Homemade Hand Sanitizer

Hey, if I can make my own laundry soap, anything is possible!

Everyone around me is sick lately, and it has me washing my hands in overdrive, but if I’m not near a sink I use hand sanitizer. The problem is that those little bottles start to add up financially, and I feel bad throwing out so many plastic containers. Recently, my friend shared her recipe for homemade sanitizer with me and I’ve been a convert ever since.

What’s cool is that the basic ingredients are things I already keep in my medicine cabinet: aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol. You can make as little or as much as you want, but always use a ratio of six parts alcohol to four parts aloe vera gel for it to be effective. If you’re a big germaphobe like I am you can also add tea tree oil — nature’s antiseptic — to the mixture. I put about five drops into every half-cup of sanitizer I make. I also add lavender oil to the mix to kill the medicinal smell. From there, just add your mixture to a small bottle that you can always keep with you.

I still think that washing your hands trumps sanitizer, but this recipe is a great alternative to the store-bought stuff.

2 Responses to “Homemade Hand Sanitizer”

1. smilinggreenmom says:

   October 22, 2009 at 8:50 am

   Hmmm! I would love to know if this really works – how cool Thanks so much for this because I we have been using a lot of the store bought version and it burns on our kids hands (especially bc our son has had Eczema and just dry skin now mostly). Unfortunately, I have read too that these kill the beneficial bacteria that we really really need to fight off germs…so we have also been taking our Vidazorb chewable probiotics as well to replenish the good stuff!
2. Heidi says:

   November 4, 2009 at 12:00 pm

   Just might have to give it a whirl.