Dixie Tries It: Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Dixie

Immediately after my daughter was born, hand sanitizer became my best friend. An alcohol-based sanitizer is a wonderful thing, it kills all the germs without leaving an icky residue or creating bacterial resistance like sanitizers based on triclosan or benzalkonium chloride. The downfall of commercial alcohol-based hand sanitizer? It dries your hands out, sometimes to the point of cracked skin.


Once again, mom to the rescue. A couple months after becoming BFFs with hand sanitizer, my mom sent me a recipe for making your own hand sanitizer. To be honest, I have no idea where the recipe came from so I am unable to give credit to anyone other than my mom. (So, if anyone knows, leave it in the comments!) The recipe is very simple, so simple in fact that I have it memorized. To make it you will need the following:

spray bottle size of your choice (I chose a 4-ounce to fit in my purse)
rubbing alcohol (either strength is fine)
Vitamin E oil
glycerine
essential oil of your choice (optional, I use peppermint)

To make the sanitizer, it's very simple. Fill your spray bottle most of the way full. Add 4-5 drops of Vitamin E oil. Add 4-5 drops of glycerine. Then, scent it to your liking. I add about 10 drops of peppermint essential oil for a nice scent that's not overpowering. Other good choices would be citrus oils, lavendar, or a light floral like ylang-ylang. Experiment and have fun!

Et voilà! You have your own, homemade hand sanitizer. The benefit of creating your own batch is that, unlike commercial hand sanitizer, you can control the amount of moisturization you get. Add more Vitamin E and glycerin if the formula is too drying for you.

Happy sanitizing!