Animal Kingdom Secrets!

Secrets, Cool Stuff, and other Tips
1. "Miss Devine" - When walking between Africa and Asia, look along the path into the woods to find "Miss Devine" a costumed entertainer.

2. Goofy and Friends Fishing - Location: Camp Minnie-Mickey
As you walk toward Camp Minnie-Mickey you may not notice the old watering hole where you will see fisherman Goofy and some of his closest friends enjoying a lazy fishing trip. Look for this watering hole just after crossing the large bridge that brings you to Camp Minnie-Mickey. It's one of those places where you just may find yourself relaxing along with Goofy.

3. Shortcut, Secret Path - that may be less crowded. More easily found when exiting Its Tough to Be a Bug (See also post #57) Courtesy of Robo
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...le-Paths_1.jpg

4. Safari Amber - AK own beer. Can be found at Dawa Bar.

5. Whiz Quiz At AK at Raffiki Planet Watch in the men's room where all the animal faces are, you can take a Whiz Quiz. While standing at the urinal there's a few questions about other animals' bathroom habits. You have to wash your hands to get the answers. It's not that big a deal, but it's different.

6. Recycling Game - after getting off KRR and having a ice cream before going into Maharajah Jungle Trek we saw some CMs off to the (left)side. They approached my DD8 and asked if she wanted to play a recycling game. She did. They tried to get other guests to play but no one else would. So my DSis and I played too. Basically we threw empty plastic bottle into a basket. The one with the most in won. But then we were all given special Disney recycling pins and a certificate. They called it Recycle Basketbottle and the certificate was presented by the DAK Custodial Team.

7. No standing for Lion King and Nemo - Get a seat outside of either the Lion King or Nemo and wait until the doors open to just walk in without having to stand in line for a lengthy period. Works with any attraction where they unload one group and load another one. When you see the group exiting, you join the group going in
8. Lost Land - If you look at the signs for Animal Kingdom, there is a dragon among the animals on the bottom. This was supposed to represent "Beastly Kingdom," a land of the park with mythical creatures that was planned but never developed. (Maybe we got Dinoland USA instead.)
[B]9. Dawa Bar [/B]-Across from the Dawa Bar is what appears to be an old fort. Don't assume, as I did, that the area's off limits--there are actually tables and chairs in there!

10. RT 498 - The highway sign in Dinoland is route 498 (park opened in April 1998)

11. Water Fall - On the path, as you walk to get to the FOLK, there is a bridge that you walk over. On the right side of the bridge, if you look over the side to the left, you will see what appears to be a waterfall. If you look closely, it is actually a dinosaur with the water coming out of his mouth.

12. Coke innovation - In Harambe, you might spy a genuine Coke bottle perched atop a utility pole as an insulator for a power line.

13. Pizzafari Rooms - The bright colors are eye-catching of course, but stop in *before* the lunch crowds gather so that you can study the different rooms with their ornate murals, walls, and ceilings. Can you identify which room is which? The Home Room, Nocturnal Room, Upside-Down Room, Camouflage Room, Four Seasons Room, and Bug Room.

14. Greybeard - Michael Eisner told Jane Goodall to pick a place on the Tree of Life for a Chimpanzee and one would be sculpted. She chose the entrance outside of ITTBAB so everyone would be able to see David Greybeard; the first chimp she ever observed. You will notice he is more detailed than the other animals--multicolored (grey beard), and there is a plaque next to his image describing him.

15. Tusker House--At the Tusker House Restaurant in AK, you can hear kitchen noises if you sit in the outside dining area. It sounds like dishes clanging together, sweeping up broken glass, etc.. This is a recording, but it's funny to see how people react when they first hear the sounds.

16. Animal Rocks - the rocks in the water on the way to Kilimanjaro Safari ride in AK as you go over the bridge, look like animals. Saw one shaped like an elephant and one like an alligator.

17. Prayer Scarves - The mythical land of Anandapur in Asia - note the authentic prayer trees, draped with both faded and new scarves that commemorate dead loved ones.

18. Temple Mountain - Look at the little temple in front of Expedition Everest. Find a vantage point where these tiny temples form the exact shape of the mountain behind them.

19. Bug holes - While on the Discovery Island Trails, look for a hidden, shaded rock. In the rock are several small holes that appear to have been bored by bugs. Peep through these holes and each homes in on one or more specific animal carvings on the Tree of Life.

Make your own candles!!

When I first got into the DIY Lip Balm thing I ordered 5lbs of wax pellets. I figured with that many I could use some to make candles with as well. I finally got around to doing it, it only took forever... But the results were well worth it, now I have some lovely beeswax candles to use!

it was a dark and stormy night...mua ha ha ha

To do this, you'll need:
1) stove
2) pan to boil water in (with water!)
3) pyrex measuring cup (mine is 2cups)
4) beeswax
5) wicks and tabs, and needle nose pliers
6) jars (i used 8oz widemouth mason jars (they come in 4 packs at walmart).
7) pencil with an eraser
8) popsicle sticks/toothpicks/skewers (anything that will span the mouth of the jar)

Step 1: melt the wax.
To do this, i put my measuring cup full of wax (over the 16oz line on the cup) into the EMPTY pan, and then filled the pan around it with water so it didn't splash out.

Just boil the water on high until all the wax is melted. I will say this step took a long time, eventually i got a wooden skewer and started stirring the blob of unmelted wax to hurry it along.

Step 2: prime the wick & assemble the tabs 

you can buy both "primed" and "unprimed" wicks online, as well as the tabs (those little metal discs you seen in the bottom of the candle) for pretty cheap. I got the unprimed kind, because they are a lot cheaper and you can cut whatever length you want (and they will be primed with the same wax as your candles). All you'll need to do is while the wax is melted dip the wick and hold it as long as you can so it can suck up some of the wax, and then take it out and hold it straight so it dries. This is so when the candle burns there is already wax there, it's not just burning straight cotton wick. 

To assemble the wick and tab, insert the wick through the hole in the tab, pull it all the way through to the end, and crimp the end of the tab closed using the needle nosed pliers. these are to hold the wicks in the candle - i guess you don't *have* to use them, but when your candles burn down and are all liquid it's good to have them there to stabilize the wicks.

Step 3: Put wicks in jar

I dipped the tab of each wick (after it was assembled) into the hot wax and used that to stick it to the bottom of the jar. it worked pretty well. These jars do really well with three wicks, narrower jars should just have one. I wish a had a pencil at this point, as it was i had to use my fingers to press the tabs to the bottom of the jar, and that wax was hot! and my fingers kept getting in the way - narrower jars will HAVE to have something like a pencil, you'll never get your hands in it.

 Step 4: stabilize the wicks

Now, i didn't think to do this ahead of time, and i wish i had. I was kind of winging this whole process, and it never occurred to me that my nice stiff primed wicks would melt when the hot wax was poured in, and they all tipped over. Save yourself some trouble; do this ahead of time. I used some more wooden skewers to hold the wicks up, but you could use toothpicks or popsicle sticks. I know they sell "wick stabilizers" on amazon if you wanted to get really technical, but 4 toothpicks in a H formation over the mouth with the wick in the center will be just fine. 

Step 5: pour the wax!

very very VERY carefully pour the wax into your jars. i like mason jars because...well...they're just awesome. Also they can handle the super hot wax you're putting in without batting an eyelash, so (unless they just came from the freezer...) no risk of them shattering and showering wax on the counter.

Step 6: trim the wicks, and LIGHT EM UP!

Beeswax does tend to change color a little bit as it cools - it started out this buttery yellow but when it was done cooling it had returned to a nice golden honey color. You can use the same procedure with Soy or Paraffin wax. Beeswax can be expensive (i got mine for $10/lb, and that was a good price)...soy would by my second choice (and better for the wallet at about $1/lb). Paraffin works, but it's less hippy-friendly. I would suggest if you want to make colored or scented candles, use Soy - beeswax has it's own honey color and scent that would overpower others. Just make sure you're using candle-safe colors (food coloring is flammable!!). 

The other nice thing about using mason jars for this, is that with a little bit of twine or pretty fabric and the lid reattached these would make EXCELLENT christmas presents! I'm thinking of getting a bunch of soy flakes and replacing all of my scented (i.e. yucky) pillar candles we use when we lose power with unscented soy candles. I would use beeswax, but it's really expensive for the amount of candles i'd want to make. 

Pinterest Test #4: mason jar match storage

Another thing I saw on pinterest that I thought was brilliant was match storage using a mason jar. I also learned a lot about matches in the process. I always knew 'regular' matches would only light if you struck them on the box, but I never knew that it was because part of the combustion chemicals were located there rather than the match head. 'Strike anywhere' matches have all of that material in the tip of the match, which is why you can strike them on any rough surface.

All of the tutorials I found for this were designed for the 'strike anywhere' matches. It made me wonder though, because 'regular' matches are designed for safety - 'strike anywhere' matches can be lit accidentally if they rub a rough surface, and I'd rather not set my house on fire accidentally.

Now the basic recipe is 1 8oz Jelly jar, a piece of sandpaper, and strike anywhere matches. But what would you do if you ALREADY HAD safety matches like me?

All the tutorials said "you can't do this with regular matches"...to which i said "challenge accepted!"

(I know they probably meant the sandpaper part, but I was looking for excuses to tinker....)

I took my good old box of strike anywhere matches and dumped them into my jelly jar.

Then I carefully disassembled the box - I didn't want to rip the strike pads.

Next was pretty easy. Cut the strike pads out, trace the jar lid, and cut out the circle on the strike pads.

I think next time, I may use a dab of glue to attach the two pieces of strike pad, but that's totally optional, this method works perfectly fine. Then just put the strike pads over the lid and screw on the band. done!

...Except not. Anyone who's even opened a mason jar knows that the lid comes apart when you unscrew it, and getting the strike pads to line up pretty is kind of a pain. So out came the trusty power drill, and i made a hole in the tin lid with a cutout in the strike pad to match. Now i can just shake out a match without removing the cover every time. 

Pinterest Test #3: salt pour spout for a mason jar

One of the big things I've noticed is that mason jars are good for ANYTHING. Most of the projects I've tried so far revolve around mason jars, and they've kind of turned into my new addiction.

This one was an easy project - it took me about about a minute and I was done. All you do is cut the top of a salt container (those round tube ones with a pour spout) to be the same size as the mason jar lid, and replace the tin top with the salt spout top. The 16 oz wide mouth jars are the same diameter as the salt tubes so all I had to do was peel the sides off and stick it on top. 

I need more of those tops! There are so many spices I'd love a pour spout for (sugar, pepper, garlic, etc). I'll take donations if anyone wants to get rid of theirs :)

Pinterest Test #2: semi-liquid (whipped) soap!

**please read the update at the end!!!**

The next thing I decided to try on Pinterest was making my own liquid soap from bars of soap that i liked. I love liquid soap, but bar soap is cheaper and I thought this would be a fun project.

What you'd need for this:
1) bar of soap (i used ivory)
2) pan
3) 2 cups water
4) grater
5) wooden spoon
6) container for storage

Step 1: grate the soap
The first thing I did was went upstairs and grabbed a bar of Ivory Soap. I used my cheese grater to reduce it to shavings (not too hard, ivory is pretty soft soap).

smells like teen spirit?

I also located a clean 16 oz wide-mouth mason jar from my newly acquired stash (more on that later).

Step 2: melt the soap

I put 2 cups of water on the stove to heat, and then added the soap to melt it. Little note: when the recipes online say not to boil your soap, you should listen. soap makes suds...boiling soap makes LOTS. They go down pretty quickly but it's probably easier to avoid them altogether and heat it up VERY SLOWLY.....

Step 3: cool down

Pour your new soap into the jar and let it cool. I left it for a while (couple of hours?) - when it was hot it was mostly clear and you could see all the way through the jar, but as it cooled it got white and thick.

Step 4: mix it up

The only thing that went kind of weird was that all of the glycerin solidified in the soap as it cooled. It looked kind of like clear jello (go figure...). So i thought "I'll just mix it all up and break the glycerin back down" - so back it went into the pan and I basically whipped it with my spoon. 

Step 5: repackage into soap bottle

So with all that air added to it, my single jar of 'liquid' soap turned into two. And it's quite frothy (2 weeks later and all the froth is still in tact, it hasn't sank...). It's so nice to wash your hands with - it's already mostly-sudsy. 

Then I decided, since I had all this soap in mason jars I'd just make a pump top so I didn't have to put it from one jar into another. I've made one, so far, and I didn't have the right size drill bit so I had to use a small one and enlarge it with snippers. Unfortunately that makes the edge really rough and uneven, so it doesn't pump quite as well as I'd like (too much air gets in) - but it does work. Eventually I'll get a new drill bit and make a new one.

When I make the new one, with the right sized hole, I'll post those pics too. I've seen other people use empty condiment bottles (like the ketchup bottles you see at burger joints, you can get white ones at walmart too), or repurpose other things that work. All sorts of options!

*******UPDATE********
Just as a note, Ivory may not be the best soap for small quantities like this. I have experimented with two soaps - Ivory and Oil of Olay. From what i've read on line Ivory works fine if you super-dilute it (i.e. 2-3 gallons of water per bar). I haven't tried this yet...

IVORY: after a while the 'whipped' part of it gets all spongy and won't come out of the pump. Also, not good to use as a body-wash, since ivory REALLY REALLY dries out your skin.

OIL OF OLAY: I used the Shea moisturizing soap. This one grates much easier since it is a much softer soap, and when you dilute it has almost no glycerine solids. MUCH better for soap pumps. I used this in the shower, and loved it.

The moral of the story: Experiment with different soaps until you get the consistency and qualities you like.

Pinterest Test #1: DIY Whiteboard!

So I've finally jumped on the pinterest bandwagon, and I've found some really neat ideas that i wanted to test - because it's never fun to just take someones word for it!

Test #1: The DIY Whiteboard.

I found a Pin on the DIY/Craft section (where I spend 99% of my time there), for a whiteboard made of a picture frame. I thought I'd give it a try, and see how it worked.

et voila!

I had painted my front hallway this really bright yellow (Lemon Zest...maybe I'll post about that project too eventually). With some nice white floating shelves, and some decorations. I had this little white picture frame in the hallway just waiting for a photo, but I never found one that fit. I saw the idea on pinterest so I stuck a piece of paper in the frame and started using it as a note spot for when hubby comes  home. it's perfect! and it's not one of those ugly whiteboards you get at the store (that eventually stop wiping off and just suck up all the marker).

And thus....my crazy crafty addiction has begun!

Make your own lip balm!

If you don't want to read the whole rambly post, you can just scroll down to the "how to make this stuff" section at the end...it's okay i won't mind. 

Do you hate lip balm as much as I do? I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff - I love that it makes my lips feel nice in the summer and not cracked in the winter... but I hate that in order to find a tube that doesn't taste like you've just licked a perfume bottle you found in a public bathroom you have to pay a bunch for it. If I wanted to taste cherries I'd go buy a bag of them.

Then I discovered Burts Bees. All Natural! Made with Beeswax! Essential oils! Peppermint! ... wait, what? Peppermint? Maybe I should have read the label, it clearly says "cooling" on it, so maybe i should have know that it was peppermint. Don't get me wrong, i L-O-V-E peppermint... but i feel like Burt uses a bit too much and my poor lips get all burned and red. That doesn't feel like "Soothing" or "Refreshing" to me (although they are cooled...until the fire kicks in anyway).

Just a small sample of my Burts collection...the poor guy to the right is MANGO I think.
I know i've got the "medicated" one somewhere, and the new one with Kokum butter at work.

Then I discovered Burts HONEY lip balm. YAAAAY no more burning lips! And it has a nice light honey scent to it without tasting like I just licked winney-the-poos fingers! Yippee! The only downside is that i keep forgetting it when i go places. So i buy a new tube. Why is this a downside you ask? Well...i think at one point i had about 20 tubes of it floating around. I've since given some to baby sister (because i swear she eats the stuff like it's candy), but i still have way too much to be normal in my house/desk/purse. And that stuff is expensive! I know $3 isn't much at once...but if you multiply that by 20, it makes me a little sad to realize i've spent $60 on lip goo that isn't being used. I could have bought a new computer game with that! (do you think game-stop will exchange 20 used lip balms for a computer game? yeah...me neither...)

So anyways, as i am wont to do whenever i get bored i poked around on the internet. Not really looking for anything in particular, just because i was bored and i'm paying for the internet (so why not use it, right?). 

Eventually i stumbled upon a really neat blog post on a blog called A Sonoma Garden; in which our intrepid heroine strives to make with world a less smelly, and generally more natural place with her homemade concoctions. Lo and behold, a super easy lip goo recipe! AAAAAND it's the kind that lives in a tube, so none of this "getting your fingers all goopy in the process" stuff!

So what did i do with this new found knowledge? Nuthin. I bookmarked the page and moved on. My brain said "ohhh this would be fun...and SUPER easy....let's go!" but myself decided that ordering the beeswax and oil was going to take a while, so i'll get there EVENTUALLY but it's not like i could do it today, right?

So...months later (like...6 or so) i get back around to being interested in making lip goo. Mostly because i wanted to try her deodorant recipe (which i'll talk about in another post...that's still a work-in-progress). I figured if i have to order the stuff for the deodorant i might as well order the lip goo stuff as well, save on shipping blah blah blah. 

O M G. My life is changed!

I ordered all of my stuff from the same place as the Sonoma lady (Mountain Rose Herbs, which is in california) figuring that since i'd seen that site all over the place and everyone loved it it would be a good place to start (i've since found out they're pretty popular amongst the crazy hippy population since they sell some pretty good quality stuff).

Lets see, i got some Beeswax Pastilles (aka pellets...5 pounds of them so i could make candles too) so i didn't have to shave the bricks down, i got a jar of cocoa butter, shea butter, some empty lip balm tubes, and a couple of oils. Then i went all crazy and stopped at Michaels on my way home from work, and got a few cute wooden craft boxes and some empty jars - to store my goods in (i didn't want the beeswax to start smelling like a plastic bag, so now it lives in glass canning jars i stole from hubby). I put myself together a little kit :)

My lip goo kit, version 1. Version 2 is quite a bit bigger to accommodate all of the other stuff i added...*sigh*

Next was to start making! I used the Sonoma lady's recipe to start with, since i had NO IDEA what i was doing...turns out making lip goo is easier than baking pre-mixed cookie batter... for real! I made a couple of changes (i substituted more cocoa butter for the coconut oil since we didn't have any, and left out the vitamin e for the same reason), and made me some lip goo!

Her recipe was a bit ambitious - the first thing i found is that she claims it fills 7 tubes...not sure what i did wrong but i got 3.5 out of it. oddsfish. The second thing i found is that it was REALLY greasy. like...i felt like i'd just dumped straight coconut oil on my face. Do not like. I don't like hand lotion for the same reason - if i feel like a greased pig when i'm done it's way too much for me. 

So i tweaked. I came up with this recipe that i've been using as a base, and OMG it's the best! I'm STILL working on coming up with different scent combinations. 

I also learned a few interesting things in making this. 

1) most lip goos are sweetened. Did you know that? i didn't. They put stevia or honey powder (only in the really fancy stuff, stevia is cheaper) in it to make it sweet. Apparently this tricks your brain into thinking that your tasting whatever scent the lip balm is - so raspberry scented lip balm *almost* tastes like raspberry. Except that it tastes fake and dull. This is why i hate regular lip goo... it's always got that fake plastic taste to it... this must be why. 

2) if you mess up your recipe you can just push it out of the tube and tweak it...you don't have to start all over! thank god! batch 1 was too oily so i pushed it out and added more wax, and voila batch 2 was great! It might take a few extra tubes but it's not a problem (more liquid = more tubes). 

3) this stuff is C-H-E-A-P to make. Like seriously. If you're really frugal and have old tubes you want to reuse it would cost about $0.20 to make. If you like to live on the wild side and buy new tubes that have never been tained it jumps up to about $0.50 a tube. Try not to cry... i know that might break the bank. The only down side is that you can't just buy 3 tbsp of beeswax so the initial purchase is more expensive, but this stuff can be used for all sorts of goodies (like candles, and deodorant, and hand cream, and christmas presents, etc) so in the end you'll win. 

4) cocoa butter is a pain. It's the ONLY part of the process that i dont like - mostly because cocoa butter is hard at room temperature. You have to scrape it with a metal spoon and then measure the scrapings into a measuring spoon. And it melts at skin temperature so the minute you get it on your hands it's liquid. And it smells like the best chocolate in the universe (so it's really hard not to just lick it off when you're making this..which you can, it's totally edible...but a bit expensive to just eat straight).

The next thing i had to figure out was Labels! I found this blog post on the Brambleberry.com website:  The Soap Queen: How to Label and figured i might as well play it safe. So after searching the internet for the correct size labels to use i finally gave up. I had some old clear mailing address sheets leftover and used a few of those (since permanent marker does NOT stick to lip balm tubes at all) just to write the flavors on. 

my 'temporary' labels. how brilliant!

Then i discovered you can buy whole 8.5x11 sheets of 'clear labels' at staples - all uncut. I thought to myself "i have a paper cutter...and a printer...squee!" so now i have some pretty nifty looking labels too. I'm still working on how i want them to look, and I try to make each flavor a different label (just to keep it interesting). It's sad...but kind of fun. 

And so now that your eyeballs are probably bleeding if you even made it this far, i'll just jump right into the tutorial part of this. 

HOW TO MAKE THIS STUFF.

I'll go over how to make the lip goo that I like. I know i haven't said it before, but if you do this you do it AT YOUR OWN RISK - so far i haven't burnt off any body parts by using the wrong ingredients, but if you don't research the oils you are using they could haven't some pretty weird effects (i.e. too much peppermint will rip the skin off your face as well as melt your eyeballs). 

Here are some miscellaneous things you'll need. I don't use the same ones i use for cooking because i find that no matter how much i wash they always have a slight waxy feel when they're cleaned and i don't want that in my dinner. 

- measuring spoons

- metal spoons (cheapo $1 walmart ones are fine)

- pyrex 2 cup measuring cup (for microwave or double-boiling)

- paper towels

- cloth towel

- an old hair tie (without any metal ends on it)

RECIPE 1: UNSCENTED COCOA BUTTER - PLUS HOW TO NOTES

This is a good base-recipe to use as a starter. This is what i use to start any of my new experiments now.

Ingredients: 

- 4 .15oz Lip Balm Tubes

- 1 tbsp beeswax pellets

- 1 tbsp cocoa butter *

- 1 tbsp olive oil

* i have found you can buy cocoa butter in little quarter sized rounds. I use a food scale (with grams) to measure out the cocoa butter rather than a tablespoon of shavings. It's much more accurate this way. Just weigh how much wax you're using and add the same amount of cocoa butter. 

Directions: 

1. put the beeswax pellets in your trusty pyrex measuring cup. Put into the microwave for 45 seconds. Take it out and swish it around a bit, then put it back in the microwave for another 45 seconds (you can also use a pot of boiling water if you don't like the microwave, just boil the water, remove the pan from the heat, and put your measuring up right on in until the wax melts).

2. scrape out 1 tbsp of cocoa butter and dump into the nice hot melty wax. If this takes too long and things start to solidify you can throw it back in the microwave for 30 seconds to fix it. 

3. add the 1 tbsp of olive oil. 

4. Mix with your spoon. duh :)

5. Take the tops off of the 4 lip balm tubes, and hold them together with the old hair tie. Works wonders. I always add one more tube than i think i need, just incase my measurements are off and i need to fill an extra tube (so if my recipe calls for 4 tubes, i use 5 just incase).

such a pretty shape!

6. VERY CAREFULLY pour the wax into the tubes. The tubes fill up really fast so go slow. If you go so slow that the pyrex gets a waxy wall on it throw it in the microwave again for 30 seconds to melt it. 

This was the Sonoma recipe i used. 3.5 tubes, see!

7. Put the stack of tubes in the fridge (upright please!) to set (about 5 minutes). Don't put the caps on you'll just make a mess.

This was a match i made for baby sister for her birthday. 6 flavors, 4 of each. 

8. A little trick i learned, when the tubes are cooled take a paper towel - twist the tubes so they stick up a bit and go around the edges so they're smooth. The mixture tends to have sharp pointy edges and i like my lip stuff to be all pretty and rounded when it's done.

9. Add labels!!

Here's the condensed version: 

RECIPE: UNSCENTED COCOA BUTTER

This is a good base-recipe to use as a starter. This is what i use to start any of my new experiments now.

Ingredients: 

- 4 .15oz Lip Balm Tubes

- 1 tbsp beeswax pellets

- 1 tbsp cocoa butter

- 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions: 

1) melt the wax in the microwave for ~2 minutes (swish every 45 seconds or so)

2) add the cocoa butter, olive oil, and mix until all is melted.

3) add the essential oils and stir (see below for some ideas)

4) pour into empty tubes and refrigerate for ~5 minutes.

5) take a paper-towel to the tops to smooth them out.

6) add labels. 

Some oils i've found that work well together:

* 20 drop of Lemongrass for a very lemony scent

* 10 drops of Lemongrass and 10 drops of Rosemary oil
* 10 drops of Peppermint and 15 drops of Orange Peel oil
* 10 drops of Lemongrass and 10 drops of Orange Peel
* 10 drops of Orange Peel and 10 drops of Lime Peel
* 20 drops of Lavender
* 10 drops of peppermint, 10 drops of eucalyptus, 15 drops of rosemary, and 15 drops of clove bud oil (similar is scent to a medicated lip balm)
* 15 drops sweet birch oil (smells like wintergreen)

et voila, home made lip goo that won't break the bank and feels AWESOME!

** 02/03/13 UPDATE: i've tweaked my recipe a bit, and found that equal parts beeswax, cocoa butter, and olive oil is the PERFECT consistancy. not too hard, not too soft. one batch is 1tbs of each plus oils - makes 4.5 tubes depending on how perfectly you measure.  also, some new pics :)