I Made Lip Balm!

It's true! I went out and picked up some ingredients from Hobby Lobby, a few plastic containers (not intended for lip balm, little plastic 3/$1.00 boxes) and a glass jar to both melt and store the bulk of it in, and I love it! Here's what I did:

-Cut up some beeswax. I think, now, that I used too much of it, since I would prefer a softer balm. (I may melt the bulk balm again tonight and add more of the soft stuff)
-Chuck two tbs of shea butter, 2.5 tbs cononut oil (which is surprisingly solid!), 4 tbs olive oil (must remember to get some-a-that sweet almond oil I've heard so much about) and the too-much beeswax into a small glass jar, which was sitting in a pot of water, double-boiler style
- Melt it all, heat on medium. The beeswax takes forever.
- Add a glub of honey! Yay honey!
- Add a few tbs of chai spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom). In the future, be sure and grind these all up real good. Expect powder at the bottom of your balm.
- Ladle (I used a teaspoon, small jar opening) into tiny containers and allow to cool. Enjoy!


So, yes, it was crazy fun. I have six small containers of balm, a giant jar full of balm (I didn't expect it go that far!), and the itch to try more flavors. I think with the next batch, I'll make just a jar of generic unflavored balm, and try adding oils to it (peppermint, vanilla, etc) as it's going in the little containers.

In knitting news, I've been chugging away at the Anya scarf! I've almost finished the first motif, and it's much more square than it look on the progress bar. This, of course, means that I have to get to do more of it! So once the bar is chocolate (mmm, chocolate), it'll likely go pink again. I'm aiming for 40" unblocked (since that's what texas humidity will make of it) before I bind off.