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If you are like me and absolutely adores handmade gifts both to give and receive – this inexpensive home made skin care list is for you, full of simple recipes with only 3-4 ingredients. They are easy DIY gift ideas, they require no special skills and they all look very impressive.
But when we say handmade skin care gifts – people automatically assume it will be in the end just too much in the festive season to commit to, with all what’s going on already. True, committing to handmade eco gifts require a little extra time – but there’s no need to stress yourself out. So my tip is to pick only 2-3 gifts tops, because in the end you also want to enjoy crafting them without feeling overwhelmed.
Simple Skin Care Gifts You can Make at Home
I have collected a list of super simple homemade skin care gifts, that only need 3-4 ingredients.
Lotion Bar
Here’s a basic lotion bar formula recipe.
Choose your main ingredients, one each:
- natural carrier oil– jojoba, grapeseed, olive oil, etc
- natural cosmetic butter – such as shea butter, mango butter, cocoa butter
- natural wax – beeswax or candelilla wax (or other vegan wax)
You’ll need some sort of a silicone mould for this.
You’ll need equal parts of all the above and your favourite essential oil.
Method:
Melt all the ingredients in a small sauce pan (no need for special equipment) until they are fully combined. Let it chill a minute or two and stir in a few drops of essential oils for fragrance. Next, pour the mixture into silicone molds and let it cool completely. After solidifying, pop the bars out and store them in a cool, dry place.
Coffee Body Scrub
Another simple recipe you can work as whole and half parts.
3 simple ingredients:
- 1 part or cup of ground coffee
- 1 part or cup of sugar granules (coconut sugar is really nice for this)
- 1/2 cup coconut oil or coconut butter melted
Optional: sprinkle of cinnamon, vanilla extract or similar.
Method:
Melt the coconut oil and allow it to cool a little bit, add the sugar and ground coffee and mix. Store in an airtight container or mason jar.
Relaxing Bath Salt
These look very pretty in small jars, adding some dried flowers (you can dry yourself like lavender or rose petals).
Ingredients:
- 3 cups of Epsom salt
- 1.5 cups of coarse sea salt
- 1/2 cup of bicarbonate of soda (or baking soda for my American friends)
- 25 drops of essential oil of your choice
Optional: dried flower petals or 1-2 tablespoons almond oil or coconut oil.
Method:
Mix everything together in a bowl and decant them into the gift jars.
Bath Bombs
You will need bath bomb mould for this – but apart from sourcing that, making bath bombs are very straightforward.
Ingredients:
- 100g bicarbonate of soda
- 50g citric acid
- 25g cornflour
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
- 15 drops of essential oil of your choice
Optional: dried flower petals or food grade colouring
Method:
Mix the bicarbonate of soda, citric acid and cornflour in a bowl with a whisk until fully combined. Pour the coconut oil, essential oil and if you use food colouring in a separate, small bowl. Mix them well. Next, very slowly add the oil mixture into the dry ingredients, just a little at a time, whisking between each of them. Lastly, a few tiny drops of water and whisk again quickly, because this will make the mixture fizz. Now you can fill the moulds.
Let it set for a few hours or overnight.
Lip Balm
- 1 part or tbsp of natural wax – beeswax or candelilla wax (or other vegan wax)
- 1 part or tbsp of coconut oil
- 3-5 drops of lemon, peppermint or orange essential oil
Method:
Hand Cream
You’ll need some pretty jars for this – ideally new and/or sanitised. This recipe will give you 1 jar.
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp natural wax – beeswax or candelilla wax (or other vegan wax)
- 2 tbsp cocoa butter
- 2 tbsp shea butter
- 1 tbsp almond oil
- 15 drops of essential oil of your choice
Method:
In a microwaveable bowl, mix the waxes, cocoa butter, shea butter and almond oil. Start microwaving them, check every 30 seconds and stir (this is to avoid the mixture burning). Keep going until they are fully melted. Stir in essential oil and let it cool. Stir well to whip with a spoon. Spoon into the container.