Hello Green Beauty

Nosh Munchables: Healthy Organic Snacks for Babies and Toddlers

During my toddler years, the most popular snacks for the little ones were Cerelac and Gerber. At that time, it was not yet a big deal whether baby snacks were made from natural ingredients or not. Nowadays, parents are more careful about what they feed their children, most especially their babies. They are now looking for baby snacks that are void of unhealthy ingredients yet the taste is appealing even to the pickiest babies and toddlers.

Fortunately, a couple of organic baby food brands have emerged in the market and one of them is Nosh. Nosh is a brand of organic baby snacks from USA and is finally available in the Philippines. The brand is known for their product line of organic Munchables teething wafers and rice snacks for babies and toddlers.

Nosh Munchables are

USDA certified organic, non-GMO and gluten-free
Made from certified organic rice flour, organic sugar, sea salt and fruit/vegetable powders
No artificial color or flavor (colors and flavors are naturally derived from fruits and vegetables)
Rice snacks are baked, not fried
Free of 8 common food allergens: milk, egg, fish, tree nut, shellfish, wheat, peanut and soybean

The official Philippine distributor of Nosh currently offers the following products:

Nosh Baby Munchables (Organic Teething Wafers)

When babies start to grow their first set of teeth, they also begin to show signs of teething. They literally chew on anything they can get their hands on. This is the perfect time to give them Nosh Baby Munchables as their first finger food. The teething wafers dissolve easily which make it easier for babies to chew them. I’m pretty sure your babies will keep on asking for more J

Price (as of this writing): Php 195.00

Available Flavors: Banana & Mango, Pomegranate & Blueberry, Strawberry & Beet, Simply Rice

Suitable for What Age: 4 months+

Packaging: Each box contains 26 wafers

Nosh Tot Munchables (Organic Rice Snacks)

Nosh Tot Munchables are ideal for toddlers who can already chew more solid and firmer food.

Price (as of this writing): Php 195.00

Available Flavors: Apple & Cinnamon, Simple Rice

Suitable for What Age: 2 years+

Packaging: Each box contains 24 wafers

Nosh products are available at the following online stores:

You may also follow them on Facebook for more product updates.

Currently, Nosh PH only has a couple of flavors available. Let us look forward for them to bring more flavors and product lines like Munchable Dippers, Lil Puffs, Smoothie Snaps and Gummy Stars.

P.S. To always get the latest blog updates, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook.

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, by Hello Green Beauty

In Beauty, DIY

DIY: Vegan Minty Orange Lip Balm

In my previous Minty Cocoa Butter Lip Balm recipe, I used beeswax as one of the primary ingredients. Beeswax-based lip balms are very moisturizing and stay on the lips for several hours (seriously, even after I brushed my teeth I can still feel the residue of the lip balm). However, if you are formulating a vegan lip balm, beeswax is definitely out of the list since it is an animal-made product (bees produce beeswax). Actually, whether beeswax is vegan or not is still a subject of debate among vegan-friendly cosmetic consumers. Some says that as long as the bees are not killed to obtain the wax, beeswax can still be considered as vegan-friendly.

If you really want to avoid beeswax in your lip balms, then don’t worry as there are a lot of vegetable-derived waxes that you can use in place of beeswax. Examples of vegan waxes are

Candelilla wax
Carnauba wax
Soy wax
Rice bran wax
Sunflower wax

For the recipe I’m going to share, I actually used carnauba wax. Carnauba wax is derived from the leaves of the Brazilian palm trees known as Copernicia prunifera (or Copernicia cerifera). It is the hardest natural wax available and this is the reason why if you put too much of it in a lip balm, it causes your lip balm to crack and affects its spreadability. Carnauba wax is most especially known for its shine so if you’re a fan of super glossy lip balms, this is a must-have ingredient.

Ingredients

(Makes one lip balm on 15g tin cans)

*** This is a soft balm recipe intended to be packaged in a jar/pot/tin can

4.2 g Sunflower oil

1.5 g Castor oil

3.8 g Carnauba wax

3.0 g Cocoa butter

2.3 g Shea butter

0.2 g Vitamin E

0.1 g Peppermint essential oil

0.1 g Sweet orange essential oil

Special Equipment

Pocket-size digital weighing scale

Instructions

Combine the vegetable oils (except the essential oils), butters and wax in a heat-resistant container. Place the container over a small pot of simmering water (a.k.a. double-boiler/water bath method). Over low heat, stir until the butters and wax have completely melted (be a little bit patient as the carnauba wax takes time to melt).
Remove from heat then add the Vitamin E and essential oils. Mix well.
Quickly transfer the mixture to lip balm containers and wait for it to solidify at room temperature before covering the containers.

Notes

The resulting recipe is a soft lip balm. If you want to store it in a tube, then you need to increase the amount of carnauba wax and decrease the oils and hard butters (e.g. cocoa butter) used in the recipe.

Where to buy the materials

I bought the 15g aluminum tin cans from ISLAS Aromatics.
The carnauba wax, carrier oils and butters can be bought from Craftology Essentials.
For essential oils, you may refer to this list of essential oil suppliers in the Philippines.
Vitamin E capsule can be bought from any drugstore. I bought mine from Watsons pharmacy.

Conclusion

There are pros and cons when it comes to using carnauba wax in lip balm formulation. Carnauba-based lip balms have non-waxy and non-sticky feel unlike those made from beeswax. However, it is the waxiness of beeswax that makes it long lasting and extra moisturizing in the first place. On the other hand, carnauba wax just adds a thin, glossy film on your lips, similar to how a lip gloss feels like. So if you have extremely chapped lips, I don’t think carnauba-based lip balms are sufficient to moisturize your lips. One biggest pros of using carnauba wax instead of beeswax is that it has a higher melting point of 80-85C (176-185F) which can definitely prevent your lip balm from melting during hot summer days.

Have you tried making vegan lip balms? What vegan waxes have you tried to use?

P.S. To always get the latest blog updates, don’t forget to follow me on Facebook.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and purchase the products, I’ll receive some commission.