DIY Natural Lip Balm (Simple Recipe!)

DIY Natural Lip Balm (Simple Recipe!)

I’m really enjoying concocting my own homemade products and working towards a more low impact/high quality lifestyle.

It just feels right. It contains clean, honest-to-earth ingredients. And it works!

In case you’re new here, I made my own deodorant a little while ago but what I didn’t share was that I also made my own lip balm. It’s so so so easy. So in case you’re feeling crafty and want to give it a go, here’s what you need to know!

Clean out and reuse old lip balm containers

I’ve had this EOS lip balm since right after college which was (omg) 7 years ago! It was a spare one I carried around in my various bags and miraculously didn’t lose. It started to get stale after so long and I didn’t have the heart to throw it away.

Then I came across this idea to make my own lip balm, and found a whole plethora of ways to reuse the EOS container. Here’s how to empty and clean out your EOS container to be reused.

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

1. Open EOS lip balm. Notice the removable cartridge holding the balm.

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

2. Remove the balm cartridge using a sharp utensil (I used a butter knife)

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

3. It might take a bit of prying, but will come out with a bit of leverage

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

4. Scrape out the old balm from the top and bottom of the cartridge

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

5. Then clean it all off under warm soapy water

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

6. Let dry. And you’re ready to reuse!

DIY Lip Balm & What You’ll Need

Ingredients:

1 tsp Cold pressed extra virgin Coconut oil
1 tsp Shea butter
1 tsp Beeswax
5 drops of preferred essential oil (optional – I used lavender for its soothing effect)
½ tsp Cinnamon (optional – add to naturally exfoliate your lips!)

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

Directions for Making the DIY Lip Balm

Mix all the ingredients in a double broiler (the exact same way I made the deodorant here).

While it’s still warm, pour into your lip balm container!

Place the cap back on upside down and let cool at room temperature.

Or you can put it in the fridge for a few minutes.

Once it’s dry – voila!

That it! That’s how easy it is!

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle

I poured the ingredients into both the EOS lip balm container and a regular lip balm container – both of which I cleaned and disinfected before reusing.

DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle
DIY natural lip balm | Nerelle
DIY natural lip balm | Sustainable living | Nerelle

So I hope you clean up those old cute lip balm containers, play around with these natural ingredients and and DIY your own sustainable lip balm!

xo, Nerelle

Making cloth napkins + elei printing

Making cloth napkins + elei printing

A couple of weeks ago, Gabby told me she was planning her sister Siumu’s surprise baby shower and she might need some help. She said she was inspired by what I’ve been doing to live a more sustainable life and decided on an eco-friendly tropical theme for the party. What?! How cool!! This made me very excited to hear her list out all the ways she was opting for a zero waste event. I immediately offered to provide cloth napkins (instead of paper towels), and before I knew it, Gabby came over to my house with a giant bundle of orange fabric. I just had to cut and hem. But it seemed too plain, and Gabby was already pulling all the stops, so I had to level up (yassss to Ciara + Parri$).

I finally had a good reason to use this elei stencil I bought in Samoa over New Year.

It took a looooong time but once I set up my workbench and did a couple of test prints, I found my groove. I cut the long fabric into pieces that could fit 4 napkins, taped the stencil down and placed two 2×4 blocks to keep the fabric from warping, poured and painted with a roller,  took it out to the balcony to dry, and repeated this… about 15 more  times! With less than 24 hours before the event, I couldn’t leave them out to dry, so thankfully Ian helped and ironed all the pieces to heat set the fabric paint. Then I cut out the 4 napkins from each strip, and took it to my sewing machine to do a raw hem edge.

Like I said, it took foreverrrr. I started on Friday afternoon and finished at 5am the next day, just a few hours before the surprise baby shower! Oh man, if it weren’t for Gabby, I don’t think I would have done any of this but I’m glad they turned out. I’ll be posting photos from the beautiful baby shower super soon!

Trying Samoa elei for the first time | Nerelle.com

Trying Samoa elei for the first time | Nerelle.com

Trying Samoa elei for the first time | Nerelle.com

Trying Samoa elei stencil for the first time | Nerelle.com

Trying Samoa elei for the first time | Nerelle.com

Sewing napkins | Nerelle.com

Trying Samoa elei for the first time | Nerelle.com

Trying Samoa elei for the first time | Nerelle.com

Look What I Made: Zero Waste Bifold Card Wallet

Look What I Made: Zero Waste Bifold Card Wallet

So it’s currently midnight and I’d normally be in bed already buuuut I felt the urge to craft and make myself a new card wallet!

As you may know, I’m doing a bit of traveling to a few different countries starting next month and I was thinking about how to keep my things as minimal as possible since I’ve only got one carry on bag(!!!! One carry on bag is all Ian’s idea!!). I used to have this envelope shaped card wallet that a friend brought back from Fiji, and I loved it. I used it for about 2 years before the woven button fringed up and came undone.

I have a bunch of other wallets and wristlets—my most recent was the Lalelei fabric wristlet—but they’re all on the larger types of wallets. I’ve also been trying to downsize what I carry around in my bag daily and so wanted to go back to a card wallet.

ENTER: my past-bedtime-10pm-DIY-sewing-adventure card wallet! I love it so much already. I’m swooning over the bright yellow linen-y fabric (which I hand dyed naturally with turmeric). The sturdiness of the canvas fabric. The way my cards fit so perfectly. And mostly because I wasn’t expecting to like it. But I do. I like it a lot!

It’s a super simple design. I could have added more pockets but didn’t want it to get bulky since I’m using canvas, and besides, I can fit probably at least 14 cards in there. Hmm, I should do a test to see how many it can hold.

Anyhow, I just thought I’d share this highlight bit from my day. What do you think of this fabric card wallet? Should I post a tutorial on how I made it?

Leave a comment below and let me know!
Have a wonderful tomorrow

xoxo
Nerelle

CREATE: DIY Altoids watercolor travel palette

CREATE: DIY Altoids watercolor travel palette

One of my favorite things about art is art supplies. I adore looking at them, using them (obviously) and now making them! I’m currently obsessed with the watercolor medium—how amazing it makes everything look, the way the paint flows wherever the water goes, and the palette of colors with an array of color combinations.
I have been shamelessly binge watching art journal YouTube videos, mostly while I’m journaling (so it feels like I’m doing it with other people lol). And I saw that a few people had these tiny tin watercolor palettes that they would take with them on travels or while journaling on the go in cafes and libraries. I’ve always had a thing for miniature art supplies (I loved tiny things as a kid), so I wanted to try to make my own tin watercolor palette.

 

What you’ll need:

1. Altoid Mints tin

Or any other box of your choosing! I like to keep my breath minty fresh and am too much of a nostalgic person to throw away my Altoids boxes, so it’s great to reuse them this way. Another option is to use pill boxes.

2. Watercolor half pans

There are half pans and full pans, but I like half pans because I’m not a marathon painter and don’t need much paint at one time. Also because I can fit more colors in my travel palette. I bought mine on Amazon. They’re quite pricey, so substitutes I’d recommend are water bottle caps or beer caps.

3. Watercolor tube paints

I’ve only ever had the pre-filled pans in my Sakura Koi and Prima Confections kits, so this was my first time using tube paints. I got this Royal & Langnickel Medium Tin Watercolor Set for really cheap on Amazon. I was going to get Reeves, but as you can tell, I love tin sooo my mind was made.

4. Other things you may need are:

– Double sided tape
– Watercolor paper
– Scissors
– Acetate paper
– Paintbrush
– Water

HOW To make watercolor travel palette:

1. Eat all the mints in one sitting (or spread out over several days, whichever tickles your fancy) and rinse the Altoids tin box.

2. Gather watercolor tubes. Arrange and plan colors.

3. Carefully fill half pans with paint from the tube.

4. Use double-sided tape or other adhesive and adhere to bottom of tin.

5. Affix pans over the tape/adhesive.

6. Measure tin cover and cut watercolor paper and acetate into slightly smaller dimensions, so that it will fit inside of the tin.

7. Paint each color in the order that the watercolor pans are arranged.

8. Use the water to control the opacity of the swatch, going from opaque to transparent. This will help you in the future to know what the color looks like both opaque and transparent.

9. Insert color chart in the top half of the tin, and the acetate paper layered over it. The acetate paper will block the paint from touching the color chart.

10. And you’re done!

Just a fun little painting of sabrina’s aura I made during a girls’ wine and paint night.

And that’s it!

So simple, right?

I’m still a total noob, but it’s fun to paint with watercolors, especially from this cute little travel palette.

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