If your mom is anything like us women here at B+C, then she might not like to admit how much money she spends on beauty products. Sometimes I feel like I black out when I’m buying hair products, body lotions, make-up – all of a sudden I’m down $150 and have five tubes of smelly goodness in my hands. One store that always catches my senses is Lush, so today we are showing you how to make your own version of their swoon-worthy fizz bath bombs to give to your mama this Mother’s Day. Pair these bath bombs with a bottle of wine or a new embroidered scarf and you’ll be her favorite child for sure ;)
Ingredients:
— 1 cup baking soda
— 1/2 cup cornstarch
— 1/2 cup citric acid
— 1/2 cup epsom salt
— 3 teaspoons water
— 3 teaspoons coconut oil (melted)
— food coloring
— dried flowers/ dried lavender
Instructions:
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl – 1 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup citric acid, 1/2 cup epsom salt. Then mix the wet ingredients together in separate, smaller bowl – 3 teaspoons water, 3 teaspoons melted coconut oil.
2. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together.
3. Separate the mixture into several bowls, and mix in essential oils and food coloring.
4. Pack the mixture into the two halves of the bath bomb mold. Make sure they are both overflowing, press the two halves together and then remove one side of the mold.
5. Wiggle the bath bomb out of the other half of the mold and let it dry out on a cookie sheet for eight hours.
Grab a medium-size bowl and mix together the dry ingredients – 1 cup baking soda, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1/2 cup citric acid, 1/2 cup epsom salt.
Then grab a smaller bowl and mix together the wet ingredients – 3 teaspoons water, 3 teaspoons melted coconut oil.
To avoid the bath bombs chemically reacting too quickly, you will need to pour the wet ingredients as slowly as you can into the dry ingredients. Slowly mix the ingredients together until it forms a consistency of wet sand. Note: It will bubble, don’t worry!
Mix the ingredients together so it resembles wet sand. Now let’s add in some color and fresh scents.
We bought a set of scents off of Amazon and did our best to be true perfume scientists. This mixture was floral Plumeria, and we gave it a few drops of red food coloring for a light pink color.
Next we mixed up orange and gave it the scent of peach. This is definitely my favorite.
We bought our bath bomb mold on Amazon, but you could even use an old plastic Christmas ornament or a plastic Easter egg. Prep the mold by filling the edges with dried lavender or dried flowers.
Grab some of your scented mixture and start packing it into the halves of your mold. Layer the colors to give your bath bombs a fun sand art look. Pile each half up with extra mixture, and then press the two halves together.
Remove one half of the mold, let the mixture sit for about five minutes and then remove the other half of the mold. This part can be a little tricky – I definitely messed up three out of five times. Just be patient with the molds, and don’t get too attached to the layered color pattern you are creating. Once the bath bomb is removed from the mold, let it dry out on a cookie sheet for eight hours.
With this mixture, you will be able to make four bath bombs. Tie them up with baker’s twine, and include a handwritten note to give to mom on Mother’s Day.
Floral, lavender, peach or lemon – any of these would be an amazing addition to bath time.
Show us your project by tagging us on Instagram + using the hashtag #iamcreative!
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures