Summer is coming and I am so excited! I love so many things about summer, but one of my favorite things is sitting out back on our porch. We have a small back porch, but it's just perfect for my hubby and me to sit and have a glass of wine at night. We have spent hundreds of hours on our back porch just talking after our kiddo went to bed. It makes a great cheap date night.
The only problem is the bugs always try to join our little party. For years, I had a bunch of mosquito repellent bracelets and fans that I had picked up for free couponing. We ran out of those last year and I switched over to using essential oils. I love how the essential oils do a great job at repelling mosquitos away without the terrible bug spray smell. I would use some lemon and peppermint oil along with water and spray myself down. But, this year I came up with a much easier solution.
I had seen some large mosquito repellent bracelets made from paracord, but they were not only big, they also had you mix up a whole bunch of ingredients. I loved the idea but it would have cost me close to $10 just to make a couple of bracelets. This essential oil bug bracelet is easy to make and won't cost much.
I bought some ribbon to make a simple wrap bracelet. Then I add the lemon and peppermint oil directly onto the ribbon to keep away the mosquitos. No more spraying myself down before I go outside. I just grab my bracelet and put it on. It's so easy to make one and will only cost you a $1-$2.
I started with some thin pink ribbon. Meijer sells it for between $.79-$.99 for a big roll. I wanted something girly, but if you are going to make bracelets for everyone in your family you may want to pick a more neutral color. I wrapped the ribbon 4 times around my wrist. Then I cut the ribbon off and tied the two ends together.
It now will look like a big necklace. I bought a small little clip on charm for my bracelet. I picked out a little flip-flop because really I would love to be at the beach every day! I picked this one up for $1.49. I just clipped it onto the ribbon.
Wrap the ribbon around your wrist a couple of times. If the bracelet is too loose you can cut some more ribbon off and make it smaller. It should be loose enough to wrap around your wrist 3-4 times, but not so loose it falls off.
Once the bracelet was all ready I added a couple of drops of the lemon and peppermint oil. I have found that the lemon and peppermint oil does a great job of repelling mosquitos. It wears off after a while, I would recommend adding a couple more drops every other week. The mosquitos are really good at letting me know when it's time to refresh the drops. 😉
So this summer skip the smelly sprays and stay bug bite free with this easy to make essential oil bug bracelet. It's simple but looks and smells great! What do you use to repel the bugs away?
Sarah@TheOrthodoxMama says
What a great idea! I'll have to try this. When you made a spray for it, did you just use the oils or did you add anything else?
Julie says
When I make the spray I use a small spray bottle from the travel beauty section. I fill it about halfway with water and add about 10-15 drops of essential oils. This works really well if you are traveling. I didn't want to carry a big bottle of bug spray when we went to Jamacia, so I just took the empty bottle and my essential oils and filled up with water when we got there.