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Homegrown Collective is a DIY eco-friendly subscription box. Each month has a different theme, and its a great way to learn about different healthy things you can make and use around your home.
Homegrown Collective sent us this box for review purposes. (Check out thereview process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Box: The Homegrown Collective GREENBOX
The Cost: $39 a month plus $9 shipping (Free shipping and free month with annual subscription)
The Products: Green products and projects that allow you to be more self-sufficient.
Ships to: US and Canada (additional costs for Canada shipping – pricing available upon request).
Check out all of my Homegrown Collective GREENBOX reviews, the DIY Subscription Box Directory and the Eco-Friendly Subscription Box Directory!
August’s theme is “the Beauty of Coconut Oil (part two).” Each project in the box comes with a sheet detailing how to use the items included, and providing background on the benefits of the eco-friendly approach. This month, the projects are coconut oil chap stick, coconut toothpaste, and coconut oil deodorant.
I’ve been a long-time lover of coconut oil and I missed out on Homegrown Collective’s original Beauty of Coconut Oil box, so I was really excited to see them do a Part Two box.
DIY Coconut Oil Homegrown Lip Chap
Ingredients: Beeswax, coconut oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil, essential oils of choice (they included lemon and peppermint in this month’s kit).
I can never have too much chapstick – this project was my favorite in the box this month!
Making the chapstick was really simple and I liked the process (it’s really just melting ingredients all together and pouring them in the tubes). It’s supposed to be made last because using the dropper to put the chapstick in the tubes is supposed to ruin the dropper. I wish this fact was listed at the top of the instructions instead of at the bottom, because I definitely made this first (Oops! I should know to read ahead by now!). Fortunately, I was able to salvage the dropper (and I also had an extra from last month’s box to use, too).
However, my issue with this project is that I had a significant amount of excess in the mason jar after filling the chapstick tubes! Seriously, I had enough leftover to make probably eight more chapsticks. I didn’t want to dump so much extra product, but I know I probably won’t keep it around to refill these chapsticks (I don’t even think I’ve ever completely used up a whole tube before), so I just left it in the mason jar for now. I’m hoping to get some more chapstick tubes from a craft store and make use of it so it doesn’t go to waste.
DIY Coconut Deoderant
Ingredients: Coconut oil, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), shea butter, maize starch, lemon essential oil, beeswax (optional as a hardener)
I’ve read about connections between deoderants and breast cancer before, but I haven’t actually tried natural deoderants yet – I guess that’s about to change!
There was only one mason jar in the kit and at this point mine was now full of extra chapstick. Fortunately, I had an extra from last month’s kit, so I was able to use that to make the deodorant. The process for this was very similar to the chapstick, and again I had a significant amount of extra leftover (even more than I actually poured into the container). So, I also have a mason jar half-full of perfectly good, natural deodorant formula.
DIY Coconut Toothpaste
Ingredients: coconut oil, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), sea salt, peppermint essential oil
To be honest, I didn’t end up making the toothpaste. It’s supposed to be kept in a glass jar, which seems like it could be inconvenient, personally. Also, I was already extremely short on glass containers, so I didn’t have one to use to make or to hold the toothpaste in.
(The finished chapsticks and deodorant)
Verdict: Overall, I liked this Homegrown Collective box. I’m bummed that there was more excess chapstick and deodorant product than I actually needed for the projects (I could have easily halved the recipes for both and still have had a little extra, but it would have been a small enough amount that I wouldn’t feel bad tossing the remainder), and if I didn’t have an extra mason jar on hand, I don’t think I would have been able to complete more than one project. All in all, though, I liked the projects and look forward to trying out the things I made! Even something as simple as chapstick feels so much more cool when you know it’s something you’ve made, don’t you think? I’m already excited for the next box!
What did you think of the August Homegrown Collective box? Do you use 100% natural deodorant or toothpaste like this?
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