Making face masks is harder than you might think. It involves lots of random ingredients, notably massive amounts of coconut oil and honey. One generally only has so much coconut oil and honey in their pantry and may have to go to the store for these very specific ingredients. One also may find that coconut oil becomes a solid very easily which creates a frozen version of the normally liquid face mask product.

I found all of this to be true when I attempted to make my friends this sweet-smelling treat for Christmas. My intention was to give a thoughtful, less expensive gift rather than a generic store-bought gift. I started out with a bonafide YouTube video and 3 hours of free time which should have been dedicated to studying for finals but was instead used to satisfy my creative itch.

Only a few minutes into making these masks, I began running out of everything and had to run to the health food store to buy more surprisingly high-priced ingredients. My next challenge was the texture of the mixture.

In the YouTube video, whose words I was clinging onto for dear life during this face mask-making expedition, the final result was super smooth. When I looked down at my bowl, it was chunky, almost like vomit. My resourceful self thought to use a hand mixer to fix the problem. Instead, it only splashed all over the counter and myself. After cleaning up my mess, my masterpiece was finally completed, but unfortunately, my homework was not.

Even though I had labored over my project for only a few containers of actual product, I don’t regret the time I spent on my Christmas present at all. After all the time my friends have spent helping me in school and putting up with my silly side comments, it is the least that I could do to even begin to pay them back.

They help shape me into the person that I am today and remind me to live life not so seriously. They remind me that life is messy and sometimes it splashes all over you and the counter, but if you just embrace it maybe you’ll smell the honey.