Healthier Brownies

I've been trying to eat more healthy lately, and I really don't believe in dieting. Diets never work, and I don't think it's good to deprive yourself of cravings - you just end up overindulging later.

So, I had a wicked craving for chocolate today and went searching the internet for good recipes. I decided I wanted to try a healthier option, as healthy as I could do with the ingredients I have at home at the moment, and I stumbled upon this blog! There are a lot of recipes I want to try on here!

To keep it simple, I chose to try her Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies:

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tbsp oil (I used coconut oil)
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

I decided on this one, because I had a can of pumpkin that we've given to Jaxson for baby food, and he's recently graduated to eating our meals - he flat out refuses to eat what I give him sometimes, but will eat whatever i'm eating. It's good. It's forcing me to eat more healthy, and it also saves me time having to make baby food for him anymore!

Unfortunately, I didn't have any chocolate chips (or I would have just eaten those to serve my craving!), but I did have some butterscotch chips left over from a shortbread I made for Christmas, so I decided to use those... And in-so-doing made this recipe quite a bit unhealthier! I only used 1/4 cup, because these chippits are just way too sweet for me otherwise!

So, anyway, back to the brownies!

I mixed the dry and wet ingredients separately, then combined both well. I melted the coconut oil so it would blend in better.

It was really hard to mix all the ingredients together, and the dough was quite sticky and also hard to spread into the pan. I think that if I had used canola oil instead of coconut, these two steps would have been easier!

Finally mixed well.

I spread it into into a greased 8in square pan and baked it at 330F for about 23 minutes.

I put 1 cup of the leftover pumpkin in the fridge to try this recipe from the blog for breakfast the next day (and it was awesome!), and froze the rest to use later.

I have to admit, I was really impressed with these brownies. Granted, they have quite a bit of sugar in them - next time, i'm going to try supplementing the sugar for agave or maple syrup or something to make them a bit more healthy, and see how that changes things.

But I was impressed with the consistency too, because there are no eggs! It's very nice and chewy and cake-y. A great treat. I'm glad I didn't put more butterscotch chips in, but at the same time, they're really nice in this!

They taste amazing refrigerated!

Rainbow Layer Cake!

My aunt, Twyla, planned a surprise birthday for both my cousins this past weekend.  They've been in the process of building a mansion of a house just outside of Saskatoon, and it's almost complete. Her brothers were coming into town to try help out a bit, so she thought it was a great opportunity to throw a bit of a party, since most of the family would be here.

My mum, in the plans, offered my services to make a cake for Tat's, the younger of Twyla's two kids. Kaelan already had a cake ready to go, but Twyla wanted one for Tats as well.

I was originally just going to do a simple angel food cake and decorate the crap out of it, but I decided to try something a little bit more fun and a little bit more complicated! Both Tats and Kaelan are autistic, and Tats in particular absolutely loves colour - her room is painted 4 different colours, if that gives you an idea.

I've seen rainbow cakes on Pinterest and Stumbleupon for the last couple years, and have been dying for an opportunity to try it out. This was the perfect opportunity - something fun, something that Tats had probably never seen, something really special!

I would have loved to make the whole thing from scratch, but it's already so much work and so very time consuming, so I cheated and bought 2 boxes of cake mix. Eventually, I want to invest in good quality vegetable food colouring, to use for all sorts of things, like baking and homemade play dough and chalk, as Jaxson gets older. However, they are really expensive, and i'm not sure how vibrant they are, so I bought a box of gel food colouring. That's what all the recipes recommend, and they are nice and bright - I actually liked them a lot more than I was expecting!

I made the whole thing at my mum's place, because we were planning on leaving from here the next morning to head up to Twyla's new house for the festivities! And I really wanted to transport this thing as little as possible!

Tons of ingredients and steps!

Before I go into details, I just have to say that this was a huge project - it was tons of fun, but it took me all afternoon. I was really impressed with Jaxson - he was so patient and good and played by himself for most of it, before drifting into his afternoon nap!

For the icing, I decided to make a cream cheese buttercream icing for in between the layers, and then I covered the whole cake in an easy, fluffy marshmallow icing from my childhood.

This is how I kept Jaxson busy while I was making the cream cheese buttercream icing!

Best baby EVER!

I made the buttercream icing first so that I could freeze it in layers to make it easier to stack the next morning. I traced the bottom of one of the round pans I was using on parchment paper and copied that 5 times. I then spread the icing on, making it a little smaller than the size of the pan, so the icing wouldn't overflow between each layer of the cake. Then I stacked the 5 icing layers and stuck them in the freezer overnight.

The Recipe:

1 cup butter, at room temperature
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp cream cheese
1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Cream the butter, salt and cream cheese. Slowly add the milk and icing sugar, alternating. Add the vanilla and whip till stiff.

Buttery yum-ness!

Next, I mixed the cake according to the instructions on the box and separated it into 6 bowls.

All the batter, split into 6 bowls - about 1 3/4 cups each.

From there, I dyed each one a different colour. I was originally going to do the colours of the rainbow, but as I got started, I decided to just do Tats' favourite colours.

Thick gel colouring

This step took almost an hour, because I had to mix each bowl individually, and for most of them, had to keep adding dye little by little until I got the right hue. The red was the most frustrating; I had to use so much dye to get it as vibrant as I wanted, and so it took the longest! And poor Jaxson, I took so long with this step, he started getting frustrated and wanting attention, so he decided to open as many drawers as he could! I had to stop a number of times and rush to him to confiscate items - mainly wipes, which he has discovered he can take out of the box and throw all over the living room!

After finally finding the right colours, I baked them two at a time (I only bought two 8in round pans), wiping the pans out well between batches. I was really impressed that the colours stayed true, even after baking! There was very little difference, and i'm excited to see what this cake will look like cut into!

You can really see my handprint in this one, from taking it out of the pan!

It was right as I put the first two in the oven that Jaxson decided it was nap time and walked over to me (yes, he's walking everywhere now) and 'asked' to be picked up. I nursed him for about 5 minutes, and put him in his play pen and he was out in minutes! I couldn't ask for a better son! Perfect timing, as this is the only time sensitive part and I was a little worried about overcooking the cake!

I baked them for about 16 minutes each, and that was perfect! They came out soft and spongey! I was really happy with them.

I let them cool completely and then wrapped them individually in saran wrap and stuck them in the fridge for assembly the next morning.

These steps alone took about 2.5 hours.

The following morning, things went a lot quicker than I was expecting!

I cut the tops off the cake layers, to level them and stacked them on my new cake caddy, alternating with the frozen buttercream icing!

The final layer!

Freezing the icing worked really well for this step - it was easy to just peel off the parchment paper and plop the icing down on the cake layers!

I ended up pushing 4 straws through the stacked cake, to keep it upright, and then just snipping off the extra. I'm glad I did this! Transporting it in the car was a little bumpy, and without those straws, i'm sure it would have fallen down!

I next made the marshmallow icing. This icing is a favourite of mine from growing up and having angel food cakes for birthdays! It's light and fluffy, incredibly easy to spread on a fragile cake, and it tastes amazing!

Fluffy goodness! It also has a beautiful shine to it that looks amazing on the cake!

I iced the cake at my mum's before we left, but waited to decorate it at Twyla's.

In hindsight I wish I hadn't iced it till we were ready to serve it. On our way to Twyla's, it melted a bit... :-(

Decorated, looking a little droopy, unfortunately.

It still tasted amazing, and while the outside didn't look as good as I wanted it to, the layers were really cool and got a lot of oohs and ahhs!

Fun layers!

I have to be honest, I was pretty proud of myself for pulling this off - it looked great on the plate, and Tats was really happy with it. It also tasted amazing!

Tats was stoked!

The night was a big success, relaxed and fun, the cake was a hit, and the night culminated in us cousins singing songs from Frozen and dancing!

Dancing to 'Let it Go' from Frozen

Attempting the Oil Cleansing Method

Oil cleansing has been all over the blogosphere for quite a while now. My mum has actually been doing it since I was in high school, but I was just too put off by the idea (wouldn't oil make my skin more oily?) until recently.

I've been using a natural soap for years now, that I really like, but I thought that now is as good a time as ever for me to try something new like this! I'm already oil moisturizing, so cleansing is a natural step forward.

I know that oil dissolves oil, and I also know that as long as you're careful about which oils you use (both olive oil and coconut oil are comedogenic, so a lot of people break out if they use them, myself included) you should have no issues with this method. Since i'm already oil moisturizing, I know this to be true - the oil you use does make a difference!

From Crunchy Betty:

Jojoba oil: great for all skin types, but especially for acne-prone skin
Sweet almond oil: for all skin types, but especially oily
Grapeseed oil: for all skin types, especially oily
Avocado oil: for dry and aging skin
Sunflower Seed oil: for all skin types
Apricot Kernel oil: for dry, aging, and normal skin
Argan oil: all skin types, especially aging skin. This stuff is very expensive though!
Tamanu oil: for all skin types, but this is also very pricey too.

My oil moisturizer has grape seed oil in it, and my skin has responded really well to that, so I decided that I would try cleansing with it too.

I did a lot of reading, as usual, and found that once again, Crunchy Betty had the best information on this method, in one spot… well two: check out her articles here and here.

I learned that if you can handle it, castor oil is an extremely beneficial addition to your cleansing blend. Castor oil is more dissolving and cleansing, and it apparently has antibacterial properties! Be careful though, because castor oil can be drying, so use less if you have dry skin, and more if you have oily skin!

To start off, I decided to try a 1:1 ratio, which is what's recommended for normal/combination skin. (For dry skin, try 1/3 castor oil, 2/3 other oil and for oily skin try 2/3 castor oil and 1/3 other oil)

The Recipe:

2 tsp castor oil

2 tsp grape seed oil

The Method:

Everything i've read about this cleansing method has said the same thing about the procedure:

1. Put about a quarter size drop of the oil in the palm of your hand. Rub together to warm it up and then massage thoroughly into your face. This method will take off makeup naturally, so don't worry about taking it off beforehand! However, if you're wearing a lot, you may want to put a bit of oil on a cotton ball and gently wipe your eyes to remove the makeup before you cleanse.

2. Soak a wash cloth (microfiber* if you have it, but any clean face cloth will do) in as warm water as you can stand (this will be warmer than you would normally wash your face with, so it can really dissolve the oil) and drape the facecloth over your face for 15-20 seconds. This will help warm up the oils and open up your pores for deep cleaning!

3. Rinse your wash cloth and proceed to gently wipe all the oil off. Repeat until your face is oil free. I have noticed that it never feels like i've got the oil completely off, because my skin feels moisturized immediately. As long as you feel clean and you've washed your face very well, i'm sure you'll be fine.

4. Follow up with your choice of toner (important to close your pores so they won't clog) and moisturizer, if you desire. Some people may not need a moisturizer, but I think that's a personal preference, and really depends on where you live! I definitely need the added moisture here, so I follow up with witch hazel toner and my oil moisturizer (though I have found I don't need as much of it, which is great!)

Quarter sized drop of the oil, and letting the water run hot to wipe off with my awesome, neon microfiber cloth!

I've been using this method for just over a week now and for me, that's usually enough time for my skin to either like something or absolutely hate it. Thankfully, my skin and I are loving it! My face feels so soft and smooth and it looks fantastic, blemish-free. It's also very radiant!

Within the first two days, I noticed that any spots I had had cleared up overnight, and within a week, I even noticed that this has reduced the appearance of blackheads!

I have noticed that the castor oil is drying and I think if I wasn't us using my oil moisturizer blend afterwards, it would be too drying, which is good to know! If I do decide to go with a lighter moisturizer, I will definitely need to cut back on the castor oil.

I have read that there may be an adjustment period as your skin detoxes and gets used to the new regimen. I think this is more true when you've been using chemical cleansers. Since i've been using an all natural soap bar, I didn't have any adjustment (which actually surprised me)! (whew)

*I read that microfiber is better for deep cleaning, and I have tried both and have to say I am sold on microfiber! It does clean nicely, gets the oil off better and more gently than regular face cloths, and if feels so nice and soft!

Note: clean your face cloth (very well) regularly… like every 4 days or so so that the oil doesn't start building up on the cloth and clog your pores!

Homemade Body Butter

Getting back from BC this week made my body go into a bit of shock from how dry it is! It was so nice not needing lotion for a week, and when we got back to Saskatchewan, I needed it with a vengeance!

So I decided to treat myself, and make a nice thick, moisture retaining balm. I found this simple recipe on Wellness Mama, and made my own adjustments to it, to really beef it up.

This is what I came up with:

In a double boiler, I melted:

100g cocoa butter
15g beeswax
30g shea butter
90g coconut oil
25g grape seed oil

I stuck that in the fridge to set a bit*, then added:

A splash of glycerin
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Cocoa butter is ultra moisturizing and is great for treating dry and chapped skin and can also be used to reduce the appearance of stretch marks. It is also high in antioxidants, and so helps heal damaged skin, and protect it from environmental factors.

Shea butter contains a ton of fatty acids that help the skin retain moisture and it's natural elasticity. It also heals dry and chapped skin, and can be used to treat eczema.

Beeswax, my new favourite material, is also incredibly moisturizing. It softens the skin and provides a long-lasting barrier against the elements. Beeswax is also anti-bacterial and aids in cell regeneration, making it a great ingredient for dry, damaged skin.

Coconut oil is another favourite of mine, for everything from food to hair to skin care. It is highly nourishing and softening, it soothes dry skin and even helps to heal and clean wounds as it is high in antioxidants and is also antimicrobial and antiseptic. It also has an SPF of about 7!

Grape Seed Oil is a great moisturizer for your whole body, because it won't clog pores! It's also a great addition to thick lotions to make them a bit more spreadable.

Glycerin actually attracts moisture from the air to your skin, so it is a great additive to lotion. However, you only want to add a very small amount, because it can make your lotion sticky if you put too much in - just a splash is all you need to do the trick!
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After that, I split it into two batches, because I wanted two different scents.

In one batch, I put 10 drops of vanilla 10-fold.

In the other, I added 10 drops of bergamot essential oil and 11 drops of lavender essential oil.

I tried whipping this recipe, as the recipe says to do on Wellness Mama, and I just couldn't get it to whip. I'm not sure if I just didn't let it cool enough before attempting this, or if it's because of the ratio of my ingredients. I tend to think it's the latter, and next time i'll try adding more shea butter to see if that allows me to whip it into fluffy goodness!

Since I had the blender out anyway, I ended up whipping in the essential oils and then pouring the batches into sanitized containers to set completely in the fridge.

This butter is nice and soft and goes on fairly oily, because of the coconut and grape seed oils. Personally, I like this, especially where we're living, because I feel that it leaves a nice barrier on my skin to the dry elements! If, however, you don't like that feeling, skip the grape seed oil (or whichever liquid oil you would normally use). Despite it's oily start, I do find that this stuff absorbs into my skin very quickly!

I've been using it for just a couple days now, and i've noticed a huge difference in the feel of my skin. It's super soft and moisturized! As i've mentioned in earlier posts, I believe the key ingredient for this result is beeswax! I'm in love with it!

*a note on cooling your lotion: I have been doing some reading, because a couple of things I have made, with shea and cocoa butter, have gone grainy when they've cooled completely. Apparently, this is because the fatty butters both heat and cool at different rates, and so end up crystallizing in a way. To fix this, you want to heat the butters up slowly (a double boiler does the trick, especially if you add the ingredients one at a time, starting with the one that will take the longest to melt) and then cool them rapidly (ie. stick them in the fridge right away!). I word of caution with cooling them in the fridge: do not cover them or you'll get condensation in your container and that will reduce the shelf life of your lotion! I have found that blending them (I use a milk frother like the one in the picture above) once they've cooled a bit helps mix the butters better and I end up with a nice creamy lotion!

Pregnancy-Belly Balm!

Since I found out that my friend from Salt Spring Island, Freddie, was pregnant, I have been DYING to test out my own recipe for a pregnancy-belly balm!

Freddie got married on the 20th of March, and we headed out to BC to attend. Since they had a wedding registry, and I figured they'd be getting lots of things for their home, and we won't be there for their baby shower; I decided I wanted to make her baby-related stuff! So Adrian and I started brainstorming ideas that we could afford, and got talking about things that we had when we got pregnant, or really wanted to have. We came up with a fairly sizeable list and then from that, I picked a couple of things that I really wanted to give her. To be cost effective, and because I feel it really comes from the heart, I decided to make everything!

In my third trimester, I made myself (with the help of my wonderful mum) a nursing cover, and I decided to make Freddie one of those as well, because they're really quite easy. We used this pattern, with a couple changes: we made it a little bigger, and added in a second row of boning to keep the fabric off baby's precious face. My grandma, who was up for the weekend, even got excited about this and pitched in!

I also gave them a couple of my homemade lotion bars and some beeswax tea lights so they could have a romantic night to reconnect with each other. This is something that both Adrian and I really needed post delivery, because Jaxson took everything out of us and we started to neglect our relationship.

Homemade lotion bars, set in a muffin cup!

The last thing I made, and this is what I was most excited about it, was a pregnancy-belly balm of my own creation.

Naturally, I did some reading beforehand, but just to see what ingredients were safe for and beneficial during pregnancy. I already knew, from the little bit that i've dabbled with my raw ingredients, what consistency I wanted, and roughly how to get it. I had also bought myself a natural belly balm months ago and really liked the consistency of that, so I looked at the ingredients to get an idea of how they did it.

So I was confident that I could create a balm on my own, without following someone else's recipe. Every ingredient I used was well researched and used for a specific purpose in this balm.

This is what I came up with, and why:

60g Cocoa Butter
50g Shea Butter
20g Beeswax pellets
1 tbsp Coconut Oil
1 tbsp Grape Seed Oil
1 tsp Sweet Almond Oil
1 tbsp Vegetable Glycerin
1 tbsp Aloe
12 drops Tamanu Oil
1 tsp Vitamin E
30 drops Lavender Essential Oil
10 drops Lemon Essential Oil

I melted the butters, beeswax and coconut oil in a double boiler, then removed it from the heat and added the grape seed and almond oil, tamanu oil, aloe, glycerin and vitamin e. I found that the glycerin and aloe caused the oil to start solidifying immediately, because they were more watery and cooler than the rest of the balm. Because of this, I really had to mix it up before I added the essential oils. The essential oils I added bit by bit, and by smell - I added them slowly, smelling along the way, until I felt it was scented well enough (but not so much as to offend a pregnant lady's sensitive nose!).

I stuck it in the fridge, in a sanitized tin to solidify.

Benefits of the Ingredients:

Both Cocoa and Shea Butter are ultra hydrating and healing for the skin. Cocoa butter is supposed to be amazing for stretch marks and both help lock in moisture. Shea butter is ideal for damaged skin and it helps to retail moisture and improve skin elasticity - perfect for a rapidly growing belly! I love both of these butters - shea is much more malleable and liquifies better than cocoa butter. I also find that it absorbs quicker into the skin, but I love the feel of both of them!

Beeswax is also very healing for the skin and I really like it in the lotions i've made as I find it adds extra oomph to the lotion. It's super moisturizing and provides a protective barrier to the skin, locking in moisture. I like beeswax because it really thickens lotions up, helps them solidify faster (for all you impatient people out there, like me) and I can feel the protective barrier on my skin, locking in all the moisture-y goodness!

Coconut oil is also very hydrating, healing and softening, but on top of that, it is supposed to be great for preventing stretch marks during pregnancy. It is also antimicrobial and antibacterial. Coconut oil is a wonder oil in my opinion. It's good for everything, internally and externally. I use it straight as a hair mask and lotion, and I cook with it often. I couldn't even think of not adding it to this!

Grape Seed and Almond Oil I added to liquify the solution a bit and make it more malleable. Both are also super moisturizing. Almond oil in particular is quite viscous and greasy, but that's exactly why I wanted to add it - I wanted that texture in this balm.

Tamanu Oil is a miracle oil that i've just recently discovered and use on my face. It smells mildly of curry, but I found that it blended in very well with everything else, and you can't smell it at all! It's wonderful for dry skin, promotes the formation of new tissue (ultra-healing!) and fades scars. It is also antiviral/septic/bacterial/biotic and is apparently hypoallergenic! I'm obsessed with this oil right now. I love what it does to my face, and I knew right away that it was something I wanted in this balm for its healing powers.

Vegetable Glycerin helps to attract and lock in moisture to the skin. It's also great for dry and damaged skin as well. Glycerin is a wonderful additive to lotions to add a moisturizing boost and help with the itching of dry skin.

Aloe is ultra soothing to the skin, and I used it in this mostly to thin out the consistency and help to make it more spreadable.

Vitamin E helps heal and fade scars and it's also a natural preservative.

Lavender Essential Oil is antiseptic, analgesic, healing, relaxing, promotes cell renewal, and is also one of the safest essential oils - it's good for everything and everyone, including babies! This is my all-time favourite essential oil. I use it every day, directly on my face, in baking soda to freshen our bed, in my baths... everywhere. It's a wonderful, uplifting scent with a myriad of uses and benefits.

I read a lot of mixed reviews about the use of Lemon Essential Oil during pregnancy. Many people say it's safe, some say it isn't. However, the only thing I could find regarding it's safety is that some people may have a bit of skin sensitivity to it, and as it's a citrus oil, it's best not to apply it right before spending time in the sun. With that knowledge, I decided to add just a little bit to this balm. Lemon oil is uplifting. It's antiseptic/fungal/microbial/bacterial as well. It also boosts the immune system, improves circulation, relieves headaches and reduces blood pressure. In my opinion, especially in small quantities, it's a safe oil to use. I also wanted to use this, because Freddie wanted a citrus-y scent, and I know when I was pregnant, one of the only things that helped with my morning sickness was cutting a lemon in half and smelling it! It cut through all the other odours around me and helped block them out.

So there you have it: my well researched, home-made pregnancy-belly balm!

I was very excited that this batch made just a bit too much to fit in the container I was using for Freddie, so I got to keep some for myself! I love it - it's a little greasy, but perfect for a belly balm. It's still just a tiny bit harder than I wanted it to be, but it melts really nicely.

One thing I will say about this is I used aloe juice, and I won't use that in this kind of balm again. It's just too much of a different consistency, and as I used mine, I noticed the balm 'sweat' a bit and so by the time I got to the bottom of the jar, it was really hard and didn't even melt as nicely. I think as I used it, the aloe got pushed out of the butters and evaporated. If I do want to use aloe, I think i'll try experimenting with aloe gel instead. Another change I would make to it is to put in a bit more liquid oils to counteract the hardness of the cocoa butter, in particular.

It does smell amazing though - citrus-y, uplifting... Like liquidy sunshine!

Easy, Silky Lotion Bars

I've been experimenting with lotion of late, and have found myself at both ends of the spectrum in terms of consistency on the skin. The massage butter that I made is amazing, but too oily for a daily lotion. And Jaxson's body butter is gorgeous, but just a little too hard to have in a container - it's difficult to dig it out and it doesn't melt quite as quickly as i'd like it to.

I decided, just for fun, to try making a lotion bar that I read about on Wellness Mama, another blog I really enjoy.

I chose these mostly because I wanted to make something else for my friend, Freddie, for her wedding as a nice way for her and her husband-to-be to reconnect for a romantic night. They're pregnant and I know that reconnecting with Adrian when I was pregnant, and after delivery, was both very difficult and very important. I also thought that these would be easy and transportable, since we're flying back to BC for the wedding.

To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of lotion bars, but after making these, i'm a convert!

I love them! I made the basic recipe and only used a single essential oil, so they would be baby and pregnancy-safe as well (I'm all for multi-use items!).

I tried to find silicone molds, as the blog suggests, but couldn't find them anywhere, so instead I just lined a cupcake tray with paper cupcake liners and that worked beautifully! Not as environmentally friendly, because I can't reuse the paper, but for now and until I find silicone molds, this will do!

Here's the recipe I made:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup shea butter
1/4 cup cocoa butter
1/2 cup beeswax pellets
1 tsp vitamin e oil
25 drops lavender essential oil

I melted the coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter and beeswax in a double boiler, then removed it from the heat and added the vitamin e. I let it cool just a little bit, then added the essential oil, mixed it well and poured it into my cupcake tin. This recipe made 6 good-sized bars!

To help these set, I stuck the tray in the fridge. It didn't take long at all - because of the beeswax, it started setting almost as soon as I poured it into these cups! I left it till the morning, though, and then popped them out and gave one a try! I'm so impressed with it. It's not oily or greasy, but it's really nice and thick and I can still feel it on my skin, an hour later. Very moisturizing, they smell amazing and melt nicely - not too much, but enough to get a nice thin layer on your skin!

I know I say this a lot (I think it's a good sign of good recipes), but I'm going to be trying this again, for sure, and experimenting with different scents.