Easy Holiday Party Favors

As promised this is the easiest little tutorial to make holiday favors with peppermint bark! Besides holiday, you could easily change the cookie cutter to suit the themes of a baby or bridal shower.

First, I melted dark chocolate in the microwave. To cut down on mess, I used a gallon Ziplock bag for easy clean-up! When melting chocolate, microwave at medium heat at 30 second intervals. I massaged the bag at each interval to prevent the chocolate from burning & ensure even melting.

When it was uniformly heated, I snipped the end off the Ziplock & began piping the chocolate into the cookie cutters. This step will be covered, so it doesn't have to be gorgeous. You just want to make sure it's touching the sides of the cookie cutter.

Let the dark chocolate cool. Then on to the white chocolate, repeating the same melting process as with the dark. I used Wilton melting candies that I already had on hand for this step.

Same as before, you now pipe the white chocolate on top of the dark. Again, it doesn't have to look perfect since you'll be topping it with the peppermint. This is such a fun project to do with kids, too!

Unwrap & place candy canes in another Ziplock.

After unleashing the day's frustration out on the candy canes, this is what you are left with. I used a soup can to pound the bag out on the sidewalk.

Press the broken candy cane pieces into the white chocolate, while it's still warm.

Voila! To keep this project affordable, since I was making a lot of them I went to the Dollar Store for the cookie cutters. The metal tree cutter in the center was $1, but then I found the plastic ones you see in the tutorial that came 6 in a pouch for $1- score! Of course, on the other end of the spectrum you could do copper cookie cutters to make the favors more elegant.

Here they are wrapped & ready for holiday giving in a festive basket at the spa! For my first time making them, they turned out very pretty & they were a big hit. Let me know if you make these, I'd love to see your pictures!

Peace. Love. Peppermint Bark. M

Holiday Soiree

Our spa holiday party was last week & since most of my fabulous readers don't live in glorious Baltimore- I wanted you all to still feel a part of it! Here were some of our treats to our guests: my beloved Thymes' Frasier Fir votives & candy cane bark. Stayed tuned for the tutorial on the bark, they were super easy & make the perfect party favor!

Warm spiced {& spiked!} apple cider resided in the snowman decanter. Champagne with a splash of cranberry{this concoction is called a Poinsettia} was our signature holiday drink.

For some reason my dipped pretzel rods are always a fan favorite- which are so easy to make & customize as to theme or holiday. Our Becca Make-up Event was that same weekend, so we left our display out so our guests could play with the products.

A closeup of the spice cupcakes in poinsettia baking cups, which were iced with buttercream frosting & dusted with opal sanding sugar. I piped a red & white striped dollop of icing in the center just to be fancy!

The small, but mighty La Papillon Beauty Team! From left: Esthetician Lisa, our Diva of Dermatology Dr. Noelle Sherber, yours truly, Esthetician & Spa Manager Brianne. Brianne is sporting the easy holiday hair look I taught her- stay tuned for a tutorial on that as well!

It was a super fun evening & a way to show our customers how much we appreciate them! Every guest also left with a sample of Kinara's Red Carpet Facial Kit. It is an at home facial peel system that we just got in & absolutely love! After all, we want all of our clients' skin to be Merry & Bright for the holiday season!

Peace. Love. Lipgloss. M