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Friday, January 24, 2014

Homemade Gifts…Soap, Lotion and Lip Balm

This past Christmas, my daughter Courtney wanted to make homemade gifts for family and friends. She searched for ideas and came up with homemade soaps, lotion and lip balm. She started from scratch buying all the supplies needed, mostly online, but some at craft stores. She had an assembly line for each item and before she knew it, she had a ton of little gift bags of homemade goodies.

I didn't have time over the holidays to put this post together, but I thought it would be a great idea to post it now, because the red theme for the wrappings would be perfect for Valentine's Day gifts!!

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Here are the things she made…

  • oatmeal soap and some had crushed candy canes for the Christmas theme
  • lip balm in the container and a tube. You can add any flavor and it's great!
  • and the best hand/body lotion ever! I love this stuff.


homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Come on in for some of the details…

She had to start from scratch and invest in a few things.

This is a soap making mold.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Essential oils for the lip balm and soap. She bought vanilla and peppermint.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Containers…She bought the tubes for the lip balm, but did pour some of the extra into containers. They have so many types on the web.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Plastic gift bags and twine I already had.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Cute washi tape!!

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

For the soap, you will buy the soap base, melt it, add oil and then pour it into the mold. You can top it with your fun ingredients, like oatmeal for texture when washing your hands!

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

I just love the way this soap looks.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

So cute all wrapped up.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

The lip balm and lotion are also easy to make.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

The lotion recipe is…

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm


Equal Parts
  • Baby Lotion ( she used honey oatmeal to keep the lotion a white color. Regular baby lotion is pink, but would be cute for Valentine's Day)
  • Vitamin E Cream
  • Coconut Oil ( found in the baking aisle)


Just whip it all together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Spoon into containers.

If you are putting the lotion into smaller bottles, I would spoon it into a plastic food storage bag, cut off one corner and pipe the lotion in the bottle.

Measuring example...If you use the 4 ounce jar of vitamin E cream, empty it and then fill it to measure the other 2 ingredients. That will help with the equal parts amounts and not dirty other measuring cups.

This lotion is amazing! Not greasy at all and absorbs quickly.


homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

The lip balm, shown below in the dish and the tube, is made with a lip safe meltable lip balm base.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

There are several techniques and recipes to search online, but Courtney melted it in a pourable Pyrex bowl and added the vanilla or peppermint oil, then poured it into the containers and tubes. 

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

When it hardens, it's done!

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

 To decorate the containers, she used fun wash tape, sound in craft stores. The tape also sealed the containers.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

Washi tape is a Japanese tape that has become super popular here in the states.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

These are pictures of all the gifts ready to be packaged before Christmas.

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm


homemade lotion, soap, lip balm

It was such a nice gift bag filled with oatmeal and candy cane soap, vanilla and peppermint lip balm and the lotion!

homemade lotion, soap, lip balm


The main site where Courtney bought most of her supplies was Bramble Berry. I don't have an affiliation with this company, I just wanted to share with you that she had a great experience with them. Great site for info.

Hope this was a little inspiration for future gift making for you!

Thanks for stopping by,
~Karen~

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14 comments:

  1. I have always wanted to make my own lotions and lip balm- this is such a great idea, and so easy!
    Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Such a fabulous idea, thanks for sharing.

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  3. Lovely gifts. I'd love to try and make these. Thanks. Maggie xx

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  4. What a lot of fun. And everything looks so pretty!

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  5. Thanks for this post. Making soaps and lotions is on my to do list and as usual Karen comes to the rescue!

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  6. These are wonderful gifts. Thanks for sharing the experience.

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  7. Thanks for this!! Great ideas for my cousins Christmas 2014. I will have to start collecting supplies now.

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  8. What an inspiring post! I myself bought items to make lotion and lip balm last December but haven’t made any yet. Your daughter is certainly a productive girl. Do you know how long it took her to make that amount of products? I missed my turn for Christmas but your idea to make those gifts for Valentine’s Day is excellent.

    I also wish to thank you for your Sunday Linky Parties. I discovered them two months ago and have taken advantage of them a few times now. BTW, I just added your button in my widgets for my blog page. I can attest that your posts help increasing the traffic on my blog and I cannot thank you enough for that.
    France
    francenadeau.com/blog

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  9. Great gifts and thoughtful too!

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  10. Great ideas and pics/directions!

    Question: What was her cost per item to make the gifts?

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  11. Man I wish I had sent her a Christmas card! Maybe I would have been considered one of her friends too........LOL What a great job, would love the directions for the oatmeal bar, my hands are always so dry.

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  12. I applaud your daughter's efforts and success. What wonderful gifts. I'm going to try the lotion today!

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  13. I wonder, can you add a drop or two of essential oils to give the hand cream a little more fragrance?

    BTW I love your Sundy Linky Party. Thank you!

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  14. What a fun post / she is quite creative. The apple does not fall far from the tree! :)

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment...I just love hearing from you!