November 24, 2009

DIY Lip gloss

DIY lip gloss
Good I still had these candy tins. They couldn't be better. CURIX has the word "cure" in it as M. pointed out...

We had a quiet and relaxing weekend - so nice for a change... There was lots of reading, playing, talking and there was... DIY lip gloss, a special request from big girl M.

She found the recipe in a book she has. "The Girls' Book - How to be the Best at Everything", by Juliana Foster. Though at first I didn't like the book - mainly because of its title, I guess - it's a fun read, I admit. And the DIY lip gloss definitely is one thing we, the three girls, liked doing. It's a fun and simple activity which you can do with kids of any age. If you google DIY lip gloss, you'll come across many recipes, but they all come down to the same principle: mixing petroleum jelly with coloring and flavoring of some sort, usually Kool-Aid, but you'll find recipes calling for honey or mint as well.

Since we didn't have petroleum jelly we used Aquaphor which is more or less the same anyway. Ever since little H. was diagnosed with food allergies (which explained the severe eczema she'd suffered from) Aquaphor has been a staple in our household. We went through tubs and tubs of the greasy stuff when she was a baby. Basically, I had to rub her skin with it at every (!) diaper change and after every bath. Luckily the eczema has gone now - but not the Aquaphor...

Since we didn't have Kool-Aid either we used grenadine syrup instead, and as we went we also added a tiny bit of Jello dissolved in hot water, to boost the color and to get the consistency right since we accidentally poured in too much syrup.

The result you can see in the picture. Our lip gloss looks like strawberry frozen yogurt, it smells like strawberry frozen yogurt and it tastes like it. Every morning now, before heading out M.'s been putting some on. I secretly used it a couple of times too and it's actually really good and gives a subtle shine to your lips.
No chapped lips this winter, that's for sure!

Now, if you intend to make lip gloss with a three year old I'd like to warn you. Do not leave a three year old (correction: two three year olds) by themselves with lip gloss! Really! You shouldn't!
When M. was three, we had a friend of mine and her little girl over for dinner. The girls had been playing dress-up all night and while the parents were talking and finishing dessert, M. and her friend went back upstairs to play. All was quiet. Too quiet as it turned out - when it's that quiet, it's time to go check, we now know!
When at some point our guests wanted to go, we asked the kids to come downstairs. When they finally did, we couldn't believe what we saw. What did we see? We weren't quite sure. They both looked like they'd been thrown in the water - they had their hair all wet, they had their face all wet. At least, we thought it looked wet. We suspected they'd played with water in M.'s room, so I immediately went upstairs to see what happened in M.'s room. But all I found there were empty lip gloss tins scattered over the floor - a present Margot got for her birthday from another friend. Turned out their hair and faces weren't wet but GREASY! The girls hadn't found better than to rub their faces with lip gloss and to smear it into their hair as well. I felt so embarrassed but it was hilarious at the same time. I didn't know whether to laugh or not... My friend however didn't seem amused at all...
We got the stuff out. It took several shampoos, I believe we even used dish washing liquid in the end. But we got it out...
And when our three year old finally was in bed that night, K. and I had a really, really good laugh...

Note: This is how me made our lip gloss: Put 1 tbsp of Aquahor in microwave save container - heat for about 30 sec to make soft. Stir in grenadine syrup, little bits at a time up to 1tsp. Dissolve a 1/2tsp of jello in a little bit of hot water. Add to the mixture and stir until the desired color and consistency obtained. Put in a small container with lid. Place in the fridge to harden - about 1 hour - and ready. We keep ours in the fridge in between uses.
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