Simply Earth's November Box!

***Press Sample***

Hello, my dears!

I hope you all had a very Happy Turkey Day, and a very safe Black Friday (if that's your thing - I'm more of a Cyber Monday kind of gal, I just don't do crowds)!  I've got a different kind of post for you today than my usual - I'm reviewing a super sweet essential oils sub box I received from Simply Earth! :D

You may have caught my unboxing video I posted a bit ago.  If not, the link is HERE to give you a rundown of what is contained in November's sub box!

I've been spending my spare moments over the last few weeks diving in and using these fun products and their recipes :)  I find the Happy Oil to be most pleasing to my senses, and the Christmas Blend is making me long for the holiday even more!!  I have to say, though, that the most fun recipe was for scented ornaments, and I enlisted the help of my two oldest munchkins for it :D

First, we made the dough.  Ethan (my oldest) helped me measure out all the ingredients, and I stirred it all together.  Now, this recipe is for scented ornaments, but since it isn't quite Christmas season in my house yet (we have a firm No-Christmas-Till-After-Thanksgiving rule), we opted to make scented aquatic life decorations instead!

After making the dough, I rolled it out and had them help me cut out shapes!  We wore gloves because I wasn't sure if the oil would have an adverse effect on our skin.  It's always a good idea to play it safe, folks!

After cutting out the ornaments, I used a straw to cut out circles towards the top so we could use string to hang them.  And then we baked them!

After baking them, they smelled awesome!! But as is usually the case with my kids (and admittedly, me), we couldn't leave them plain white.  My boys decided they wanted theirs to be red, so they painted one side using acrylic paint (which doesn't have a scent, really, and by only painting one side, we were able to smell the frankincense still).

Once that was dry, they picked ribbon to string through and decided they wanted their animals displayed in the school room :)

It smelled pleasantly in there for a few days!  Which was a welcome change from the usual little boy stink that sits in there after a long day of school and play :P

A few things I noticed about this ornament recipe:

1. As you're stirring your liquid ingredients, even over the heat level suggested on the recipe card, the dough forms VERY quickly, so be mindful of that!

2.  The dough is easy to work with, but when I used a silicone mold, anything with small sections (like branches on a Christmas tree) did not release the dough to me - so I had a Christmas Cyprus tree in the end O_o

3.  The scent is strong, but does dissipate after about 2 days, so if you're looking for something long-term, you won't find it with this recipe.

Other than the above mentioned things, this was a really fun recipe!  I wasn't sure what to expect with the dough, so it was a nice surprise that it was so malleable and easy to work with without crumbling apart after too much handling.  And I had already gone into it assuming the scent wouldn't stick around too much - most "scented" stuff I've made doesn't last a long time, just the nature of the beast.  I had a lot of fun making these with my boys, and would definitely make them again as Christmas gifts :D

And...well, most of my long-time readers know how much I love nail polish, so...

I painted mine in nail polish ^_^  OF COURSE I DID, c'mon now :P  They look *amazing* and holo and blingy :D  Aw yiss.

I decided to make "snowflakes" the theme for the other recipes I used from this box, and give them as a Thank-You gift to my sister in law for hosting Thanksgiving this year!  Here are my creations from the recipes included in November's box:

A Christmas Scented Air Freshener using essential oils and baking soda

Two different Christmas Blends to use in a diffuser

Holiday Home Scent Spray to spritz throughout the house

I cannot do bows, y'all.  They always look so sad.

I'm so pleased with this box, it was so much fun to dive into and experiment with everything!  I admit I have never personally seen something so innovative, using essential oils in such creative ways other than just in a diffuser, so this was quite a delightful experience :D

The November box is still available at the following link - if you use the code mommrsfreedif at check out, you'll receive a FREE diffuser with your order! (In order to get the free diffuser, you need to go HERE and add the one you want to your cart - then when you check out, after putting in my special code, it should remove the charge for it :D ).

CLICK ME!!

And here are some social links for you where you can follow Simply Earth:

Instagram

Facebook

I would love to know what you think of this box!  Please let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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The November sub box was sent to me by Simply Earth in exchange for an honest review.