunscreen has at least 30 SPF with the essential oils and all those natural ingredients! It smells amazing and is good for your skin – with no scary chemicals. I have so many friends and family members who are allergic to commercial sunscreens and they have to be really careful when they go out on sunny days. With this, they won’t have to worry so much! And it smells great and doesn’t leave our skin greasy.

We do have to reapply this a bit more often than commercial sunscreens if we’re spending the whole day at a pool or beach.

TAN ENHANCER: You need the sun’s exposure, but not to the point of burning. Try this simple recipe to nourish your skin with healthy oils, while resisting some of the harmful UV rays. As always, use care and common sense with the amount of time your skin is exposed to the sun. RECIPE: Mix 6 T coconut oil with 1 T sesame oil. Rub into the skin. According to Sue Frederick, author of A Mother’s Guide to Raising Healthy Children, sesame oil resists 30% of UV rays while coconut oil blocks out about 20%. Info has not been evaluated by the FDA.

Want a super quick 3-ingredient sunscreen?

4-5 oz Your favorite natural lotion
1-2 T Zinc Oxide
12-15 drops Carrot Seed essential oil

Also, check out my natural bug spray recipe!

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Homemade Lotion

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March 20, 2014 By Jennifer Lambert Leave a Comment

My initial introduction to essential oils was to help my eldest daughter with her dry skin. It was suggested I help her from the inside out, so we changed our diet. I bought a healthy digestion oil blend and saw instant results.

There are many additives in skin care products and soaps that often exacerbate dry skin conditions. Check your labels!

After trial and error, we had to eliminate many products and get natural personal care products instead.

My natural hand balm can help dry skin.

Dry Skin Remedies | https://www.jenniferalambert.com/

Essential Oils we’ve tried to help with dry skin: Cypress, Copaiba, Frankincense, Lavender, Myrrh, Roman Chamomile, Rose, Geranium

Melaleuca oil blend mixed with coconut oil was our best result for this time and place for our daughter.

Of course, I don’t recommend using all of these oils and products at once! Just start with one or a few and see what helps or smells great to you.

We recently made some hand balm with essential oils.

I made Tori a big jar of melaleuca hand balm since her hands are like sandpaper in our dry Utah winters. She feels special with her own jar of hand cream.

Recipe:

Melt in a mason jar in a pot of jar or double boiler:

1/2 c coconut oil
1/4 c shea butter
1-2 tablespoons of cocoa butter

Then mix in some vitamin E and essential oils before it goes back to a solid. I like my stand mixer to whip it good.

I used melaleuca, frankincense, and lavender but there are many essential oils with benefits for our skin!

You can also whip the melted carrier oils in a stand mixer for a fluffy texture. As they cool down, the lotion will retain the air and feel silky.

Eat your way to healthy skin!

We eat nourishing, healthy proteins and fats like gelatin, collagen, liver, and cod liver oil. I take a supplement for specifically for healthy skin.

We’ve tried limiting wheat and dairy because we’ve learned it can have negative effects on skin, but my husband and Tori don’t have skin issues with it. If they overdo it, their moods are affected.

Sources: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19134433

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.