Make your own homemade hand sanitizer

Cold and flu season is in full swing, and with H1N1 running everywhere, taking a few extra precautions to keep germs at bay is never a bad thing. I am not saying that you need to bathe yourself and your children with hand sanitizer every few minutes. Washing your hands with soap and water is still the best way to get rid of germs. But after an excursion where you come in contact with a lot of germs (like the grocery store, gas pump, public toilets) it is a good idea to kill some of those foreign attackers when you don't have access to a sink and soap . And when you have an 11-month-old boy sitting in the grocery cart who insists on putting as much of the cart in his mouth as possible, you like to have a little mind that your daughter is not going to get out of the hives . Germs at any time.

There are many, many hand sanitizer products on the market, but I have found that you can make your own hand sanitizer for a fraction of the cost. Most of the products you buy are made with an alcohol base, but as green fashion continues, more natural products made with essential oils are coming onto the market. If you choose an alcohol-based product, make sure it has an alcohol concentration of at least 60 percent so that it kills most harmful bacteria and viruses. Check those labels on your hand sanitizer products to find out that they're really doing the job, not just spreading germs.

Essential oils have been used for thousands of years to fight disease, and you may already have all the oils in your home necessary to make your own hand sanitizer. Using essential oils with disinfecting, antiseptic, and antiviral properties will allow you to create an alcohol-free homemade hand sanitizer. The essential oils of cedar, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, myrrh, neroli, patchouli, mint, rose, sandalwood, tea tree, thyme, and ylang-ylang have antiseptic properties. Clove, niaouli and pine oils have disinfecting and antiseptic properties.

Tea tree oil is the most powerful of these antiseptics, but should not be used by children or pregnant / lactating women. Adding more tea tree oil to any recipe will make the hand sanitizer more effective, but the smell can be overwhelming. A few drops of essential oils like basil, rosemary, rose, lavender, lemon or geranium will lighten and balance the aroma.

Always be careful with essential oils and consult an herbalist before use if you have any current health conditions. As mentioned, some oils (such as tea tree, cedar wood, and hyssop) are not suitable for children or pregnant and lactating women.

In the recipes below, you can mix oils to suit your tastes or just use one type of oil. An essential oil blend option that is safe for families is a combination of lavender and pine. This will create an antiseptic hand sanitizer with calming effects. Add a little citrus or rosemary to enhance and complete the aroma. https://topbestbrand.com/%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%88%E0%B8%A5%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%AD%E...

Aloe vera gel is an ingredient in all of these recipes and I just wanted to mention that this means pure aloe vera gel with no dyes, flavors, etc. It is not the same as juice. It should say "100% aloe vera gel" somewhere in the bottle. If not, it is wrong.

If you're having trouble finding any of these ingredients at your local stores, try online sources. I will be happy to offer you some sites myself.

So here are the homemade recipes for alcohol and alcohol-free hand sanitizer. Mixing a batch of hand sanitizer only takes a few minutes, but there is often a question of what you have available around the house. You probably want to mix in a glass container (plastic can take the scent of essential oils and metal can react with ingredients), but you can also pour the ingredients directly into a bottle if you prefer. Either way, a funnel will come in handy. Add ingredients together in your mixing bowl, then shake or stir to combine. Fill the mix with hand sanitizer and other small bottles you've washed to keep landfills empty. Some more liquid recipes may need to be shaken before using to distribute the oils.