As I’m sure you can readily surmise, I am never at a loss when people ask me what I like to do in my free time. Similarly, my shelves and cupboards are never at a loss for things in tins and bars and bottles and what not. That said, though, I am not always the most organized when it comes to ensuring I have Christmas gifts on hand—last year I nearly entirely ran out of soap! Disgraceful. So, in an effort to collect my thoughts, and perhaps help collect yours, here are ten ideas for homemade Christmas gifts (and the recipes).
Hand Salve
A nice, herb-infused hand salve is always useful, especially in the dead of winter when skin can shrivel up like a raisin. This makes an especially thoughtful gift if you know a person has recently gotten into something like guitar playing that requires the use (and abuse) of their hands.
Hair Pins
These are more of a stocking stuffer than anything else, but hairpins are just so useful that I think they’re a great gift for anybody with long hair. If you had to buy a package of 500 like I did, tie 20 or so together with a ribbon and add them to a stocking, along with some usage instructions.
Face Serum
Since my argan oil (USA / Canada) serum and I are never far apart, and everybody I’ve ever introduced to it has loved it, I feel like this would make a pretty awesome gift.
A Hot Bean Bag
For owners of old houses, sore muscles, or both, a hot beanbag is a great gift, especially in December.
A Small Cosmetics Bundle
A little gathering of my strawberry shimmer stick, brightlighter, and bronzer stick will leave any cosmetics nut pretty happy—and likely rather impressed at your craftiness as well!
Bath Salts
The perfect gift for anybody who loves to thaw their toes in the tub, a small jar of Christmas-scented bath salts are just the thing. Present them in a pretty jar or bag, and lace them with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and oranges.
Essential Oil Headache Eraser
The perfect gift for anybody in your life who suffers from constant headaches. Thoughtful & useful—pretty much the ultimate gift.
Tiger Balm
This legendary balm is a must have in my life, hot or cold. Any athletes or people with sore backs in your life will really appreciate having a tin of the homemade version in their medicine cabinet.
A Natural Hair Care KitIf you know somebody who invests a lot of time and money into their hair, why not gift them an assortment of natural haircare products? Some shampoo bars, some hair balm, and a nice wooden comb makes a great little gift pack.
Hi, Marie, a quick question for you. I plan on giving my best friend a natural hair care kit as an engagement gift and as I have no time/funds to make the shampoo bars myself, need to buy them. Do you have any suggestions as far as what online shops would be best? Or even what I should ask when inquiring about the products I’d be buying?
I just found your site the other day and have been steadily reading through everything. You’re awesome for sharing so much, thanks!
Hi Andrea! Your engagement gift sounds awesome 🙂 I generally recommend Etsy to people who are looking to buy soap as there are just SO many options there. Your top three things to check for are:
I think that should give you pretty good place to start 🙂 Have fun shopping and a big thank you for reading!
Hi Marie,
Perhaps you could help a novice soapie with some calculation methods or help with pricing soaps. I have just made a lot of soap for fetes, Christmas gifts, orders etc. and have no clue as how to price the soaps. I probably should have started with pricing first!!
I am afraid of over-pricing and probably would under price (knowing my wife).
I think this info would also be very useful for other beginners in a similar situation.
PS. I love your honesty on past soap flops. It is probably the best way of learning. Honesty is always good and makes us novices feel not alone.
best regards.
George.
Hi George! It looks like you found another great resource for this, but I thought I’d share my approach 🙂
I’ve started up a spreadsheet where I store pricing info for all my favourite ingredients (beeswax, olive oil, etc.). I break them down to their price per gram (or drop, sometime, for EOs, though I don’t count on that being overly accurate). Then, with all those constants stored and per-calculated, it’s easy to start entering my recipes into the same spreadsheet. It ends up looking like this when I’ve got the recipes in there as well. That gives you a basic price per unit (don’t forget to include packaging as well), and from there you can add on cost to cover your time, your equipment, and your other overhead.
Thanks so much for reading & especially for enjoying my entries on my flops 😛 Those ones are always fun to write, even if at the time of the flop I am less amused lol.
Hi Marie,
After I made my previous entry I read your DIY entry. I have started my own little blue note book. Then I decided to google on how to do costing. I found a very good item on http://www.natural-soap-directory.com under the Sell your soap and Deadlines to remember. I hope I have not crossed any blogging rules! Love your blogs and in your past life maybe you were a motivational speaker (insert smiley) because you have a great way of getting a message across KISS (keep it simple stupid)
best regards from sunny Cape Town.
George.
This looks like a fantastic resource—thanks, George! The directory is particularly intriguing as I am working on an entry detailing purchasing options for those who cannot make their own soaps 🙂
Thanks so much for reading and for your kind words—it’s people like you who keep me motivated!
Also, enjoy that Cape Town weather enough for the both of us, k? We are rocketing towards a cold snap with HIGHS in the -20°Cs next week 🙁 It was warm this week—it got to 10°C on Tuesday! I just bought myself an electrically heated mattress pad to help keep my bed warm enough to sleep at night. I should really move… 😛