Hey Bees! Welcome to the 2019 Humblebee & Me Holiday Gift Guide 🎁This year I’ve had a lot of fun playing with our ingredient-inspired themes of Cranberry Orange and White Chocolate Peppermint! I hope you can find some wonderfully gift-able things in this assortment of projects and formulations. I know I’ll be gifting many of these balms, butters, and lotions to my loved ones this season!
Looking for more ideas? Check out the gift guides from some previous years:
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Cranberry Orange Projects
Cranberry Orange Whipped Body Butter
Today's DIY is a whippy, lightweight, fast-absorbing Cranberry Orange Whipped Body Butter—and it's also our last cranberry orange DIY of the 2019 holiday making season! You'll only need four simple ingredients and some electric beaters to whip up this body butter....
Cranberry Orange Conditioner Bar
I'm pretty stoked to share today's project with you—it's a Cranberry Orange Conditioner Bar that I've been working on for months. Satiny cranberry seed oil, ultra-conditioning BTMS-50, shine-ifying hydrolyzed silk, and beautiful sweet orange essential oil come...
Cranberry Orange Facial Serum
Today's Cranberry Orange DIY is a silky, indulgent oil serum packed with antioxidants and some of my favourite natural carrier oils. A pump or two at the end of your skincare routine is all you'll need to keep your skin soft and glowing through these dry, cold winter...
Cranberry Orange Facial Gel Cream
I've had several requests for a gel-cream this year, and I'm excited to share this Cranberry Orange themed one with you today! This cold-processed cranberry orange facial gel cream is focussed on hydration and barrier support, helping our skin be its best self through...
Cranberry Orange Tinted Lip Balm
Deep red cranberries lend themselves beautifully to a Christmassy tinted lip balm, so it's no surprise that this lip balm hit my to-do list as soon as I knew one of our holiday themes would be cranberry orange. Today's silky tinted lip balm gives the lips just enough...
Cranberry Orange Whipped Sugar Scrub
’Tis the season for sugar scrubs—in my opinion, at least. With colder temperatures, any excuse to spend time in a hot bath is very welcome! This cheery orange scrub smells all kinds of tangy-citrussy-fruity, and delivers a fabulous dose of exfoliation in a base that...
Cranberry Orange Body Oil
Today we're mixing up a simple, fragrant Cranberry Orange Body Oil that I devised to give beautiful cranberry seed oil a chance to shine. Since it's a new-to-me ingredient, I wanted to get to know it in a simpler formulation. I've used it neat on the skin, and that's...
Cranberry Orange Christmas Soap
Today we’re kicking off the 2019 holiday making season with our first Christmas soap and the launching of our first 2019 Christmas theme—Cranberry Orange! This theme will be starring ingredients like juicy-smelling cranberry seed oil, cranberry seeds, orange essential...
White Chocolate Peppermint Projects
White Chocolate Peppermint Lip Scrub
I've had quite a few requests for a new lip scrub formulation recently, and I thought our White Chocolate Peppermint theme was perfectly suited to a lip scrub—so here we are! This DIY is quite crunchy, with just five simple ingredients. It's pretty easy to whip up...
White Chocolate Peppermint Foot Cream
Mint and foot cream = a fabulous match. Mint and chocolate = also fabulous. Mint + chocolate + foot cream = amazingness! Decadent, refreshing, tingly, tootsie-treating goodness, all bundled up in a rich and silky White Chocolate Peppermint Foot Cream. This one has a...
White Chocolate Peppermint Vegan Lip Balm
Today we're whipping up some beautiful stocking stuffers—White Chocolate Peppermint Vegan Lip Balm! Despite lip balm being inexpensive and easy to make, people are pretty accustomed to paying about $5 a tube for the stuff. This creates a lovely opportunity for you to...
White Chocolate Peppermint Cleansing Balm
This cheerily swirled White Chocolate Peppermint Cleansing Balm is just the thing for morning face-washing. With a refreshing pop of peppermint essential oil and gorgeous slippy texture, this cleansing balm melts quickly on the skin and rinses off readily, leaving...
White Chocolate Peppermint Shampoo Bars
This beautiful cream-coloured White Chocolate Peppermint Shampoo Bar delivers oodles of bubbles and a wonderful minty-chocolate scent in one elegant package (so to speak—shampoo bars are packaging-free!). I've called it a shampoo bar, but it also makes a beautiful...
White Chocolate Peppermint Body Butter Bars
Once I decided that White Chocolate Peppermint would be one of our holiday themes this year, I knew I'd have to do a White Chocolate Peppermint Body Butter Bar. Ever since my very first order of cocoa butter arrived at my dorm well before Humblebee & Me existed, I...
White Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Soap
Welcome to Christmas theme #2 for 2019—White Peppermint Chocolate! This theme will feature lots of deliciously fragrant cocoa butter and fresh peppermint essential oil, plus complimentary clays, micas, hydrosols, and other fun things. Our first foray into White...
Other Awesome Gift Worthy Projects
Winter Solstice Bath Bombs
Today we're creating some striking bath bombs to celebrate the winter solstice (technically the solstice was the night of the 21st, but here in Calgary the 23rd is only 8 seconds longer than the 21st, so I think we can still call it solstice season!). A cool, purpley...
Chocolate Rhassoul Shampoo Bars
I've been working on these chocolatey, clay-spiked shampoo bars since early March, and I'm super excited to finally share them with you today! They've got a stunning, creamy lather that leaves your hair feeling fabulous, and I'm making them with my beautiful new...
Rich Shealoe Butter Cream
This decadent Rich Shealoe Butter Cream is the first project I'm tackling in my Bee Better series; it's an update of the Homemade Shealoe Butter Cream I shared back in February 2014. The idea was to create my own shealoe butter type product, inspired by the plethora...
Creamy Autumn Grounding Salve
Today we're creating something simple—an aromatic, creamy salve with an intoxicating essential oil blend designed to ground and calm. It's a great DIY for beginners, with a relatively short ingredient list of simple, plant-based ingredients. I'm loving both applying...
Rosé Moisturizing Body Cream
If you love body-butter-esque creams, this one is for you. This Rosé Moisturizing Body Cream has a consistency that makes me want to dollop it on a big slice of pie, or perhaps eat it out of an artisanal waffle cone. It smells fantastic and is loaded with ingredients...
Rosé Lip Balm
Today's DIY is a soft, lightly glossy lip balm that smells deliciously of rosé with a beautiful pink punch. It's a continuation of our rosé series, starring a stunning scent blend of fresh & dry green cognac essential oil, sweet rose, and bright citrus. This scent...
Pemberley Whipped Sugar Scrub
Today we're getting our Pemberley-themed pamper on with this lightweight sugar-studded emulsified Pemberley Whipped Sugar Scrub. A creamy, self-emulsifying base is heavily dosed with granulated sugar for a sparkly, fragrant bath treat. The beautiful Pemberley scent...
Mango Mango Cleansing Oil
I am so in love with this simple, vibrantly orange cleansing oil. It smells wonderful, works beautifully, and is so dang easy to make that it feels a bit like cheating. Compared to my other cleansing oils I think you'll find this one lighter, perhaps a bit more satiny...
Rose Ceramide Facial Gel
Today we're making a simple, fragrant facial gel starring ceramides. This gel not only moisturizes and hydrates the skin immediately, but it also helps strengthen your moisture barrier. This leads to stronger, more resilient skin and less transepidermal water loss...
Cocoa Butter Shimmer Bars
Today we are making something deliciously simple and summery—some beautifully bronzed Cocoa Butter Shimmer Bars. The ingredients are fairly simple and reasonably customizable, meaning you can shimmer in any colour you please, and there’s a pretty good chance you have...
Pemberley Conditioning Body Butter
Brace yourself for this Pemberley Conditioning Body Butter, as it is divine. This is a continuation of the Pemberley series I kicked off in February with my Pemberley Hand Lotion, featuring the same stunning scent blend and general theme of luxury. As I was trying to...
Soothing Under Eye Gel
Today we're doing a thing that is long overdue—a Soothing Under Eye Gel! It's part of our soothing series, and it is lovely. It's also the first recipe I'm sharing using Aristoflex AVC, a very cool cold-process gelling agent and emulsifier that I've been working with...
Mango Mango Shampoo Bar
Today’s recipe is definitely long overdue, but I wanted to make sure it was on point before I shared it—it’s a sulphate free shampoo bar. I started working on this back in January 2018 and have been testing and tweaking ever since. About six weeks ago I decided to...
Soothing Micellar Water
Today we're continuing our soothing series with this formula for a gentle Soothing Micellar Water. You'll find many of the same soothing ingredients we've been using throughout the series, creating a soothing and softly scented facial cleanser. Micellar water is a...
Pemberley Hand Lotion
I'm really excited to share this formula with you guys—this Pemberley Hand Lotion was my Formula Botanica final project, and I received a mark of 100% for it! The project was to create a product for a specific customer. I designed this gorgeous hand lotion for...
Soothing Facial Lotion
Today we're continuing our soothing series with this beautiful Soothing Facial Lotion. It's a fairly lightweight facial lotion, positively packed with potent moisturizers, skin-soothing actives, and ingredients that help strengthen barrier function so your skin can be...
Soothing Hyaluronic Acid Facial Serum
Today's recipe is kicking off a new soothing skin care series that is perfectly timed for the driest, darkest, and often coldest part of the winter here in Calgary. The formulas in this series star a beautiful selection of wonderful, effective ingredients that have...
Indigo Lagoon Balm
This rich blue balm is a DIY version of a very popular and very expensive shop-bought balm. This particular balm is known for its striking dark blue hue that comes from a hefty dose of expensive blue tansy essential oil. I've created a more budget friendly version you...
