My pal Julie, has a friend who recently opened a new shop – Celestial Kisses. The shop specializes in homemade, natural beauty products, so I thought my readers here might be interested in the Grand Opening Give Away going on there right now.

Here’s the scoop from Celestial Kisses owner:

“To celebrate the grand opening of Celestial Kisses Homemade Spa & Aromatherapy products, I’m offering a gift basket give-away!  I will be giving away an Egyptian Sunset gift basket which includes a bar of milk & honey soap (Cleopatra Bar), a milk bath, and a bottle of oatmeal & honey lotion (Promised Land Lotion).  The retail value of this basket is $25.”

Not a bad prize, huh? Especially with the holidays coming up. You could even give your winnings as gifts (if you can give up free body products.

Company info; also from owner:

“Celestial Kisses bath and beauty products are handmade in small batches to ensure the highest quality. We use only the finest ingredients and our natural products contain no artificial preservatives, no rendered animal fat, no petroleum products, and no cheap hydrogenated oils.

We choose to make products that we wouldn’t hesitate to use ourselves, which means we prefer to use natural botanicals and pure essential oils to ensure a spa quality product you will love to use over and over.”

Learn how to enter by clicking here.

Good luck!

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

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Green gifts can cost a little more; but not if you make them yourself. I’m going to give you some ideas for homemade eco gifts that won’t cost too much to make and that people will actually adore. Some are from Tree Hugging Family’s past, and others are new.

If I see any more over the next couple of weeks, I’ll post those too.

Great little homemade green gifts for party hosts:

Pennyroyal, Cinnamon, & Lavender Air Freshener

Flower & Spice Table Toppers via Family Corner

Organic homemade beauty gifts:

Following are some of the organic beauty recipes I’ve posted here over time. These make great low-cost homemade eco gifts. If you’re going to give one of these as a gift, make sure you spice it up. Put the product in a nice vintage looking jar or bottle and be sure to label it. You can make a wonderful custom label on your computer, or for say grandma, have your kids make the label with crayons and markers.

Lemon Bath Cookies

Organic Facial & Body Cream

Organic Cleansing Creams

Homemade Sugar Body Scrub

Homemade eco crafty gifts:

Solar Art Project – if you can find some sunshine, a solar print makes a great gift when matted. Image via Sunprint Gallery.

Make some homemade paper, then bind it into a journal with a beautiful cover. To learn how to make a homemade journal watch one of the following videos – Junk Journal (a pop and his daughter make a journal out of recycled trash!) or Basic DIY Book Binding Demonstration.

Make everyone a homemade reusable shopping bag out of old clothes or fabric you already have on hand.

Yummy green homemade gifts:

Cookie and Brownie Mix In a Jar – replace conventional items with organic.

Cornmeal Rosemary Biscotti or Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

Get Out Those Canning Jars – by the timely Linette who must have known I was going to post about this.

Great homemade eco stocking stuffers: 

Homemade Organic Paint Soap for Kids

Homemade Recycled Stickers

[image via here]

Recycled and molded crayons: Grab those broken crayons and learn how to mold them into cool shapes (use holiday molds).

Bonus homemade joke gift for bad co-workers, mother-in-laws, or your lame ex: Homemade Anti-Tree Hugging Beauty: Bacon Soap!

Stay tuned because soon we’ll also be looking at some more homemade gifts (hopefully) plus eco-friendly wrapping ideas. In the meantime, Eco Street had a great post last year -7 groovy handmade recycled gifts to make and give, that has plenty of cool ideas, even for pets.

November current events at Tree Hugging Family – themes, reviews, news, and more…

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Gather up: 

• Handful of fresh organic sage
• Handful of fresh organic rosemary
• Few leaves of organic fresh mint
• Favorite organic pure essential oil, although I suggest one of the following: lavender (you can substitute fresh lavender as well, mix it in with the other herbs), orange, tea tree.
• Small pot

To make:

1. Rub all the herbs in your hands for a few minutes – this releases the oils and scent.
2. Place all herbs in your pot and cover with water (about a pint 1/2).
3. Cover pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and let sit for 10-20 minutes.
4. Remove pot from stove top. Place pot in fridge overnight.
5. Drain liquid into a bottle, add a few drops of your essential oil. Sage can smell a little like Thanksgiving dinner, so the oils help cut that scent.

To use:

If you have straight hair, you can spritz onto, or rub the liquid into dry hair until good and saturated. Comb or brush through well. Leave it on; no rinsing.Use for a few days in a row, for silkier, shinier hair.

If you have curls that are somewhat manageable, you can spray this onto dry hair. As for wild curls me, I only use this on damp hair, or it doesn’t seem to work very well. As with straight hair this is a leave-in conditioner and can be used often with no negative affects.

This keeps well in the fridge for a week, although you can make ice cubes with this, save them, and thaw when you’d like to use them.  If you’re new to essential oils, read this post – Homemade Beauty Products – Safety 101 before making this.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes and everything else going on at Tree Hugging Family in October 2008.

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Turns out, I’m just that clever.

Here you go… Homemade Bacon Soap.

It’s beauty, it’s an eco baddie (lye and bacon), and it’s likely the worst soap you’ll ever smell, but hey I do what I can.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in May 2008

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Cleansing Milk:

You’ll need to choose one of the following – 2 or 3 tablespoons of fresh or dried organic elderflowers, chamomile, lime blossom, or sweet violets. (I’ve personally used fresh chamomile and sweet violets).

1/2 cup organic whole milk – I was told to use creamy milk – I was never quite sure what that meant but whole milk seems to work good. I use Straus Milk because it’s really creamy. I suppose you could try something thicker like cream. Stay away from whipped creams, you’re not making a sundae

Make: Heat the ingredients together in a double boiler for about 30 minutes. Try to avoid the milk boiling and you cannot let it form a skin. Remove from heat and allow it to infuse for 3 hours. Strain.

Use: Apply with fingers (or cotton – but that’s sort of wasteful). Remove excess with a washcloth. You do need to keep this in the refrigerator and use it within about a week. I like this cream, but it’s best for dry or sensitive skin. Also, it smells a wee bit milky to me so I tend to add a drop of tea tree oil.

Orange-Flower Cleansing Cream: good for normal or dry skin. I got this recipe from The Complete Book of Herbs: A Practical Guide to Growing and Using Herbs – an excellent book, but I adapted it a little after trying it out.

You’ll need:

• 2 Tablespoons organic soy oil
• 2 Tablespoon almond oil (I used apricot before too)
• 1 oz cocoa butter
• 1 Tablespoon beeswax
• 2-3 tablespoons orange flower water
• 1/2 tsp borax (I’ve also used grated natural soap, powdered soap, and liquid soap – the texture is different, but it works )
• 6-7 drops neroli essential oil

Make: Mix and warm the almond and soy oils in a small pot on low heat. Melt cocoa butter into the oils – stir well. Melt beeswax and then beat into the oil mix. It works better to add a bit at a time. Warm the orange water and dissolve whatever soap you’re using into it. Add this to the main mix – beat well and let it sit to thicken. Before it’s totally cool and thick, stir in essential oil.

Once cool, you can spoon it into small pots. I’m not sure how long this mix lasts, but there’s nothing questionably perishable in it, so as long as you use it within months, I’d say it’s fine. Use like any basic cleansing milk.

Be sure to enter our amazing organic BabyBam Collections contest – win organic soap and a bamboo onesie!

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