As you’ve probably seen all over the news, handrub formulations are either out-of-stock or super-pricey. Hopefully, you won’t make the tough choice. In this post, we share a simple way you can make your own hand rub formulation/hand sanitizer at home cheaply and easily.
The WHO recommends 70% isopropyl or higher, or 60% ethanol or higher to make your own hand sanitizer. This means, that most alcohol you might have at home won’t work.
You can also make your own disinfectant spray using rubbing alcohol.
Ingredients To Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer
Making your own hand sanitizer is easy to do and only requires a few ingredients:
- isopropyl or (99% alcohol volume)
- aloe vera gel
- an essential oil, such as tea tree oil or lavender oil, or you can use lemon juice instead
The key to making an effective, germ-busting hand sanitizer is to stick to a 2:1 proportion of alcohol to aloe vera.
Making Your Own Hand Rub
Time needed: 30 minutes
Using isopropyl, aloe vera gel, and essential oil of your choice, here is how you make your own hand sanitizer:
For larger batches of hand sanitizer, read the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended formulation.
- Mix all the ingredients
Pour all ingredients into a bowl, ideally try one that has the ability to pour.
- Whisk into a gel
Mix with a spoon and then beat with a whisk to turn the sanitizer into a gel.
- Bottle it
Pour the ingredients into an empty bottle for easy use, and label it “hand sanitizer.”
- Add Aloe Vera for touch
The aloe vera is meant to ease the burn of the alcohol. If you have a plant at home, stripping the leaves and mashing the gel is your best bet.
- Add Essential Oils for the smell
You can add essential oils, like tea tree, lavender, or whichever fragrant you want, to mask the alcohol smell.
Here are some other uses for rubbing alcohol:
- Kill dandruff
- Use it on your nails
- Help with an ear infection
- Remove CPU thermal paste
- Build guitar calluses
My name is Logan, and I’m a 36-year-old dad who owns a small pressure-washing company in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. My main goal with rubbing-alcohol.com is to show you how versatile isopropyl rubbing alcohol can be! I hope. You find it useful.
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