Monday, December 10, 2012

Pinter*Mel Christmas 2012 - SPOILER ALERT FOR FAMILY

Hey Everyone (except for family, because if you're reading this, then the presents currently sitting under the tree from me are no longer a surprise...however they might not be already because I've been posting quite a bit of stuff to Facebook, in which case, carry on.)

This year for all the ladies in the family I decided to make my own version of the natural beauty box; a box full of lotions, lip balms, bath bombs, and linen spray all made by yours truly and only using all-natural ingredients. 

I purchased all I would need to make these back in early October from a great online retailer called Savon Populaire out of Montreal. Yes their website it completely in French, however if you're using Google Chrome their translate button will help you out. 

Here's the numbers I started out working with:



First of all I went to the Dollar Store and picked up some nifty little wooden boxes, which I proceeded to paint with watered down acrylic paint (acts like a stain so you can still see the wood grain), and then sealed with Polycrylic. 



Then I started into making lip balms. I used the kit from Savon Populaire, and purchased their vanilla flavouring. I found that the flavouring was lacking in the vanilla'y department, so I added the vanilla I had purchased for making bath bombs. I also made lip balms that are flavoured with the orange essential oil, and then another set with the peppermint essential oil that I also purchased from Savon Populaire. 

(Sorry for the abysmal lighting, I took this with my smart phone during sunset.)



This was stupidly easy. Seriously. If you ever want to do this with your kid as a birthday party favour or something, they could totally do this with your supervision of course...because there's a stove and boiling water involved. Okay, upon review this might not be the safest thing to do...iirc I think I ended up burning myself. Forget what I said. 


Then, once they were cool and set, I minimalistically labelled them. Orange for the orange flavour, green for peppermint, and yellow for vanilla. The labels are basic shipping labels with Sharpie paint marker paint. 


After that I decided to make Christmas cards because a) stationary was on for $1.50 at Michael's, and b) stamps were on 40% off, and then were on 'buy one, get one for a cent' sale!



I had initially done the entire inside of the card in the hand-stamped letters; "To So and So, Merry Christmas, Love Evan and Melissa xoxo". However when I showed it to my fiancĂ© he said it looked a wee bit ransom-note'ish, so I decided to just go with Merry Christmas and write the rest. 

Those were all sent out today...so if you're family and reading this, the surprise is now ruined. You'll get your card in 2-3 business days. 


On to the body butter. I made this from a kit from Savon Populaire as well. I made two different kinds; one was lavender/lime and the other was a scent called "Day at the Beach", which is a combination of grapefruit, bergamot, and coconut. 

Wine was needed. 



This was also stupidly easy. It's impossible to mess it up. You melt the stuff they give you, add the scent, and then load it into the containers. Wait for it to cool/harden, then close'em up, wipe'em off, and label'em. 



On to bath bombs. I made 5 different kinds this year. Vanilla, Day at the Beach, Lavender/lime, Lavender/chamomile, and then straight up orange for the littles. 



I packaged them all in individual cellophane packages with hand-stamped labels. 



And finally, I did the linen spray. Which is really just water, witch hazel, and the essential oil of your choice. I did 3 kinds; orange, lavender, and vanilla. 




That's it! Done. Not so bad, eh?  

I'm not going to show you the packaged up version, because there has to be some holiday surprise! But needless to say all of the stuff went into each person's painted box with a list of all the ingredients in each product. 

So that's it! All the ladies are done for Christmas! DIY styles! 


What presents did you DIY this year?



Cheers, 

Melissa

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