This holiday season I discovered Kiss Naturals. I really love their kits and if you have little ones like me I know you will, too! Kiss Naturals makes DIY kits which come with everything needed to make your own natural lip gloss, perfume, soap and bath fizzies. A bit about Kiss Naturals:

At Kiss Naturals, we believe that Nature got it right the first time. We don’t add fillers, additives, dyes or synthetics to any of our products. We simply use Nature’s ingredients in their purest form.

I reviewed the lip balm kit. My girls LOVE “chop stick” as they call it. However, I have heard horror stories about the crud that can be found in the stuff you buy from the store and half the time I can’t stand the synthetic scents. The kit includes:

A fun all-natural do it yourself kit that makes 10 amazing lip balms! This treat for your lips contains 2 bottles of pure essential oils, Shea butter, Safflower oil and Beeswax in pre measured bottles. You simply melt the beeswax, safflower oil and shea butter (on stovetop or in the microwave) then once they melt get creative and start adding the essential oils of your choice! A great treat to make at birthday parties or to share with friends and family!

Lip balms are ready to use in 30 minutes!

Our kit came with orange and peppermint oils. I’m a sucker for peppermint so I was as excited as the girls to get these made! This was really easy to put together. I have to recommend you may want to use some disposable bowls for this. I’m sure you can clean everything up, but it is a bit of a greasy mess. The beeswax took a tad longer to melt then directed in my microwave, but I’m sure that will vary. Finally, don’t take your time with the final pour, the balm starts to harden up quick, as soon as you add the flavor you need to have the containers ready.  The end result was 10 little containers of lip balm that we love to use. The girls gave a few away to friends and grandma and we kept the rest. I want to try a few more of these kits for sure!

Kiss Naturals is letting one of my readers win a kit of their choice to try as well! With the count down to Christmas coming up, I won’t promise Marie will have these out in time – although, mine arrived in about a day. If it doesn’t get there in time for Christmas, no worries this will still make for a fun project during the holiday break.

Do as many of the below as you wish and leave a separate comment for each one:

• Visit Kiss Naturals and comment here on which kit you would love to buy if you won.
• Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post.
• Follow @kissnaturals on Twitter or become a Fan on Facebook and comment that you did.
• Tweet this giveaway
• Stumble this giveaway
• Use other forms of social networking to spread the word about this giveaway.
• Subscribe to my feed to stay up to date with the latest from Eco-Office Gals.
• Buy anything from Kiss Naturals and comment 5 times that you did! Don’t forget to use the coupon code! (I will confirm)

The deadline for entering is Wednesday 12/22/10 at 8am EST at which time one winner will be randomly chosen.  Please don’t forget to leave a separate entry for each one of the above that you do and any entries that show obvious laziness i.e. a simple “Thanks for the great giveaway” will not be published therefore not counted. It’s just not fair for the people that do know how to follow simple directions. US & Canada residents only. Thanks!

(In compliance with the new FTC Guildlines, please note that this is a sponsored post.  I was given these products to test and review free of charge.  However, I was not paid for the review and the opinions are my own.)

And the winner is..

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Green Gift Giving: Kiss Naturals

Probably around a year ago I “met” Arie Moyal on Twitter a fun and resourceful guy that always seems to be moving from one spot on the map to another. Well, as he packs up and relocates once again, this time to the UK, he is making one last swing around the US via rails.

I’ll be traveling around the USA by train starting in New York on December 27, 2009 and ending in Boston on January 10th , 2010.

I figured since I’m doing this anyway why not add a social change/charity aspect to it and make it fun?
I also thought that since the holidays can be tough on people some cheer could be useful and what better way than to spread it with hugs?

And that’s how I came up with the HugTrain!

8 stops in 15 days including Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Atlanta and Washington D.C. spreading holiday cheer and raising money and awareness about mental health!

I loved that one person could be so inspired to lift people up that I had to see how I could help get this off the ground. Still in the baby stages, HugTrainUSA has a home at HugTrain.org, Twitter & Facebook. All of these platforms will be growing fast since there are only 16 days until departure! There is still a lot to do and so much help needed from each and everyone of us! How can you get on board the HugTrain? Here are a few things we need help with.  If nothing on this list fits into your skill set, maybe you can do a blog post? Tweet about #HugTrainUSA? Show your support by becoming a FB Fan? Are you on the route? Meet Arie at a stop near you and donate a few dollars or just share a HUG and take a picture to share on the site! Bring all of your friends with you, too! Pending confirmation, all donations will go to Mental Heath America.

There is something we can all do to keep HugTrainUSA on track, no effort is too big or too small, so please show your support this holiday season.

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Are You On Board #HugTrainUSA

How’s your Christmas shopping going? I haven’t even scratched the surface, but that’s nothing new for me.  If you are in need of a few fresh ideas there are several great Green Gift Guides already available around the blogosphere.  So, rather then reinvent the wheel, or bore you with strictly business related finds, I thought I would share some link love and feature other bloggers guides!  They’ve already done all the hard work for me.  Enjoy their great finds!

• Green Living Ideas – Green Gifting For The Holidays
• Nature Moms – Green Christmas
• The Green Parent – Green Gifts That Don’t Cost A Cent!
• Green & Clean Mom – 2008 Green Holiday Gift Guide
• Z Recommends – The 2008 Z Recommends Mostly Green, Pretty Cheap Holiday Gift Guide
• Moms In A Blog – Green Holiday Gifts
• Eco Etsy – Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts For Him
• We Can Be Green – Gift Guide

Do you have a Green Gift Guide add it below for us to check out!

Happy Holiday’s!
Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

It’s a Green Christmas around the Blogoshpere!

Chloe & Abby 2008

Chloe & Abby 2008

So, time to take a little step away from green business and get into the holiday season.  We decorated our Christmas tree over the weekend.  The kids had fun putting all the ornaments on while I scrambled to grab the more delicate decorations from their grasp.  We did multi-colored LED lights and that angel hair stuff… not really my style, but the kids loved it and it’s still pretty.  I’ve been grabbing boxes of candy canes here and there, my son, Sebastian, putting his up top out of the Chloe & Abby’s reach.

This is our first Christmas in our new house which is really kinda neat!  We’ll make cookies and fudge and my husband will be home from working in Texas, wanting his favorite Champagne Shrimp Pasta. It will also be my first Christmas since my best friend, Dez passed and a time to reflect on memories of my grandparents, also recently passed.  It’s a season that really gets mixed with emotions and memories. Through every memory, the Christmas tree stands… in the living room, witnessing the good and the bad… the happiness and sorrow.

I was given the opportunity to read the book “A Tree’s Christmas” by James Andrew Bowen over the last two nights.  A short childrens’ (tween) book written about a family’s Christmas, narrated by the Christmas tree.

The summary (from the site):

Did Anne dream this story of the talking Christmas tree, or could it be real? You must decide for yourself. The story starts when a love-filled family’s Christmas in the country is over. The Christmas tree’s decorations are gently removed. Anne, her dad and their dog, Lucky, take the tree outside and lay it down in the snow-covered garden. That night, to the amazement, surprise and delight of the trees around the garden, the Christmas tree begins telling the exciting story of its wonder-filled adventures inside the family’s home during the Christmas season. All night, the trees listen as the Christmas tree tells its stories, and then…

“A Tree’s Christmas” will inspire children of all ages to appreciate anew the wonders of a family Christmas, and how the tree, at the center of it all, can play an even more meaningful role in the celebration than anyone can imagine. And, as the Christmas tree tells of its adventures, readers will come to understand the importance of leading a rich, full life that makes a difference – no matter what others say.

It’s a story that can be told over and over every Christmas, for generations to come, and still have genuine meaning for all who read it.

This book was such a sweet story to read during the holiday season.  Written so innocently from the perspective of a tree that is trying to understand traditions and human lives it has been brought into during the last season of it’s own life. This will be a definite read to Chloe and Abby in a couple of years (they’re still a little too young) and my son may like it if they make a video game out of it! LOL! He’s just not the voluntary reading type, but what can you expect from a 13 year old boy… he didn’t even want any part of the picture I took!

So, if you’re looking for a great Christmas book with a different twist on the holiday, you may want to purchase “A Tree’s Christmas” and reflect on your family from the angle of the tree.  Enjoy!

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A Tree’s Christmas: Book Review