Properly washing your hands is one of the best ways to stop the spread of microbe transfer, and to protect yourself from getting ill with colds and viruses. But if you are out and about and do not have access to soap and clean water, it has been advised by the World Health Organisation to carry hand sanitiser to safeguard your health.
The result of these suggestions has been a huge rush to buy hand sanitisers leading to empty shelves in supermarkets and chemists.
Here is the recipe we use to make our own hand sanitiser
Ingredients:
Aloe Vera gel
Alcohol – high percentage proof rubbing alcohol – 90 %
Essential oils – lavender, tea tree, rosemary, bay, peppermint – (essential oils in our shop)
Method:
- Make your base by adding twice the amount of alcohol to Aloe Vera gel and mix together – this keeps the alcohol content around 60% if you are using 90% proof alcohol.
- You want around 1.5 – 3 % of essential oils. So in 100ml (total) of your base, this would be approx. 1.5 – 3ml of essential oils. In 1ml of essential oil, there are around 20 drops…so total you will need 30 – 60 drops of essential oils. We are recommending 5 essential oils so you will need between 6 and 12 drops of each essential oil.
- Mix the essential oils with the base and add to a bottle with a pump attachment to use as a hand sanitiser
Some benefits of our Sensory Herb Sanitiser blend:
- Aloe vera is a good moisturiser that will stop your skin drying out which is a hazard in itself with the amount of hand washing we are all doing. Cracks in the skin can increase the risk of bacterial infection.
- 60-80% proof strength alcohol is what is said to help destroy viruses and other micro-organisms on the hands.
- The essential oils we have choose all have been shown in research to have antiviral activity this does not mean that they have been researched specifically with Covid-19 yet.
Here is more general information in the form of research papers about some Anti-viral activity of essential oils
A comprehensive review of the antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral potential of essential oils and their chemical constituents against drug-resistant microbial pathogens:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0882401019304310
Chemical Constituents of Essential Oils Possessing Anti-Influenza A/WS/33 Virus Activity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6296812/
Phytochemical analysis and in vitro antiviral activities of the essential oils of seven Lebanon species
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18357554
Hi, I tried this recipe but found there was a bit of the mixture which wouldn’t combine. I used 99.9% isopropyl alcohol and a pure aloe gel. I strained it in the end but not sure if it is still ok to use.
Hello Isla
ooo can you please describe the mix that wouldn’t combine? We have put the blend into an old ketchup bottle and we are shaking it vigorously each time before use.
thank you
Hi,
The mix was 99.9% isopropyl alcohol with this aloe vera gel…https://www.jandevrieshealth.co.uk/aloe-pura-aloe-vera-skin-gel
It has a couple of ingredients in it which I guess could be the reason it didn’t mix? Or I’ve just realised that the gel was cold as I was keeping it in the fridge for extra cooling powers.
I’ve got enough to try again at room temp so I could let you know how I get on. Ketchup bottle is a great idea!
Thanks,
Isla
great looking forward to hearing how your next one goes! Good luck
Hello there,
Could you please help me with the name of the Aloe Vera gel that is pictured in the photo that accompanies your recipe?
I am on the hunt for an aloe gel that has the least amount of preservatives and if possible, one that is preserved with only citric acid…
I do have some old aloe gel that I could use for this recipe but I’m always on the lookout for a gel that’s as pure as possible. I am also looking to plant aloe indoors so that I can start to mini harvest and make my own gel but this would take a long time to generate enough yield…
I would love to hear your thoughts and any tips / suggestions around this topic would be very gratefully received…
Many Thanks in advance,
B.
Hello, The Aloe Vera gel in the picture is from a trip to Morocco where we purchased it for sunburn care. It is indeed a challenge to find a purely preserved Aloe Vera gel in the UK, even organic ones contain preservatives to some degree. We have huge and beautiful Aloe Vera that sits on a south facing window sill soaking up the sun, it gives huge arms of aloe as we need. Good luck with your search xxx
Thanks so much for replying back! l’m encouraged that you’ve managed to grow some on a window sill so I will persevere with my quest to grow Aloe indoors xxx
Such a lovely plant to have inside – we saw loads growing on a tour of a farm in the Canary Islands one year – all planted in dark black volcanic soil – incredible!
I tried the recipe but it is very runny…is it meant to be so liquid? As in it’s as runny as is it’s just the pure alcohol. not sure where I have gone wrong?
It is a very runny consistency yes but the Aloe gel makes it a little thicker than just the alcohol – we put it in spray bottles now for ease of use
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