Personalized christmas presents – DIY

 

Only 5 days till christmas! ✨

Or still 5 days, depends from which side you see it  😉

 

I don’t know how you think about christmas time…

I think it’s time to be with your loved ones  ❤️

For me, all those presents are just marketing for brands and shops. Well it works, a lot of people are running around like a chicken without head (not sure if you say that in english too… it’s definitiv something we say in germany ;)), to get all the presents together.

What about enjoying the day and if you find something for your loved ones somewhere around the year, make them happy in that moment and not just for christmas?

But if you still want to make some presents, why not doing something yourself? 😊

 

I have a few ideas for you:

 

1. Infused olive oil

Prep Time 5 minutes

You need:

  • Glass Bottles with a lid
  • Funnel
  • Olive Oil
  • Ingredients like garlic, rosemary, spicy pepper / chili flakes,…

 

1. Warm olive oil, garlic, and chili flakes or whatever you are using over low heat for 8-10 minutes (garlic: until garlic is lightly brown) Remove from heat. Let it cool down.

2. For Garlic: remove garlic and slice. Place garlic, chili flakes / spicy pepper or rosemary in your bottle.

3. Pour olive oil into bottle with funnel and close it.

 

 

2. Body Scrub

After I read everywhere about all those little plastic pieces in body scrubs, to fill it more up, I thought “there must be something I could do myself”.

Then, last summer, I was in Italy on an olive oil farm. So beautiful and everything made with olive oil.

And guess what! Even the body scrub in the Spa ❤️

So they used salt with olive oil mixed. Fresh made every day.

When I came home I tried it as well.

Normal sea salt didn’t work so well in the shower. I mean the big pieces.

They are amazing for the sauna!

So when you have a friend, who loves to go to the sauna, that’s the perfect present.

But what with everyone without sauna addiction?

I crushed the sea salt in to small pieces and added olive oil and a few drops of my favorite essential oil ❤️

Sooo good I have to say!

My friends are happy about that little present and I’m happy to 🙂

Salt is cleansing!

So if you don’t have time for a salt bath, or don’t even have a bath tub, this is the best solution of cleansing the skin from the outside.

Little detox in the shower 🙂

Salt is the cure for everything

What you need:

  • Glass container where you can fill it in (you can use any container, which you can close properly, like a jam jar)
  • sea-salt
  • Olive oil
  • Your favorite essential oil (about 10 drops, depends on the size of your jar)

Crush the salt and place everything together in the jar, mix it with your essential oils

 

But there are also so many more options for a body scrub.

Heard of honey & oats or coffee & sugar

So be creative! And let us all know in the comments, if you tried something and if you found a new recipe.

 

 

3. Candles

What you need:

  • Soy Wax
  • Medium Candle Wick
  • Glue Dots
  • Hair pin or Stick
  • Essential Oils
  • Dried flowers or for christmas some cinnamon sticks or just be creative
  • Glass jar (can also be empty jam jars or any other you find in your home. Also your old tea cups are amazing)
  • metal pot to melt the wax
  • normal pan for boiling water
  • any cover for your table, which is fine to get dirty
  • additional: colored soy wax

Preparation:

  1. Protect your work surface with newspaper and keep a damp towel handy for messes
  2. Bring water to boil
  3. Measure the wax in your jar (the wax should be really small pieces). Empty it in your metal pot and add maybe one handful more of the wax.
  4. Hang it over your boiling water and let the wax melt (make sure there is no water coming into the wax). You can also stir it once in a while with a wooden stick (I like to use a sushi stick ;))
  5. If you want the candle colored, add 2-3 little pieces of colored wax into it.
  6. Meanwhile take a glue dot and glue one of the candle wicks into your jar.
  7. as soon the wax is completely melted, add your essential oils, which you like the candle to smell like. Maybe about 15 drops in a 250ml jar.
  8. Add all together in your jar, take the end of your candle wick and wrap it around a stick or clip it, so it stays in the center.
  9. After about 5 minutes you can add your flowers on top of your candle
  10. Now leave it for about 2 hours
  11. When it’s all dry, cut the wick so that there are approximately 1-2 cm sticking out of the candle and your candle is ready 🙂

  

 

4. Bread in a bottle

 

 

Ingredients:

  • Bottle (maybe a milk or tomato sauce bottle. Try to reuse things)
  • Funnel
  • Filling: https://www.namastree.com/gluten-free-bread/

 

I like to make it by color, so use the oats first, then fill it up with all the other ingredients.

the rest is up to you, to make a beautiful packaging

 

5. Bath bombs

Ingredients:

  • 625g baking soda or 500g Epsom Salt (with baking soda it gets more bubbly)
  • 250g citric acid (or hydrochloric acid, malic acid, acetic acid)
  • 120g corn starch
  • 140g vegetable fat (e.g. cocoa butter, coconut oil, shea butter, etc.)
  • About 14-15 drops of essential oils (rose, lavender, vanilla, etc.) your choice
  • Food coloring
  • Dried rose flower leaves or other beautiful flowers
  • Bath bomb silicone molds
  • Additional: If you want to do something good for your skin, give some healing kley in addition.

Preparation

If you have chosen solid oils such as cocoa butter, melt them first over a low heat and allow them to cool slightly.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix very well. Place the mass in the moulds and press it in. Put the moulds together to one ball and leave to dry for about 2 days.

Then wrap it in a beautiful package. You’ve got your gift 🙂

 

 

 

It’s all selfmade and made with love 🙂

I think your loved ones will feel that too. Try it!

 

Merry Christmas everyone and lots of love from me to you

Marina