DIY Salve for Dry Skin

I made this as a Christmas present the other day and it turned out rather decent, so I thought I'd post the recipe.  The original recipe is found at Wellness Mama.

• 1/2 cup Almond or olive oil (I used olive oil)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup beeswax
• Optional: 1 teaspoon Vitamin E oil
• Optional: 2 tablespoon Shea Butter or Cocoa Butter (I used Shea Butter)
• Optional: Essential Oils, Vanilla Extract or other natural extracts to suit your preference (Since I was making it for two guy friends, I went with the essential oil combination of patchouli and Lime and I did maybe ten drops total.  Next time, I definitely would add more drops of each because the scent was very faint/barely noticeable). 

The instructions Wellness Mama gives for making the lotion/salve involve placing all the ingredients in a glass jar and heating in a saucepan of water.  However, I put all the ingredients in a jar (I didn't use Vitamin E oil) except for the essential oils, and heated them up in the microwave, on low heat, until everything was melted. I then let it sit for a few minutes to cool down before adding the essential oils.  I didn't add an exact 1/4 cup of coconut oil and maybe that's why my lotion came out as a salve, once cooled.  The picture Wellness Mama has with her recipe seems less solid and more of a lotion whereas what I ended up with, once the mixture cooled, was a more solid salve type product.  The end result seems quite moisturizing and nice.  The one complaint I have is that it seems to almost leave some sort of coating on your skin?  I'm assuming that's from the beeswax.  All in all though, it seems like good salve/lotion for dry skin.  Wellness Mama says to use within 6 months for best moisturizing benefits and states that it is also good for diaper rash, eczema, and preventing stretch marks.

After making this product, I tried out a tiny bit on my hands, before giving it away, and I must say, my usually dry hands are very soft and smooth today.  I'm guessing it's due to both the sugar scrub and the lotion/salve.  Winning.

Sugar Scrub DIY

Remember that one time I had a blog and never, ever, posted on it?  Whoops.

I break the silence on this blog to post a sugar scrub recipe. Sugar scrub is basically my favorite DIY skin care product to make because it's so easy. It's literally sugar, oil, and essential oils.  Boom.

Sugar Scrub:
1 part sugar
1 part oil (Coconut oil, olive oil, grape seed oil.  I almost always use olive oil cause I prefer it.  I also generally do a little less oil than sugar, because otherwise it's too oily for my preference. For instance, if I do 1 cup of sugar, I would do 2/3 of oil, or maybe even a little less.  Honestly, just add oil to the sugar and keep adding till it has enough oil.  You want the sugar to be wet...but the more it sits in the oil, the more mushy it becomes so less oil is better, generally).
5-10 drops of essential oil of your preference (my favorites for sugar scrubs are peppermint, vanilla and cedarwood combined [but cedarwood is really powerful, so more vanilla than ceder-wood, you only need a drop or two of cedarwood] and orange and tangerine combined).

-Combine sugar, oil, and essential oils together. Annnnd...you're done.  That's all there is to it.  Just put it in a jar or container of some sort.  It's super easy and it's the most divine stuff ever!  Scrub your hands with it and you're left with silky smooth and soft hands.  Use it when you shave your legs and you will be left with the silky smooth legs of a goddess.  Seriously.  It's my favorite thing to shave with because my legs are so soft and moisturized afterwards.  This stuff is of Heaven itself.