Create Love this Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is often a holiday where we get lost in the materialism of this world and focus too much on purchases and spending money on our loved ones.  This year we urge you to think outside the chocolate box and make something special for the ones you care about!  Spreading your love does not have to cost much, and  we've put together a small basket of inspiration to get your creativity flowing!

One of the easiest and most appreciated bath products you can make is a bath bomb, made for under an eighth of the cost of purchasing one in stores!  Here are the simple instructions:

1. Mix 2 cups Sodium Bicarbonate, 1 cup Citric Acid, and 1/2 cup Corn Starch in a bowl.

2. Spritz gently with Witch Hazel while mixing with your hands.

3. Add your favourite colourant and fragrance (we used Butterfly Orchid) and mix well.

4. Try scrunching some of the mix in your fist.  When it holds its shape it's ready to be pressed into a mold.

5. Try adding your favourite dried flower petals to the mold for a decorative touch!  We used Red Rose Petals and Lavender Flowers. 

6. Gently turn your mold over and tap the bath bombs out after 10-15 minutes.  Let them dry on a flat surface for a few hours and they're ready to use!

A fantastic gift you can make (and is super fun to do with kids!) is melt and pour soap with an embedded heart.  These soaps look very intricate but are quite simple to do.  

1. Melt about 12 ounces of clear melt and pour soap in a microwave safe container and colour it with the liquid Labcolours of your choice.
2. Choose which shape you would like to embed in your soap, I chose the Celtic Hearts Milky Way Mold.  Fragrance your soap with a teaspoon of the fragrance oil or essential oil of your choice, then pour the melted soap base into the cavities.  Let them set up for a couple hours, or you can place the mold in the freezer to speed up the process.  

3. After the shapes are fully solid and de-molded, choose the mold you would like to embed your soaps into.  I chose the Round Milky Way Soap Mold.  

4. Take about half an ounce of clear melt and pour and melt it down in a microwave safe container. Pour a fine layer into the soap mold then firmly press your heart shape into it.  

5. While it is setting up melt about 5 ounces of clear melt and pour soap.  Add a quarter teaspoon of Pearly White Mica for a classy iridescent sheen.  When the soap is just warm to the touch pour it into each cavity of the mold.

6. Et voilà! Let your soaps sit overnight then de-mold.

Next I made these adorable massage melts.  Massage melts are a fantastic alternative to a massage oil or lotion and come in convenient bars to reduce the mess.  They can be poured into plastic molds for use as bars (I used the Lips guest sized Mold Market Mold), into our jumbo lip tubes for precision application, or our deodorant stick tubes.  Adding essential oils lets you customize the mood of the massage, try our Aphrodite or Love Potion essential oil blend!  

Click HERE for the full recipe and instructions! 

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Classy Candle Glass

We are all so excited about the brand new candle glass we just brought in!  It is heavy and durable and comes with a black lid that also fits into the bottom of the glass as a base.  This glassware is conveniently packed 9 to a box that contains dividers for support, great for re-use if shipping your finished candles out or just for storage.  The beautiful soy candles pictured above were made in a couple hours following these simple instructions:

1.  The new glassware holds 8 oz (or 230 grams) of wax.  We recommend using the EcoSoya CB Advanced wax for container candles.  Melt the wax in a double boiler until it reaches 155 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.  Add your candle dye.  Take one of our vegetable-based Candle Dye Pads and shave off small slivers until the desired colour is reached, stirring frequently.  Hint: Candle wax is always quite a bit darker when it's a liquid so if you aren't sure if the colour is the right shade simply dip a spoon into the wax, put it in the freezer for a minute or two, then when it has hardened you can see the colour it will turn out to be.  After you've reached the desired colour take the wax off heat and stir it gently, allowing time for it to cool.   

3.  Add your fragrance (I chose Peppermint Essential Oil for the layered candle and Cranberry Fig Fragrance Oil for the red candle) and stir to incorporate.  EcoSoya soy wax can handle a fragrance load of up to 12%; if you are using your candle as a room scenter we recommend using between 7%-9% fragrance which would be 15 to 20 ml of fragrance per candle.

4.  Set up your wick.  For this particular container the HTP 1212 x 3.5" wick works perfectly.  Center your wick in the middle of the container.

5.  When the wax reaches about 120 degrees, pour your wax into the candle glass.  For smaller candles you would want to pour them at about 140 degrees as they lose their heat faster.

6.  Re-position the wick if needed.  I usually stabilize it in the middle of the jar with two pens on either side.

7.  Trim the wick to 1/4" and wait 24 hours before burning.  

It's that simple!  These candles are great for holiday decorations around the house, for gift-giving, or for a fun activity to do at home.

Tawnee & the Voyageur Team

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