Add a personal touch to your holidays by crafting your own body care products with raw materials available at the Wedge. It is fun and easy to make your own lip balms, salves, herbal infused body oils, bath salts, perfumes, clays and herbal sachets. This holiday season we are stocking a selection of raw materials, containers, and books for your creative needs.

Oils and butters are the main ingredients of lip balms, salves, and body oils. Choose from the following oils: sweet almond, apricot kernel, avocado, coconut, grapeseed, jojoba, and sesame. Jojoba oil, which is actually a liquid wax, is a favorite of mine because it is nearly identical to the oil our own skin naturally produces, making it an excellent moisturizer. Jojoba also soaks in readily and will not go rancid over time like other oils. It makes a great base for perfume oils. One of the most popular oils used in body care products is sweet almond oil. Try this light, penetrating oil in an herbal infused massage oil. Try various butters like cocoa butter (which smells like chocolate), jojoba butter, mango butter, or shea butter to add extra richness and texture to your creations. These butters are great additions to lip balms or salves.

We stock a variety of essential oils from Aura Cacia, Simplers, and Wyndmere to scent your products. Try blending your own essential oils (using base, middle and top note oils together) to create scents that really jive with your aura and individual healing needs. Base note scents like frankincense, myrrh, patchouli, sandalwood, vanilla, or vetiver establish a well rounded, great smelling perfume. Next, add middle notes like clary sage, geranium, rose and ylang ylang. Finally, add top notes like roman chamomile, lavender, lemon, or neroli. The Complete Book of Essential Oils an Aromatherapy by Valerie Worwood is a great source for exploring the multiple uses of essential oils and gives recipe ideas for blending oils.

Look for a variety of containers to bottle your products. We have plastic, stainless steel and aluminum jars available in sizes ranging from .5oz to 4oz for packaging salves, salts or creams. We have a selection of glass and aluminum bottles in sizes ranging from .125oz to 8oz for bottling oils, sprays and perfumes. Make your own lip balms and package them in tubes or small pots. Atomizers are also available for fine misting perfumes.

How about blending up your own spice combinations from our bulk herb department? We have a huge selection of bulk herbs to satisfy most any taste. We stock empty glass containers for filling too. Making your own fragrant and healing herbal sachets or pillows is another option.

Salves and lip balms are made by melting together oils and wax. Essential oils can be added for scent and therapeutic purposes to the strength that you desire. You can use simple recipes below to get started, or check out our selection of product making books for more recipes.

• 3 parts oil (sweet almond, avocado, cocoa or shea butter, or a blend)
• 1 part beeswax
• essential oils, 15-40 drops (more or less, depending on size of batch and scent desired)

*for a softer or harder salve, use less more or less beeswax. A 7:1 ratio of oil to wax makes a softer salve.

Melt the oil and beeswax together in a double boiler on low heat, or melt in a glass dish in the microwave. When the beeswax is melted, turn off the heat, add essential oils, stir and pour into your containers (cap containers immediately so that volatile essential oils do not escape). Let cool and enjoy.

Salves can be used as ointments for skin healing, on dry hands or feet, or on sore muscles (a combination of peppermint and rosemary is great for achy muscles). Try infusing bulk herbs into an oil first and use the infused oil to make your salve for extra therapeutic benefit.

• 2.5 parts oils (any oil you choose, the butters are great)
• 1 part beeswax
• essential oils, 3-15 drops per tube or pot

*for a softer or harder balm, use less or more beeswax.

Melt the oil and beeswax together in a double boiler on low heat, or melt in a glass dish in the microwave. When the beeswax is melted, turn off the heat, add essentials, stir and pour into your containers (cap containers immediately so that volatile essential oils do not escape). Let cool and enjoy.

• 1/8 oz jojoba oil
• 30-40 drops of essential oil blend
• Herbal Infused Body or Cooking Oils

Fill a glass jar (make sure it is dry) with dried herbs of your choice and pour the oil of your choice over the top, completely covering the herbs. Let sit for about 2 weeks, strain out the herb and bottle. Slightly heating the oil and herb to 125 degrees (or sit it in a sunny window) will infuse the herb more quickly.

Mix equal parts Sea Salt and Epsom Salts. Add body or essential oils. Consider using lavender and rosepetals or eucalyptus and seaweed for a silky finish.

• 1/4 cup Cinnamon Sticks, broken into small pieces
• 1/4 cup whole Allspice
• 1/4 cup whole Cloves
• 1/4 cup dried Orange Peel
• 1/4 cup whole Star Anise
• 1/4 cup whole Nutmeg (break into pieces with a hammer)

Combine all ingredients and store in containers.Tie it up with a holiday ribbon and attach a card-makes a great gift.

You will find a variety of glassware, pottery, and hats from local artists. Select a beautiful hand blown glass vase made by local artist Andrew Thompson, or a hand thrown ceramic bowl or mug from local artist Steve Lloyd.

This year we are featuring hand woven fair trade African shopping baskets. These really make shopping fun! They are durable and hold a lot of groceries.

We also have a large variety of candles. Look for 100% beeswax candles from Santa Fe Candles and hand painted candles from South Africa.

Search our selection of journals, calendars, date books, CD's, DVD's and books for other great gifts.

Local hand made soaps from Bryn Mawr and DungLaoghaire make great stocking stuffers.

Look for a selection of frankincense and myrrh body care products, candles and incense from Zum.

Scent your rooms with essential oils by diffusing them in cold air nebulizers, electric or candle diffusers.

Add energy to your holidays with Guayaki yerba mate, now available in bulk, try regular yerba mate or Mocha Maca blend. Make it a ceremony and sharing experience with a fair trade mate gourd set, which includes a bombilla and mate.