It’s easy and affordable to make your own natural body care presents. Best of all, you’ll feel good knowing that your gifts have none of the unpronounceable—and in some cases toxic—chemicals found in those overly packaged department store gifts.

Unlike the ingredients list on standard bath products, your own personal care gifts often require minimal and common ingredients. Some basics—including distilled water, vodka (now available in an organic version), salt, sugar, and olive oil—are probably already in your pantry.

Positive Benefits
Look for essential oils and other natural ingredients at the store that gives you remedies. Try the essential oil blends with the basic recipes that follow to customize your gifts. These healing aromas do more than smell good and keep your loved ones’ skin soft.

When inhaled or absorbed through the skin, essential oils can improve mood, increase energy, and relax you. Essential oils contain other beneficial properties depending on the synergistic chemistry of an oil or blend, explains Joni Keim, aromatherapy consultant, technical director for Oshadhi USA, and coauthor of Daily Aromatherapy. For example, citrus oils appear to lift moods, while lavender oil relaxes.

Practical Tips
Always begin blending by making a small batch. Note how many drops of various oils you use in the blend. Once you have a fragrance you like, follow your notes to multiply the batch for use in body care products.

Essential require dilution (10 to 12 drops of essential oil per ounce of carrier oil is best for healthy adults). Even though these uplifting aromas offer real healing benefits, they can be phototoxic on the skin when used undiluted on skin exposed to sunlight.

Citrus or spice essential oils can also react with the skin in topical forms. So use them in diffusers or misting sprays rather than skin care products. Do not take essential oils internally, and avoid essential oil use in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Favorite Blends
Use these tried-and-true formulas, or experiment with your own scent combinations.

Calm Alert Blend
13 drops of lavender
8 drops of coriander
4 drops of pink grapefruit

Invigorating Blend
17 drops of rosemary
8 drops of peppermint

Relaxation Blend
20 drops of lavender
3 drops of ylang ylang
2 drops of frankincense or sandalwood

Sensual Blend
10 drops of orange
10 drops of sandalwood or cedarwood
5 drops of ylang ylang

Some Basic Recipes
Lip Balm:
In a double boiler or a microwave, melt 1 ounce of crushed or grated beeswax in 3 ounces of extra-virgin olive oil until the beeswax has softened. Stir together. Remove from heat, mix in 12 to 25 drops of an essential oil blend. Always start with a little and work your way up; some oils are more intense than others. Pour the mixture into 1/4 ounce plastic lip balm tubes, carried in some natural food and herb shops. Let tubes sit, uncapped, until the mixture solidifies.

Massage & Body Oil:
Bottle 4 ounces of either apricot, sweet almond, jojoba, grape seed, or avocado oils with up to 50 drops of either the Relaxation or Sensual Blends. Rich, moisturizing avocado oil is helpful for dry wintertime skin. Look for carrier oils in the body care sections of your natural products store. Pour into glass or PET plastic bottles with flip or pump tops.

Body Scrub:
Stir together approximately 1 cup of salt or sugar with 1/2 cup of olive, canola, or jojoba oil and 50 drops of your favorite essential oil blend. Experiment with different kinds of sugar and salt. Coarser grinds of both will provide a rougher scrub for hands and feet. Finer grinds are perfect for the body. Scoop the mixture into glass jars, decorative glass, or PET plastic containers. Make sure you have a tight seal without any sugar or salt on the rim—body scrubs are notorious for leaking.

Aromatherapy Mist:
Mix 3 ounces of distilled water with 1 ounce of vodka and 50 drops of your essential oil blend. (Consider using citrus and spice essential oils for mists, since these oils are not appropriate for direct application to the skin.) The vodka helps disperse the essential oils in the water. Pour into glass or PET plastic spray bottles. Spray into the air or on linens.

To Learn More
Daily Aromatherapy by Joni Keim and Ruah Bull
Essential Beauty: Using Nature’s Essential Oils to Rejuvenate, Replenish, and Revitalize by Patricia Betty & David Andrusia
Healing Home Spa by Valerie Gennari Cooksley, RN