Clothes are clean.
Bags are packed.
Alarm is set for 6:00 a.m.
And three superbly convenient new things have been made for my all-day road trip with my mom tomorrow to go tend to my sister’s two little boys while she’s busy having her first baby girl. (There’s also a brother-in-law somewhere in that run-on sentence, but I can’t figure out where he goes yet.)
I highly recommend making these things.
One to help your mood, one to help your hygiene, and one to help your dry hands.
If you’re taking a trip this summer, be sure to pack at least one of these crunchy things for your next road trip. My brother-in-law will thank you.
(SEE! I knew I’d fit him in somewhere.)
Okay, quickly, let’s look at what I had to make for this road trip – because you’ll most definitely want to make them for your next one.
Then at the end I’ll tell you what you can expect around here while I’m out of town. Expect awesome.
Road-Trip Worthy #1: Homemade Hand Sanitizer
I actually posted a recipe way back in September of last year for Homemade Hand Sanitizer.
You can refer to that post, if you’d like, or I’ll give you the exact recipe I used here today – in this bottle that looks like this (fancy, right?):
Inevitably, when you’re traveling by car for hours at a time, you’ll end up in a bathroom that makes you throw up in your mouth a little bit. And you’ll probably get the willies. And wish you could take a boiling-hot bath.
But you can’t. You can, however, use your own homemade hand sanitizer to help mitigate the yucky germs you might run into in bathrooms you’re stuck with (you know, mom, when someone just can’t hold it).
Here’s the recipe again:
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Homemade Hand Sanitizer Recipe
- 1/4 c. aloe vera gel (as pure as you can get)
- 3/4 c. rubbing alcohol (at least 91%)
- 1/8 c. vegetable glycerin (optional) (if omitted, use an extra 1/8 c. aloe vera gel)
- 10 drops essential oil (cinnamon and sweet orange were my choices, but there’s a list of other ideas below) (optional)
Pour everything into your food processor or blender and let it go on high for a minute or two. Bottle and use as you would any hand sanitizer. Keeps for 6 months or more.
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Road-Trip Worthy #2: Whipped Shea Butter
As you may have noticed, the hand sanitizer contains alcohol. Alcohol dries out your skin. Shea butter un-dries out the skin that alcohol dried in the first place.
Plus, there’s just something super comforting about putting on moisturizer/lotion while you’re in the car. No clue what it is. But am I right, or am I right?
Here’s the whipped shea butter I made up today – PERFECT amount for a reused moisturizer jar (approximately 1/2 c.):
This may be the most enjoyable thing I’ve done all week (given that it’s Tuesday and I had a weird stomach flu Sunday and Monday, I’m not sure what that says). But it really was incredibly fun. And easy.
E-A-S-Y.
There will be an entire post dedicated to whipped shea butter soon, that’s how awesome this was. But until then, here’s the recipe I kinda threw together, which yielded a very soft, frosting-like consistency.
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Body Frosting Whipped Shea Butter
- 1/4 c. shea butter
- 2 Tbsp carrier oil (I used sweet almond and avocado)
- 1 tsp vitamin E oil (optional)
- 25 drops essential oil (optional)
On a double boiler (I just used a Pyrex bowl placed in a bowl of really hot water), melt the shea butter together with the carrier oils, stirring well. Once the shea butter is completely melted (remember – do NOT heat shea butter on high heat, or it becomes gritty), place the bowl containing the butter/oils into an ice water bath and cool slightly. Stir in your vitamin E and essential oils (if you’re using them). With a hand mixer, begin whipping the melted shea and oils together. It may take 5-10 minutes before you start seeing a whipped consistency, but it will happen. Once you have a consistency you like, transfer to a lidded container. Should keep 6 months (especially if you use the vitamin E to help preserve).
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Road-Trip Worthy #3: Aromatherapy Car Spray
Frazzled mothers, heed my call.
Make yourself some aromatherapy car spray. Nay, make your heathen children some aromatherapy car spray.
This tiny little addition to your next road trip may be the one small thing that saves your family from complete he-hit-me-first ruination.
For our road trip, I knew we didn’t have to worry about children hitting each other and screaming and singing annoying songs at the top of their voices. (Except for that last part, because I think it’s maybe par for the course that I spend a few hours singing Don Gato as loudly as possible.)
So our aromatherapy car spray, I used a mixture of (and you’re going to love this): homemade vanilla extract, distilled water, and peppermint essential oil. It’s all to help us relax a little, while at the same time waking us up and kick-starting our brains. You can thank the vanilla for the relaxation, and the peppermint for the energy.
Here’s a secret though: Want to soothe the seat-belted beast that is your child(ren)? The secret is sweet orange essential oil.
So instead of vanilla extract and peppermint, you’ll use sweet orange essential oil. Just spray it lightly around the car whenever the kids start acting up.
Pure bliss. I promise.
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Aromatherapy Car Spray Recipe
- 1/8 c. high-proof vodka or rubbing alcohol
- 1/8 c. distilled water
- 30-40 drops essential oil blend (sweet orange or lavender is great for calming kids)
Combine in a small spray bottle. Shake well before using. Don’t spray directly at anyone, just toward the car ceiling, or the back of the car if no one is sitting there. 🙂
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Here’s What’s Coming Up on Crunchy Betty
Ultimately, I have no clue how long I’m going to be in Kansas City. None whatsoever. It depends on how long it takes my sister to birth a baby, and how long it takes my mother to separate herself from her new granddaughter.
My guess is 3 weeks. I will be gone for 3 weeks.
Things may be a little more sporadic around here, but I have so many exciting Crunchy Kids ideas planned for my two adorable nephews. So expect to see several Crunchy Kids ideas and posts in the next couple of weeks.
In addition, the quick and entertaining Brittney is going to fill in for a few posts while I’m gone as well.
You may remember her from such posts as The Awesome PR Rep Who Gave Us Two Giveaway Prizes.
She will be giving you guys all kinds of insider information (remember, she’s in the beauty biz), as well as hosting an incredible giveaway that I’m blown away by. It will happen right here on Crunchy Betty.
Soon.
So stay tuned.
In the meantime, wish me luck on my trek across the boring part of Colorado and Kansas (which part is the boring part of Kansas again?) tomorrow.
It’s going to be a long, long day.
(Thank goodness I have shea butter.)
See y’all soon!
Can you do Cocoa Butter or Mango Butter instead of the Shea Butter for the cream?
Do you sell this Shea Butter hand cream? Thank you!
Take it another step and evaluate the pluses and minuses
of each one item and initiate crossing them away from the lists altogether.
Be careful never to plop the photo facing documented on the frosting.
And I’m not referring to your evryday chocolate chip variety (which
I WOULD gladly eat everyday, with the way. Sprinkle chocolate chips
over top of each one muffin (batter). The dishes
job a large amount of effort to ready, and merely must be put from the oven. Harold Loe,
retired Director in the National Institute of Dental Research,
interview published in Dental Products Report, 1993. Rush
Limbaugh started this and from now on the financial result in Mockingbird has been exposed
in who funds all of the really. Heat the oven to 350 degrees
and with a lightly greased baking sheet, position the cookies about it
utilizing a teaspoon. The rich, melt-in-your-mouth texture comes on the fat.
The internal temperature of yeast breads really should be 210 degrees and has to be at the very least 185 degrees.
turmeric powder as opposed to commercial yellow food coloring or possibly
a few drops of carrot juice. Kids like a lot of cheese, sauce, meat and hot dogs.
Remove the cookie sheet in the oven make them on the wire rack to
cool down. If you want chocolate and caramel, I’m sure you’ll like these.
Bakers discovered very at the beginning that corn starch gave biscuits, muffins,
cakes, shortcakes, pie crusts and a lot notably cookies a finer texture
and even more tender crumb substantially comparison with recipes using flour
alone. A tasty delicious manufactured goods is consumed because of your client is a good solution to
promote repeat sales your next fundraiser. (Flour, baking soda, salt) Once the dry ingredients
are mixed, add them slowly towards the wet ingredients that has a wooden spoon.
Not all cookies and recipes makes use of the identical ingredients which includes spices, sugars as well as the leavening ingredients and even flour type used.
Enjoy everything without feelings of guilt or deprivation, when you may help it.
Do you wish me to acquire a Ho-Ho Mint Mocha so you may
power over the rest of such tips.
Hi, I’ve been looking for an easy no fuss but beautifully smelling hand cream to make, with no joy,… til now!! Thanks so much!
Cheers 😀
I love this whipped lotion recipe and so does my 21 month old dd who I made it for. I made it with olive oil and 10 drops each of chamomile and rosemary. It smells heavenly and works amazingly well for my daughter’s eczema.
I love love love the whipped shea butter. The only problem is I still haven’t been able to get it to come out creamy. The few times I’ve made it to where it looks whipped and creamy but I think I let it get too cold. When I go to use it it’s clumped up. It still spreads on nice but I want that lotion feel/look of it in the container. I have two ideas for the next time I make it.
1) let the mixture chil on the counter for a few hours
2) only put the bowl in ice water for 1 minute.
I used rosehip seed oil instead of the almond. I can’t wait until I’m able to get it looking like the picture above.
Great simple recipe just one question, in regards to Shea butter are you using refined or unrefined?
The whipped shea looks good enough to eat!!! I will be making this soon, is it ok to use it as a moisturiser on the face??
Oh my goodness…just made the whipped shea butter and I swear it was like liquid gold. I purchased shea for the first time from a street vendor in Austin, TX (although after seeing the prices on Amazon I think I’ll have to do that next time….ah well, supporting local vendors is good, too :)). I used jojoba oil and broke open a bunch of vitamin E capsules (enough to make the 1 teaspoon needed). Also used lavender essential oil. I only had a hand micer so after 10 minutes it still wasn’t whipping up and I was getting a headache….so I stuck the bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes and after that it was really easy. After I transfered everything to the container, I was rubbing the spatula, beaters, spoon, all over my body, and scraping the bowl out for all the last bits! It is so lovely looking–light golden, and the texture is unreal…..incredibly smooth but it melts as soon as it’s in your hand. I should have made a triple batch! Definitely recommend making this!
Betty, I’ve been reading your posts for a few months now and I absolutely looooove your blog!!! Keep it up 🙂
What a great idea (the hand sanitizer! I wouldn’t use natural cinnamon essential oil as it’s actually not good for the skin (I found out the hard way with some irritating skin burns) but I could totally see using some other yummy smelling oils
I just wanted to share that I finally made the whipped shea butter and I love it. I used about a 2:1 ratio of lavender and peppermint EOs (I think it was 17 drops lavender and 8 peppermint). The balance is perfect, though I might drop it to more like 13 and 6 for a milder scent next time. I love the calming yet energizing combination. Also, my carrier oil was just plain olive oil – not organic or extra-virgin – since it was handy and I didn’t want to use anything expensive for my first try. Next time, I might try apricot kernel oil, which I plan to try for my OCM (which is still not working for me after 2+ months). I think Betty said it’s one of the good ones for dry skin, so it should work well in a body moisturizer like this.
Hi, Betty! I was just wondering if it’s possible to use the coconut cream you showed us how to make instead of the shea butter? And BTW, thank you so much for posting all these AWESOME tips and recipes 🙂
i lovovvvvvvveee these, im giving the lipgloss as a gift to my friend
Is there a difference between ‘sweet orange oil’ and ‘orange oil’? I would love to make the car spray, I have orange oil on hand but not sweet orange.
Thanks!
Hey Haley,
I know it’s been two years because you asked this question in 2011 ( wow ) but I still researched it and the only difference is that they’re extracted from different parts of the tree. I guess some parts of the tree are sweeter than the other. I hope that answered you question and be sure to check out my dog blog I recently created: blogsbysomedogs.blogspot.com
Thanks for being curious ( I learned something new too! ),
Angelica
I have a question about the hand sanitizer. I doubled the recipe and made it last night. I’m wondering if it is suppose to have the consistency of aloe vera jel much like the stuff you purchase? Mine is liquid and not gelled at all. Just checking.
Thanks.
Yay Kansas City! That’s where I live. It’s wonderful. Not quite as Crunchy as it could be, but I’m working on it!
ok this may sound dumb but i have 2 types of rubbing acohol.
isopropyl and ethyl.
which should i use?
I have questions about shea butter. I want some, but I need to know what kind to get. Unrefined? Organic? There’s a million choices on amazon and I want to choose the best one. So, please enlighten me.
perfect ideas for our road trip from Baltimore to Maine this summer with three children….
Great ideas! And the shea butter looks AMAZING! I will definitely be trying it!
Oopps… about the whipped Shea butter. Can’t wait to try that.
So very excited ab
Travel well and safe! Enjoy your family!