January Recipe Box
Hello and welcome to blog 2 for my Simply Earth Recipe Box. This month’s box includes body care recipes, the theme is lotions and balms that promote rest. My box couldn’t have came at a better time, we just happened to have a snow day the day it arrived along with my daughters Kiwico boxes so we had a whole day of crafting! The only problem, I was so excited to play with my kids and create new things that I forgot to take pictures of my process! Ahh! But I did get final product photos and plan on giving lots of details about everything in the box along with links to blog posts from Simply Earth.
So I realized that I didn’t really give a reason for why I started using essential oils in my last blog. There was some details on why I moved companies and why I love them but not on why I started using them. Honestly, as I’ve sat here racking my brain about how I was introduced I figured out it wasn’t some life changing need or epiphany, it was simply a natural flow of life. I was initially introduced to essential oils in 2014 by a friend of mine who promoted Young Living. She simply gave me one of those inhalers when I was having a stuffy nose. Thats around the time when I started becoming more invested in my energy healing business. At that time I also discovered diffusers and purchased my first essential oil and diffuser to help with illnesses at home. From there they slowly started becoming a part of my day to day life. Mostly when we were sick to help loosen up stuffed noses then doing a few blends in roller bottles to help with various ailments. It has been a slow and steady process learning and growing with them.
Now I am excited to make them a part of everything in my life. This recipe box from Simply Earth has completely opened me up to everything I can create with essential oils. I am already a lover of crafting and creating my own homemade stuff so being able to create my own homemade products to fit my needs is extremely exciting! Some of these recipes called for what felt like cooking so that was a huge bummer to me. Im not a lover of cooking! Would love to hire myself a chef to do that for me. But once I get started and get a good idea in my head its not hard for me to get lost in it. Creating in general is a love as long as it peeks my interest.
Ok enough chatter, lets check the box! This months box came with Oregano Essential Oil, Lavender 40/20 Essential Oil, Sweet Dreams Essential Oil, Peace and Quiet Essential Oil, Vegetable Glycerin, and Emulsifying Wax. The recipes for this box include the Intention Diffuser Blend, Sweet Dreams Natural Lotion, At Peace Roll-On, Luxurious Lavender Body Polish, Fresh & Floral Body Milk, and Clarifying Honey Solid Lotion Bar.
The recipes I chose to start with are the At Peace Roll-On, Luxurious Lavender Body Polish, Fresh & Floral Body Milk, and the Clarifying Honey Solid Lotion Bar. My biggest struggle with these recipes are the fact that it involves heating things up to a certain temperature. Microwaves are tough because you cant just continuously cook things, you have to do it in small badges. Double boilers are tough because unless you have the perfect combination of bowl/pan, pan/pan, or actually have a double boiler you could get things that spill or water that splashes into what your trying to melt. Cooking is not my forte and this is technically cooking.
Lets start with the At Peace Roll-on. This is obviously super easy because it simply involves a few drops of essential oil into a roller bottle and filling the roller bottle up with a carrier oil. In this case the carrier oil is coconut oil. They even give you a label that wraps perfectly around your roller bottle. For me the smell is uplifting and soothing.
Next up is the Luxurious Lavender Body Polish which is basically a sugar scrub. For this one I had to run next door to my neighbors house to borrow some sugar! Knock knock, “hey neighbor can I borrow a cup of sugar?” This recipe called for a few more ingredients: almond oil, Lavender 40/20 essential oil, emulsifying wax, granulated sugar, and a container in which to put it in. This was one of the recipes that called for using a double boiler and needed the use of a thermometer of some kind. You need to heat the almond oil and the wax up to around 135º, then add the essential oils and the sugar. Stir until blended and pour into your container. This one was actually pretty easy to make and smells strongly of lavender. I put in less essential oil than the recipe called for (40 drops to the 60 recommended drops) and its still pretty strongly scented.
Next up is the Fresh and Floral Body milk which is essentially just spray on lotion. Since my original box only had 1 spray bottle in it and I used that one for a shower spray I had to use another spray bottle I already had on hand. Bought a box of small spray bottles a few years ago for who the heck knows why. This recipe called for almond oil, Oregano essential oil, Lavender 40/20 essential oil, vegetable glycerin, and emulsifying wax. Again, I needed the use of a double boiler for this recipe, apparently due to the emulsifying wax. This recipe was tricky because you had to get two different mixtures heated up to the exact same temperature and then mix the two together. So if your using a microwave instead of a double boiler…good luck! It took me awhile! This was definitely a more tricky recipe to throw together but it honestly turned out rather well. Definitely smells strongly of oregano but with all of the wonderful benefits of it and the fact that I smell edible, I’m not really complaining! So if your significant other likes all things Italian, it could be a great aphrodisiac!
The last recipe I tried was the Clarifying Honey Solid Lotion Bar. For this recipe they included the bar mold in the box! This recipe called for emulsifying wax, cold pressed coconut oil, almond oil, beeswax, Oregano essential oil, Peace & Quiet essential oil, a soap mold, honey, and water. Not only do you have to use a double boiler for this recipe but it also calls for the use of a hand mixer. After the mixture is heated up to 150º and the essential oils are added the mixer is used to blend everything together for a few minutes before pouring the mixture into the soap mold. Even though this one also has oregano in it the smell is not overwhelming. It has a nice calming scent to it and lasts days! I used the bar on my entire body after my shower and my skin still felt moisturized 2 days later. For context its currently mid winter where I am at so dry skin is a constant problem.
One of the simplest recipes to throw together is the diffuser blend. The recipe card gives you two different methods, single use diffuser blend, or a master blend. Since they provided me with several small essential oil bottles and a sticker I went ahead and threw together a master blend. This recipe called for Sweet Dreams essential oil, Peace & Quiet essential oil, Lavender 40/20 essential oil, and Oregano essential oil. You can either add them straight into your diffuser or create a master blend with the correct rations given on the recipe card.
So instead of making this post too long and giving all the benefits of each ingredient in each recipe I am going to give you a few links to blog posts on the Simply Earth website. They have detailed benefits for each recipe and their ingredients. For more information on each recipe click on the links below to take you to their blog. If you are interested in subscribing to Simply Earths Monthly Recipe Box use the code PHOENIXBODHIFREE to receive a $40 gift Simply Earth certificate. Click on the shop now button below!
