Not only is it super fun and will save you lots of money, making your own DIY hand sanitizer can be more important than you think!
Simply put: antibacterial products kill ALL the bacteria on your hands including the GOOD bacteria you need for healthy skin and a properly functioning immune system. In fact, they have been shown to weaken your immune system!
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Importance of Homemade Hand Sanitizer
Not too long ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally issued a ruling officially banning the use of triclocarban, triclosan, and 17 other dangerous chemicals in hand and body washes. These products have been marketed as being which being more effective than good ol’ fashioned soap and water and consumers have been mislead to purchasing them!
This is the perfect reason to learn how to make your own DIY hand sanitizer. Try using some of the antibacterial essential oils in your blends to prevent contributing to resistant strains.
Not to mention, the chemicals in store-bought hand sanitizer is full of toxic chemicals that do NOT do your body good…
“Consumers may think antibacterial washes are more effective at preventing the spread of germs, but we have no scientific evidence that they are any better than plain soap and water,” Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) said. “In fact, some data suggests that antibacterial ingredients may do more harm than good over the long-term.”
Antibacterial product manufacturers had until 2017 to comply with the new law by removing all products from the market that violate this ruling or remove antibacterial active ingredients. But this still isn’t enough to keep us safe.
Triclosan is still in countless other products like deodorants, antiperspirants, body spray, toothpastes and hand sanitizer. Here is a list of products that include triclosan.
Make a few bottles of this spray hand sanitizer to carry in your purse, store in your vehicle, and toss in the baby’s diaper bag. You can easily sanitize and kill germs on the go. Plus, it smells lovely.
DIY Hand Sanitizer
- 10 drops of essential oils
- Organic grain alcohol (190 proof)
- 1-ounce PET plastic flip-top bottle
- Choose the essential oils to add that meet your desired result-for example, if you want a soothing sanitizer, use lavender; if you want an uplifting blend, use sweet or wild orange.
- Place the essential oils into the bottle.
- Add alcohol to fill the bottle.
- Shake to mix thoroughly.
- Enjoy!
- To use, add plenty of product to your hands, rub vigorously, and keep wet for as long as possible until your hands air dry.
- Organic grain alcohol (190 proof)
- Distilled water
- 15 drops Immunity-Boosting Blend* or other oil(s) you prefer
- 2 or 3 drops of vitamin E oil (optional)
- 2 or 3 drops aloe vera gel (optional)
- 1-ounce glass spray bottle
- Fill a quarter of the bottle with grain alcohol and the rest with water.
- Add the essential oils.
- If you want a moisturizing spray, add vitamin E and aloe.
- Shake to blend.
- Spray on your hands and rub them together as you would with a conventional hand sanitizer.
Note About Aloe
You may have noticed that aloe is NOT in this recipe. Like many DIY bloggers out there, we used to recommend aloe in this recipe until an expert product formulator advised me with the following…
So, in a nutshell, aloe can’t really be added if you want to keep essential oils in this recipe. Since it’s soluble in the alcohol, it will reduce the concentration to a level that doesn’t allow the EOs to stay in solution anymore. And if one were to used the thickened aloe gels (stuff with polymers) it would turn into a gunky mess and then also not allow the EOs to stay in solution. So, you have a skin risk with the EO when this happens.
Long story short, alcohol was misunderstood in aromatherapy for a while and there are changes coming out about these now.
Aloe can be added to sanitizers, but it’s usually incorporated as a 200x powder concentration that is included in the water phase of the formulation. If you wanted to do JUST aloe and alcohol, as long as the alcohol level remained at 60% plus AND the aloe being used was not already contaminated beyond a reparable level, you might be able to get away with it. But essential oils wouldn’t be able to be added for the reasons stated above.
What I would suggest if you want to keep aloe around for its skin moisturizing benefits is this: make the changes I recommended using and all alcohol spray with essential oils. But suggest a two step process.
- After the alcohol and essential oils has been allowed to dry on the hand (and it must be dry).
- Add the aloe after to soothe and protect the hands. Lotion or our healing skin salve could also be an option here.
Blends that You May Like
Here are some of our favorite blends that work great in this highly diluted formula. Choose from below or make one up yourself:
- Christmas Blend – Fir needle (Balsam fir, Douglas fir, white fir), peppermint and vanilla absolute
- Deep Breathing Blend – Cardamom, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, rosemary, tea tree
- Focus Blend – Cedarwood, frankincense, sandalwood and vetiver
- Good Bye Allergy Blend – Lavender, lemon, and peppermint
- Healthy Digestion Blend – Anise, caraway, fennel, ginger, lemon, tarragon
- Immune Boosting Blend – Cinnamon leaf (bark would be too strong in this recipe), clove, eucalyptus, rosemary, orange and lemon
- Happy Blend – Orange, lemon, bergamot, grapefruit and vanilla absolute
- Sleepy Time Blend – Roman chamomile, lavender, and vetiver
You can get as creative with your hand sanitizer spray as you wish. Create your own blend with essential oils or try one of the ones we recommend. If you love this essential oil DIY, then check out our homemade liquid hand soap.
The traditional hand sanitizers are coming under fire for good reason but the simple truth is you don’t need them to clean your hands. Try our foaming hand soap recipe for another way to eliminate toxic chemicals in your home.
