Tis the season until January 1, for holiday beauty products and gifts inspired by Mother Nature. Pine, dried herbs, flowers and spices make the perfect materials for scented products that will relax you, refresh you and add balance to your life. Not to mention the extra moisturizing and exfoliation needed on your skin due to cold air and low humidity.

Homemade body oils, body scrubs and foot soaks make great gifts, so let's take a look at some great recipes.

Herbal Body Oils - You can create your own body oils by using 1 to 2 cups of almond, jojoba, sunflower or sesame oil and adding 3-6 drops of essential oils. You can store your blend in a clean bottle. Put your essential oils in the bottle first and then add your carrier oil on top. Let your blend sit in a cool, dry, dark place for a few weeks ... the longer the better.

Suggested Oil Blends :

Relaxing - Chamomile or Lavender

Energizing - Spearmint, Orange, Grapefruit or Lime

Foot Soak - While we'll direct this towards the holiday because of scenting, you can use this foot soak for any time of the year. A soothing warm footbath will melt away the stress and help rebalance your body. As a gift, you can add these dried herbs to a jar as an herbal blend and add the directions for use on a nice hang tag.

1 teaspoon of dried sage leaves or 1 tablespoon of fresh leaves, 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary leaves or 1 tablespoon of fresh leaves, 2 tablespoons of dried juniper berries or 1/4 cup of fresh juniper berries and 5 whole dried clove buds.

Mix all the herbs and spices together and set them aside in a jar. When you decide to use them, fill a small footbath with boiling water and drop in the herbs and spices (dried or fresh). Let it sit, steep and cool down for about 15-20 minutes. This recipe gives you one foot bath.

Scented Body Scrub - While Lavender is the classic relaxing scent, Vanilla, Jasmine, or fresh lemon peels make great alternative scent options for your body scrub. Body scrubs have a long shelf life and make great holiday gifts for friends and family.

1 cup of granulated or raw sugar (you could do half and half), 1/4 cup of almond oil, 1/2 teaspoon of vitamin E oil, 1 tablespoon of dried flowers (lavender, rose, jasmine). You can also substitute 1-2 drops of essential oil in your blend.

Stir all of your ingredients together in a bowl until well blended. Spoon your scrub into a clean jar with a tight fitting lid. Be sure to provide instructions on how to use your gift and add a note of caution because your gift contains oil and oils make showers and tubs very slippery.

Remember ...

The Holiday season is a great time for gift giving, but so are anniversaries, Mother's Day and birthdays.


Life Never Smelled So Sweet!

Juliette’s Website

https://www.nyrajuskincare.com