How to Make Healthier Hand Purifier

I’m not too much of a fan of the commercial hand sanitizers you often find in stores or, that are requested by teachers as we start the school year.

Most of them contribute to antibiotic resistance over time and building up resistance is important.   If you are raising your kids in an environment that is drenched in constant disinfectant soaps, and cleaners, and giving them prescriptions of antibiotics that kills their good gut bacteria and are keeping them away from (normal) germs that you encounter daily, they will be more susceptible to illnesses.

If you check out the EWG’s Skin Deep Database of products, where they rate the safety of popular items such as hand sanitizer, you will find many popular varieties including Purell, and Ulta’s brands rated as an 8 or 9 on a sale of 1 to 10, where 10 is most harmful.

Whenever possible, we try to always wash our hands with homemade foaming soap – but sometimes there are instances that we need to keep something else on hand. And this recipe works effectively without the worry of fragrance, skin-drying alcohol or hormone disrupting ingredients.

Healthier Hand Purifier

This easy to make gel is very simple to put together and works wonderfully in a pinch.  Your kids an help you make it and it literally takes less than a minute to mix up:

• 1/4 C. aloe vera gel
• 3-4 drops Thieves or Tea Tree essential oil 

To make:

• Mix the ingredients and divide between several silicone tubes (these or these)
• Avoid using citrus oils – they are photosensitive and might not be a wise choice for those of you in a hot climate
• If you wish for your purifier to be thinner in consistency, thin with a little bit of colloidal silver.

We ordered several different varieties of containers on Etsy that are PET plastic – and while we wouldn’t use citrus oils with plastic, we’re only using a small amount of essential oil diluted in aloe vera so we feel comfortable using with these containers.

It’s important to use high quality essential oils – we’re passionate about what we use, read more about it here.