Alert! Only 18 weeks to Christmas! For me, that means I have to produce 4 home made gifts a week between now and then to fulfill my obligations!
Here's a personal favourite.
This home made hand cream costs less than $3 including the pretty containers, uses just five ingredients, and can be made in under five minutes.
Your ingredients are:
1/4 cup emulsifying wax (you order this at your pharmacy, it's around $13 for 500gms, and it will yield about 40 x 1 cup jars of hand cream)
1/4 cup olive oil or other favourite oil like almond or jojoba
1 1/4 cups water
Fragrance oil or Essential oil
Food colouring (optional)
Equipment:
Containers. I used these pretty cut glass sugar bowls I spyed at the Op Shop. They were under $1. You could also use clean recycled jars. The wide mouthed Salsa jars are great.
2 cup capacity glass jug
Spoon
Microwave
Coffee cup
To the microwave safe glass jug, add the emulsifying wax and olive oil. Microwave for up to one and a half minutes on HIGH, until the wax is melted. Remove from the microwave. Add the fragrance oil (about 2 of it's own caps-ful if it's the cheap stuff, a few drops for genuine essential oil), a drop of food colouring to tint it if you want.
Heat the water in a large coffee cup for one minute, twenty seconds on HIGH, then pour it into the mixture in the jug. Give it a good stir.
Super SS Tip: If you can be bothered whipping this as if it were edible cream, you will almost double your yield. This also gives a softer fluffier result.
Pour into your waiting decanters and allow to cool.
Alert: If, once your cream has cooled, the oil congeals on the surface, simply stir it thoroughly with a fork or tiny whisk, until the oil emulsifies back into the cream.
Presto! Done!
I decorate these with ribbon, and wrap them in clear cellophane or bridal tulle. I love the bridal tulle even though it's a more expensive outlay, because it's completely recyclable and most recipients simply hand it straight back to me. Another big satin bow to gather the corners of the wrap or tulle together, and you've got one gorgeous gift!
