Can I tell you a secret? I love making bath and body products.

Most of the time they’re insanely easy to make. We’re talking easy enough to make with your four year old and not pull out clumps of your hair easy.

Better yet, the pay off can last for weeks! The ladies in this house are suckers for things that smell amazing and make you feel all pampered. We like to make big jars full of scrubs that the girls happily glop all over themselves in the bath tub. And I’m not going to lie to you, I happily glop them all over myself too.

Since they’re so simple and relatively inexpensive to make, homemade bath and body products are perfect for making in large batches and gifting to friends and family for the holidays. I put together a list of 15 DIY skincare products that would make awesome gifts.

This post was sponsored by Klondike as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central. I received complimentary products to facilitate my review but shoved them in my face all on my own.

I’m a little depressed (and, apparently, really dramatic). If you follow me on Instagram, you know that the girls and I have been obsessed with catching the sunset lately. We make sure we get down to the riverfront about a half hour before sunset so that we can watch the sun dip behind the mountains on the other side of the river.

I just Googled “sunset” to see what time we’d need to get there tonight and found that it sets at 4:48. 4:48! Curse you, daylight savings time!

I already feel myself sliding into hibernation mode. I want all of the cozy blankets, fuzzy socks, and comfort foods. And I don’t want to leave the house. I just want to curl up on my favorite spot on the couch and binge watch TV shows while nibbling a Klondike bar until there’s more sunlight and life on the trees again.

I hate scary movies. I’m a big old chicken and have absolutely no interest in being kept up all night wondering if someone’s creeping in the bushes. I get too little sleep to begin with, thank you very much. My husband happens to love a good scare, but he’s stuck trying to squeeze in episodes of American Horror Story while I get kids to bed or when I have to work at night.

But I also really don’t like to feel like I’m missing out—which is why when it gets to be Halloween time, I like to have a little arsenal of movies at the ready that won’t make me triple wrap my feet under the blankets and run into the girls’ room to check on them every time the cat moves.

I broke some of my favorites up into three categories…

This post contains affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you extra to use them, but I might make a little money for finding them for you.

I’m a big fat Halloween dud. Some people get way into the whole creeptacular decorating thing (I’m specifically looking at my sister, who started decorating for Halloween in August. August!), but I’m usually the last minute scrambler. And the scrambles usually come because the girls start looking forlorn and sighing and saying “We didn’t decorate for Halloween yet!”

This, my friends, is when the mom guilt clicks up to high and the DIY brain shifts to overdrive. Or something. Basically, I freeze momentarily and say: how do I get all of the Halloween decorations for very little money and, like, immediately?

Enter this roundup of DIYs that should take less than ten minutes each… which I totally didn’t put together for my own benefit (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

Pick and choose your favorites (or, you know, the ones with supplies that are easiest for you to access) and take a half hour here and a half hour there to bang them out. By the end of the week, the kids will completely forget that you’re the worst because you’ll suddenly be the coolest.

“Take me to the stair steps!”

I can’t tell you how many times I heard that last week. There was inevitably a tiny index finger raised in the air and a look of pure sass and determination on Ellie’s face. We went away for a few days and she was in love with the hotel pool.

The two little flaws in our whole swimming and relaxing operation? Ellie can’t swim and I completely spaced on bringing any sort of floating device for her so that she could wander around on her own. Instead, I served as her water taxi, making countless trips up and down the pool. We escaped a few shark attacks, floated past a mermaid or two, and used the pool’s jets as “sinks” and “dryers.”

Even better than the pool was the beach, where she was much more free to join her sister on adventures. She may not have dived into the waves to collect rocks like Samantha did, but she collected buckets and buckets full of wet sand.

Needless to say, all of our water activities got pool and beach toys on the brain to better prepare for our next little adventure. And I already know one thing for sure: some baking sand toys are definitely getting added to our gear for my Cutthroat Kitchen loving ladies!