When in doubt, we always choose homemade beauty gifts! We’ve got the classics—soap or sugar scrub—but also the finer, more surprising recipes like perfume or body conditioner. You can choose a couple of our ideas and make them in a big batch to share will all your loved ones.
Pack in WECK jars or small tins with a pretty bow and a touch of greenery, and voilà! You’ve reached the perfect balance between thoughtfulness and frugalness! Here are some of our favorite homemade beauty gifts for this holiday season:
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Homemade Soap Gifts
Homemade soaps are pretty, functional, and smell great. Try your hand at making melt-and-pour soap with cocoa-mint, herb and citrus glycerin, or rose-vanilla projects. Or get started with cold press soap!
These soap bars check all the boxes that make a good gift, plus they’re excellent for making in big batches when you’ve got a long list and no more inspiration.
Clear glycerin is perfect for making festive soap, as you can put pretty much anything inside! Citrus and herbs look particularly pretty, if you ask us.
This soap can be made in big batches in no time with this easy melt-and pour-technique. Bundle two or three together for a lovely stocking stuffer.
With almond milk, vanilla and clay, this soap is gentle on the skin, which makes it perfect for winter, and surprisingly easy to make in bigger batches.
Homemade Lip Balm Gifts
Lip balms are easy to make on the cheap, and can be customized with different flavors, scents and colors. Try DIY Tinted Raspberry Lip Balm, Lip-Plumping Cinnamon Lip Balm, Green Tea SPF Lip Balm, or Honey Lip Balm.
5. Creamy DIY Lip and Cheek Stain
Here comes the perfect multitasking beauty product to give your BFF! You can play around with the beet root powder to get the color intensity you love.
This color will most likely look good on everyone! But what we like even more is the dreamy, creamy texture of this DIY lip balm and just how easy it is to make.
This DIY vegan lip balm swaps plant-based wax and coconut oil for beeswax. Customize it with plant pigments for color or your favorite essential oils.
Homemade Lotion + Moisturizer Gifts
Lotions and moisturizers are a must-have during the dry winter months; stock your friends and family up with all-natural, homemade versions like Whipped Green Tea + Coconut Oil Moisturizer, Lavender-Calendula Healing Hand Salve, Homemade Lotion in the Blender.
And for those who have little ones, this Whipped Coconut + Shea Baby Butter will soothe baby bums.
Body conditioner is where lotion and soap meet to create the most wonderful, hydrating product for dry skin. And everyone I know has dry skin in winter, so…
This DIY sensitive skin face moisturizer is packed with hydrating and anti-inflammatory ingredients like chamomile, shea butter and sea buckthorn oil.
Did you know you could use essential oils on nails? We love this blend for the cuticles, and it makes a great gift next to a couple of non-toxic nail polish bottles in trendy colors.
Winter can be brutal on your hands. If you’re suffering from dryness, painful cracks, and redness, this homemade honey hand balm will help.
Homemade Bath Gifts
This Homemade Rose Milk Bath couldn’t be easier, or prettier. Stock up on nice bottles to gift it in. Great for teachers, bosses, or those who could just use a little pampering. Throw in this Refreshing Rose Water Toner and make it a rose-themed beauty gift basket!
Bathtime enthusiasts will also love Rose-Vanilla Bath Bombs or De-Stress Aromatherapy Bath + Shower Tablets or these recipes:
Who doesn’t love bath bombs? They’re always fun to get and even more so when they come with glitter. We like that you can pack a dozen of them as a bigger gift or just add the one as a stocking stuffer!
The absolute easiest thing you could make! The bath salts look beautiful and they’re super relaxing to use. Buy a huge bag of Epsom salt and knock out all of your homemade gifts!
A great excuse to take time for yourself and enjoy a relaxing soak in the tub. Use this recipe for sensitive skin. Your friends will appreciate this gift!
Homemade Scrub Gifts
Scrub-a-dub-dub with these fragrant homemade exfoliating scrubs: Coconut-Coffee Scrub Cubes, Rose and Chamomile Facial Scrub, Ginger Detox Scrub, and Sugar Scrub Cubes.
Both guys and gals can benefit from these sugar scrub bars—they work wonders against dry skin! No need to break the bank at LUSH, you can make them yourself.
Maple and brown sugar, vanilla coffee or pumpkin spice? Why pick just one when you can make them all to mix and match for an easy, cost efficient homemade gift.
Moisturizing like a body butter, yet polishing like a scrub, this whipped body scrub might as well be a miracle product. Since we love it so much, we think your friends and family will, too.
Lip scrub is the ultimate stocking stuffer! You can make a slightly bigger batch to split in tins, print or handwrite a pretty label, and you have a small gift for all your girlfriends!
19. Shea Butter Body Scrub
This moisturizing shea butter body scrub is all the love one’s skin could ask for. Shea and cocoa butter both add their benefits and their divine scents.
Homemade Perfume Gifts
Perfume is so expensive, and it’s one of those things you rarely splurge on for yourself. Gift a homemade perfume, body spray, or oil (here’s a list of easy ones to make) in a lovely little container, and the recipient will think of you every time she uses it.
How cool would it be to have your best friend or sister wear a perfume you made yourself? If this idea tickles your fancy, you should consider making this beeswax-based solid perfume for the holidays!
A refreshing treat for any woman! It’s lightweight and beautifully scented to remind you of summer.
Not everyone has the same taste in perfumes, nor should they! Try your hand at making essential oil blends that suit all your friends’ personalities with this customizable formula.
It’s amazing how a quick spritz and a deep inhale can be just the thing to pick you up out of an afternoon slump. The orange flower water used for this body spray does just that!
Homemade Skincare Gifts
Facial oils can be expensive but the DIY method is much more cost effective! This recipe is ideal for aging skin and would make a thoughtful gift.
The oils in the cleanser help pull out the oils in your skin from makeup and sebum without actually stripping the pores like a more astringent cleanser might do, which makes this an ideal gift for any skin type.
Want even more homemade beauty gifts? Take your pick from our most popular homemade beauty recipes!