I don't know about any of you, but I tend to get dry skin during the colder months. This sugar scrub is the perfect solution to that. It will gently rub away any pesky dry skin, leaving your legs smooth and moisturized. Also, another perk of the recipe is that it smells amazing and contains all natural ingredients-- meaning you don't need to worry about killing any fish in the ocean. Yay for being environmentally friendly. 
The reason that compelled me to make this scrub was because my shins were cracking and scaling. Why? Field Hockey. Yeah, the shin guards completely destroy my legs, I get rashes and horribly dry skin even though I do use rash guards and lotion them often. While my homemade lotion helped them, the sugar scrub helps even more. Even though I still get rashes on my legs, I no longer have scaly skin and I love it. This scrub works great on my bad field hockey legs-- so it will work even better on regular skin. It's super easy to make and contains ingredients you probably already have in the house, so I highly recommend giving it a try. 
Oh, and if you didn't know, sugar scrubs are really easy to make. All you have to do is wet your legs, get a little of the sugar scrub on your hands and then massage it on to your legs. Once you rinse off the remaining coffee and what not, tada, you're done. 

Ingredients: 
1 cup white sugar 
1/4 cup ground coffee 
1/2 cup coconut oil 
1/2 T vanilla extract (optional) 

1. In a jar, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. (I did dry ingredients first and then added the wet.)

Well, that was easy. Sorry for not posting-- whoever said sophomore year was easy was lying. I've hardly been able to find any freetime-- I haven't read a new book in a month! How sad is that? :( 
-Anji

Bath Bombs are expensive to buy, but so relaxing. Recently, I've become obsessed with DIY projects and stuff (obviously) and I've also become obsessed with bath bombs, of course, they're expensive to buy (especially from Lush (FYI I love Lush)) so I decided to make some of my own, for a cheaper price. A lot of the ingredients in these are quite easy to find, all ingredients save for citric acid, which, no matter how hard I tried, I could not find in grocery stores near me. So, I ordered my citric acid off amazon (they have everything on there.)  Other than that, all the other ingredients were quite easy to find. 
Now, the main reason it took me so long to create these excellent bath bombs is that I didn't have a bath bomb mold. Still don't. How did I create this round shape? Surprisingly enough, I used tennis balls as my bath bomb mold. See, I used to play tennis but quit, so I have a bunch of tennis balls that are left, unused, in my basement. Now I actually put those things to use by cutting a few in half, washing the inside out and using them to mold the bath bombs. 
Baking Soda and corn starch are easily found in any grocery store, I'm not sure if grocery stores sell epsom salt, but CVS sells a whole ton of it, so you'll probably be able to find it there. As for Essential oils, you can find these pretty much anywhere these days. You don't need high quality, therapeutic essentials oils for this recipe, though. You just need some nice smelling ones. A good place to find some cheaper essential oils is whole foods or a crafting store in the soap making section. 
Coloring is completely optional, though, I find it more fun when your bath is colored, also it makes the bath bombs look nicer when they're colored. You have two options for coloring. Soap or food dye. I usually use a little bit of both, to get the most pigmented color possible. If you only use food dye, be careful and only use a few drops because if you use too much, you'll risk it coloring your skin.
To add the liquid to the dry mixture, you'll need a spray bottle. These are easily acquired by just looking in the travel section at Target or  CVS. A cheap $3 spray bottle is all you need to create these fantastic little bath bombs. 
When you bathe with these bath bombs, you'll not only have a relaxing aroma around you, but you'll also have softer skin when you emerge from the bath tub! The coconut oil makes your skin just a tad bit softer and really, did you need any more pros?

Ingredients: 
1 cup Baking Soda
1/2 cup Citric Acid 
1/2 cup Corn Starch
1/2 cup Epsom Salt 
3 Tablespoons of Water
2 1/2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil
Essential oils for scent 
Food or Soap Dye 

Instructions: 
Start by mixing the baking soda, citric acid, corn starch and epsom salt together. Mix throughly. 
Then spoon the mixture evenly out into different bowls, the amount of bowls varies depending on how many different colors you wish to create. 
Now, in a separate container, add your water and coconut oil. Heat this for 45 seconds in the microwave, or until the coconut oil is completely melted. 
Mix this until the water and coconut oil are pretty evenly mixed together. 
Pour a bit of this mixture into your spray bottle and add your essential oil and color. The amount of these two variables depends on how strong the essential oil is and how colored you want your bath bomb to be. The darker colored the liquid mixture is, the darker the bath bomb's color will be. 
Put the top back on and shake the spray bottle. 
Spray about two spritzes of the liquid into the dry mixture before stirring. Repeat this process until the mixture has the feel of wet sand. 
Dump the rest of the colored liquid out, pour some more of the coconut oil/water mixture in the spray bottle, recolor and scent it and repeat the mixing process on the other bowls of your dry mixture. 
You want to use the spray bottle technique because if you don't, the ingredients will react to the dry mixture and your bath bomb will not fizz in the water, so technically it wouldn't really be a bath bomb, just a bath scent and colorant. 
When you have all your dry mixtures colored (and scented) and they're the feeling of wet sand, pack them tightly into whatever mold you're using. Make sure to overfill the mold before pressing it to the other side. Use rubber bands to hold together both halves of the mold. If you want to add something into the bath bomb say, rose petals or bits of lavender, now would be the time. 
 Let sit for about a day before taking the mold off from the bath bomb and rubbing away the side bit so that your bath bomb is more sphere shaped. You also want to let the bath bomb sit for a day so that it will dry out, before you use it in a bath. (Note: It doesn't have to be round, if you don't have any round shapes to make a bath bomb from, you can always just use a cupcake pan or something) 
Enjoy!
Thanks for reading,
​-Anj

Here's a picture of my jelly soap recipe using 2 packets of gelatin instead of one. It's a lot more firm, but still jelly like. I really like this batch a lot more than the first. {Recipe Here}

This is amazing. It's fun for people of all ages (especially children) this soap literally feels like you're washing yourself with a squishy jelly or gummy of some sort. I won't lie, I really quite enjoyed poking and squeezing it. These soaps smell great as well and the best part is you get to choose how the soap smells. There are two options to scenting this soap, you can either scent it using an already scented soap or use a scentless soap and add a nicely scented essential oil. I realize not everyone owns essential oils, so there's an alternative for you. 
Something I really loved about these (aside from their squishiness) is you can shove them all into a jar without worrying about them getting out of shape. As soon as the jelly soap pops out of the car, it'll be back into their regular shape. Trust me on this, this soap is tons of fun as well as super easy to make. 
Actually, all the ingrediants needed in theses amazing jelly soaps are very easy to obtain. Really, all you need is gelatin (agar if you're vegan), salt, food coloring or soap coloring (if you use food coloring just be sure to use only a couple drops- wouldn't want to color your skin!), a gel body wash or shampoo (I just happened to have some Bath and Body Works shower gel, but any type of gel type soap would work), and salt. Easy, huh? Also, you'll need a mold. As you can see I used my favorite molds- the hearts and gemstone molds but I also used some silicon cupcake liners, but if you don't have any of those, you could always just pour your jelly in a cup- I did that, too. It's just as fun as it is in a smaller form. 
So this recipe is actually adapted from JENerationDIY on YouTube. 
So when I followed this exact recipe, I found that I wished for the soap to be a little more solid, so in my recipe I'm going to recommend using 2 envelopes of gelatin, instead of one. These soaps lather up really well, and, of course, they smell amazing. 
Also, be warned, if you don't keep these in the fridge, they will melt. 

Instructions
2 envelopes of gelatin (or agar) 
1/2 teaspoon of salt 
Food Coloring or Soap Colorant 
3/4 gel soap
3/4 cup boiling water

Instructions: 
First, mix together your gelatin and water until there are no more lumps. Now add your salt and stir until that's dissolved. Next mix in your gel soap, and coloring (optional). Lastly, all you have to do is pour this mixture into a mold (or cup) and stick it in the fridge for four hours, minimum. 

I hope you enjoy squishing these little soaps as much as I did. 
​Anji

So... feet. I kinda hate them, but then again, they are what hold you upright all day.... but they're kinda gross because foot sweat? Let's not even think about it. Anyway, I don't know about you all, but sometimes, especially during the summer, my feet will peel, so I've been looking at a lot go foot scrub recipes, anyway and then in the winter, my feet, on occasion, get dry. So dry that sometimes they crack while I'm walking and trust me when I say, that hurts. Anyway, I was bored and looking at foot scrub recipes and then I found a bunch of foot soak recipes and I just thought, wow, a nice foot soak would be really relaxing. It would be especially relaxing after a long day of standing (especially since I have flat feet that are prone to aching.) 
Anyway, I decided why not make a three part blog post about DIY pampering for your hard working feet. The first part is going to be this, a peppermint foot soak,  the second part will be a  foot scrub (whenever I get around to making it) and then the third will be a good lotion to moisturize your feet even more after the scrub and soak. 
I made this recipe up myself and my feet feel amazing after soaking in it. I did use a scrub on them before soaking them, but this foot soak softens the feet even more, as well as making them smell good. (Not that anyone's going to be smelling your feet anytime soon.) I tried to make this recipe as simple as possible. All the ingredients in it are fairly easy to find and it's quite a simple recipe to put together. The only thing that might not be easily found is the essential oil (I just happen to have a lot of it from soap and candle making stuff). Don't worry, if you don't have essential oil, you can just add an extract, such as peppermint or vanilla extract. You'll need more of it, but it'll work just as well for the scent. 
To color the mixture, I used soap colorant, which is sure to not color your skin, but if you don't have it, you can use food dye. Just make sure to not use too much food dye because it will dye your skin if you put too much in. And I added olive oil to this recipe because it's a great and very common moisturizer. You can also use other moisturizing oils such as sweet almond oil or coconut oil, I just didn't want to use up more of my almond oil and my coconut oil is in a solid form. 
Here's what you'll need: 
1/4 cup epsom salt
1/4 cup sea salt
1/2 cup baking soda
2 teaspoons of olive oil
10-15 drops of essential oil (or a teaspoon or two of extract) 
Soap colorant 
Jar for containment 

Directions: 
In a small bowl mix together the epsom salt, sea salt and baking soda. When thoroughly combined, add in the essential oil (or extract) and olive oil. The pieces will climb together, but if you mix it enough, the liquid ingredients will disperse throughout the dry ingredients. One everything is evenly mixed again, separate the mix into two different bowls. Color one of these with the soap or food colorant, mixing until evenly dispersed. Now all you need to do is add the mix to a jar. 

This works great for a gift, or just to pamper yourself. To use it, all you need to do is pour a quarter cup of this mix to hot water, mix it around, and soak your feet in it.  Yay! That's it. Simple, huh? 
Thanks for reading, now I'm off to actually do some homework :( see you next time, 
​-Anj

Now, I know this isn't the most amazing looking pictures, but let me tell you, these homemade lotion bars are truly amazing. All natural and very easy to carry around with you as well as smelling magnificent. They're a great weapon against dry skin- especially for the winter. I've been meaning to try and make a lotion bar for a while now, so when my friend, Emma, was complaining about dry skin, I decided that was the perfect motivation to do so. 
This quick and easy recipe is very convenient for those of us who are very busy, whether it be with school work or actual work. Taking ten minutes out of your day to make these adorably useful bars will be well worth it. Not only do these bars moisturize supremely well, but they also help to relax a stressed body and put the mind to rest (at least a little bit.) 
These bars are solid at room temperature, but will soften as you rub the bars on your skin, whether it be hands, arms or legs. Your body heat will melt these adorable little bars just enough as you use them. 
You may be wondering, how can she be speaking such great things about these after only having them for a short period of time? Well, my skin is extremely soft and smooth after only using them a couple of times, so just imagine what these fantastic bars can do after using them for a while. 
Essential oils are something that seem to be becoming increasingly more popular these days. And I can see why. Not only are they useful in projects like soap and candle making, but they also have certain healing properties. Such as lavender essential oil is great for calming and easing tension in the body. I've recently found that school is horrible for my sleep- like I'm restless and it takes me a lot longer to fall asleep on a school night than a regular night. Last night, however, I rubbed some of this soothing lotion over my hands before bed and, to my surprise, felt relaxed a lot faster than usual. Now, if you don't like the scent of lavender, you could always use a different kind of essential oil, but it would cause the properties of the bar to be different. Some good ideas for other scents might be lime (great for the immune system), Sandalwood (promotes healthy looking skin), grapefruit (helps to avoid oily looking skin), Clary Sage (supposed to lighten the mood), cedar wood (promotes clear skin), or bergamot (calming.) 
Coconut oil is very popular these days. I'd be surprised if you haven't heard about it yet. Its moisturizing qualities are amazing and it's quite good for you. An acid in coconut oil can help keep your body healthy by killing bacterias , virus and fungi- how cool is that? It can also protect hair from damage, moisturize skin(as mentioned before) and even work as a sunscreen. Coconut oil is used in so many DIY's you'll stumble across these days, and this one will be no different. Actually, the last DIY I posted involved this marvelous oil as well and I don't intend to stop using it any time soon.
And shea butter is just all around good for moisturizing purposes. A lot of lotion bar recipes require cocoa butter, which I do not have abundant amounts of. Though, if you'd prefer to use cocoa butter, feel free. You could also use any kind of moisturizing butter (Mango, avocado, etc.) 
You can, of course make these bars full sized, but if these mini ones are easy to carry around with you- you no longer have to worry about your mini bath and body works lotion spilling in your bag! (Not that that ever happened to me... ha...) 
This recipe originated from onegoodthingbyjubillee.com. If you're interested in lots of DIYs like I am, feel free to follow my Pinterest board How to/DIY where I post awesome DIYs all the time. (Pinterest: Anjicooper)
Now, when I made this, I split the recipe in half but I will definitely be making more in the near future! 
Organic Mini Lotion Bars
What you'll need
Equal parts beeswax, shea butter and coconut oil (will work in any recipe as long as they are all equal) 
1/2 cup organic beeswax (I got mine from amazon) 
1/2 cup organic shea butter (yet again, I got mine from amazon) 
1/2 cup organic coconut oil (I got a giant tub from Giant, it's probably sold in your local grocery store) 
15-30 drops of Lavender (or any) essential oil
A mold (I got mine from AC Moore, but they are sold on amazon (as is basically everything), just look around for what you have. You could even just line a dish, pour the mixture in there, and then hand cut the bars) 

Directions:
You'll need either a double boiler or a makeshift double boiler for this recipe. To make a makeshift double boiler, you'll need a heat safe container (I used a pyrex cup because it made pouring easier) and a pot of water. Place the heat safe container inside the half filled pot of water and you're good. 
Now just add your beeswax, shea butter and oil into your heat safe container and let melt over medium heat, stirring occasionally. This will take a while to melt. Be aware that the beeswax will most likely take the longest.
Once all the ingredients are melted, remove from heat and add your essential oil. Add until you're satisfied with the smell of it and then mix for a couple minutes so the ingredients can bond together. 
Now all you have to  do is pour into your mold or dish. How easy was that? 
To cool off, I gave these cute little bars about twenty minutes. They probably took less time because I put them outside and it was wayyyyy below freezing when I did so but just to be safe... When all is done and well, just pop these cuties out of their molds and store in a cool, preferably dry place. 
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do. :) 
​-Anji

Hey, so as you may know, lately I've been really obsessed with crafting. Tonight I made this really great sugar scrub for removing dead skin on the lips (I guess you could say exfoliating the lips). Here's the recipe. 
You'll need 

To start mix 1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar and 1 Tablespoon of coconut oil together in the container. I just used a toothpick to mix all my ingredients. Now, I don't know what condition your coconut oil is in but mine is very liquidy because I don't refrigerate it and my kitchen is quite warm. If your coconut oil is liquidy, like mine, you're going to need to add a Tablespoon of white sugar also. If your coconut oil is solid, a Tablespoon of brown sugar should work just fine. Next add a drizzle of honey and a few drops of your chosen extract. Mix together. You're done. Easy, right? 
How to use: 
1. Take some lip scrub
2. Rub until your lips are smooth
3. Either eat or rinse the scrub off 
4. Pat lips dry 
5. Apply lip balm or chapstick 
6. Yay, your lips are smooth
Lip scrubs are very useful in the winter and fall when your lips are dry and cracking. I look forward to using mine. 
-Anji