The Homegrown Collective February 2014 Review

   Are you looking for ways to be a little greener?  Maybe you like to do things yourself?  Then you might want to check out The Homegrown Collective Greenbox.  It is a monthly subscription box that brings all the necessary ingredients (and directions!) for three DIY eco-friendly projects.  I am always excited to see what they will come up with.  My February box arrived today (a little late since its March) and I never received tracking so I was a bit surprised to see it.  However I am happy it came today and not tomorrow because I had plenty of time today to tackle these projects!

Confession time, I knew what was in the box.  I peeked at spoilers, I couldn't help myself, but that did not make me any less excited to open up my box.  Everything is always packed really well and I have not had any troubles with damaged products so far (even though there is usually glass).

February's theme was ,"How Sweet it is" and included projects with honey and beeswax.  Last February they also had honey projects but they were different ones.  I was not at all sad to hear what this month's projects were, I mean seriously, who doesn't want to make chapstick and a face/body scrub!  I will admit I had no idea what wood butter was but that is part of the fun of these boxes!


This was my first project this afternoon (ignore the "helping hand" on the side, I had a lot of "help").  I was excited to make some chapstick, I have made some before but with different ingredients and I didn't have the tubes.  I have also never had beeswax in the little pellets before, which I have to say is definitely the way to go!

Here I was stirring the melted mixture.  I used the little dropper that came in last month's box to get it from the jar to the tubes.  That really made it super easy to fill those little tubes. 

Here is my finished product!  I added a little bit of vanilla essential oil (not vanilla extract) to mine which went really nicely with the honey.  I had a little bit left over so I also put some in an old tin I had.  Making chapstick was super fast and I love how easy it is to customize the recipe.  If you have never made chapstick I  would highly recommend you give it a try!


Here are all the ingredients for making a honey face/body scrub.  I was happy to give it a try since I already love sugar scrubs and I use honey in my shave cream.  In case you are wondering it is shockingly simple and easy to make your own sugar scrub!

All you have to do is mix the honey and sugar together.  I added some of the grape seed oil, though that was optional (I may have added a bit much, oops).  This is another recipe that you could easily tweak to your preferences.  The honey makes it super moisturizing and I think I will keep this in my shower so I can use it for my face and body.


And my little helper strikes again!  She really wanted to help her momma today :).  Anyways onto the last project.  Now, I have never heard of wood butter before but this stuff is amazing (and no, it is not for eating)!  Again super easy to make, although like the first project you will have to use the stove.  I poured mine into an empty lotion tub, but next time I will try my silicon mold so I will have a bar to use.  Also supplied were four wood discs to make your own coasters.  Sanding the discs was probably the hardest part of all the projects, so pretty user friendly.

Here are my before and after pictures of my coasters and as you can see the wood butter really does make a big difference!  It really brings out the color and should help protect them.  You do not have to stop at the coasters, you can use this on wooden kitchen utensils and furniture!  I only made a little batch, but a little goes a long way, so I think tomorrow I will do my kitchen utensils.

Ta Da! Here are my finished projects and they are all made with grape seed oil, honey, beeswax, and sugar.  I love that they show several projects using similar ingredients (and I even keep most of these on hand).  

Once again I really enjoyed the projects that The Homegrown Collective Greenbox sent.  It seems to ship at the very end of the month, which is fine as long as you know that.  These boxes start at $39 plus shipping and go down in price with a longer subscription.  I didn't do a valuation since it would be hard to accurately total the ingredients up.  I think the value of this box is definitely in the information and having everything put together for you.  I love this box and my only complaint is that sometimes it is slow hearing back from their customer service.  However that said I have yet to be disappointed in the box itself!

Disclosure I received this box at a discounted rate for reviewing purposes.  I did not receive any monetary compensation for this review.  Post may contain affiliate links.  All opinions are 100% my own.





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