My Nature's Garden Blog Kit

So excited to post this!  A few weeks ago I received my blog kit from Nature's Garden, and received all the materials to make Cocoa Dream Cream.  They describe it as a "luscious & thick scented body cream."  And boy, is that right!  I'm not going to go into all the detail of the instructions, but will give you a quick overview of what I got and how I made it.

This was the kit I received in the mail.  Everything I needed to make this recipe was individually wrapped in this cute little tote bag.

When I opened the tote, here was everything I received... the instructions/recipe guide, almond oil, emulsifying wax, cocoa butter, stearic acid, vitamin E oil, optiphen preservative, fragrance oil, pipettes, and four jars with lids.  Having never made bath/body products, I really couldn't tell you what the different ingredients are, or what they specifically do in the process. The only thing that I had to have to make this was distilled water, a stick blender, thermometer, two pots, and a bowl.

After gathering and thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing everything, I was ready to begin.  I boiled my water for twenty minutes and set aside the required amount.  Meanwhile, I heated up the first ingredients to the required temperature.  Once that was ready, and the water was at it's correct temperature, I mixed the two parts together in my bowl and began mixing with the stick blender.

To be honest, I really worried something was not right, as it took forever for this to thicken up.  I even left it for a while and went out to the grocery store, hoping it would thicken as it cooled, which it did!  The picture above is after I got home and it had cooled.

And that is the finished product.  I put it in the jars and sprinkled a bit of real cocoa on the top.

I absolutely love this stuff!  I kept two jars for myself, and gave two to my neighbor and her daughter.  I have not asked her how they like it, but I sure do.  I'm not a big lotion person myself, but this is really nice after getting out of the pool, when your skin is slightly dried out from chlorine.  I love the smell too!  It almost smells good enough to eat!

Thanks NG for giving me the opportunity to try this!  I am thrilled with how it came out!