Easy DIY Hand Sanitizer with Essential Oils of 5 Kinds

Hand sanitizers have become an indispensable part of modern lives. Where flu and germs have concerned everyone, sanitizer demand has increased manifolds.

But while purchasing those bottled sanitizers, you must have thought once, are these skin-friendly or will they be gentle on little one’s hands?

5 Kinds of Easy DIY Hand Sanitizer with Essential Oils

We present to you DIY hand sanitizer with essential oils to succour. Making your hand sanitizers with natural ingredients is safe for you and your family, It has additional benefits of skincare and your favourite fragrance. Read on to find out more!

How To Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer | Dr. Ian Smith

When to Use a Hand Sanitizer?

One must know when to use a sanitizer and when to resort to soap and water for hand wash. To keep germs at bay one must wash hands properly for 20 seconds as a healthy living practice.

  1. Use hand sanitizer if you are visiting a sick person at the hospital. Use a little of it before and after meeting someone.
  2. If there is no soap or water, then you must clean your hands with sanitizer.
  3. Whenever you get a chance, wash your hands with soap and water.
  4. If your hands are dirty and handwashing is possible, then use water and soap instead of sanitizer.

Benefits of Using Essential Oils in Hand Sanitizer

DIY hand sanitizer with essential oils is easy, it just takes a few minutes. If you are free and a fan of DIY you must try homemade sanitizer.

DIY hand sanitizer with essential oils
Image source : Daria shevtsova / pexels

Diy hand sanitizer with essential oils saves you from many dangerous side effects of using commercial sanitizers. Bottled sanitizers strip off the moisture and can also cause itching and redness.

Essential oils like tea tree, aloe vera, and lavender oil have immense skin benefits following being gentle on the skin. A wide range of pure essential oils also keeps flu 1at bay.

Essential oils hardly harm you but before adding them to your sanitizers, consult a health care professional.

If you are living with kids, make sure to keep essential oils safe and out of their reach. If it is your first time working with essential oils, take a patch test to know about any skin irritation or allergy. Try to add a few drops only as oils are concentrated and some have a strong smell.

Essential Oils to Use

Following are a few essential oils you can use in making hand sanitizer:

1. Maleluca Alternifolia Or Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree has antibacterial properties which, help to fight certain bacteria and viruses, also, this oil is anti-fungal 2and moisturizes your skin. Find an organic tea tree oil that is potent to garner its benefits.

To know more about tea tree benefits click here

2. Lemon Essential Oil

It reduces skin inflammation and is highly effective in killing germs and viruses. This essential oil is a natural disinfectant.

3. Lavender Oil

It is a multi-purpose essential oil with versatile benefits. It treats fungal infections like eczema and adds extra care to the skin.

4. Aloe Vera

To make your hand sanitizer more gentle, add aloe vera gel. It is a miraculous gel that treats dry skin eczema, cuts, burns, and whatnot.

Aloe vera gel can replenish lost moisture and locks it inside your skin, it is also skin-friendly.

5. Vitamin E Oil

Vitamin E oil helps in skin rejuvenation, it helps in building new cells and keeps your skin moisturized.

How to Make Alcohol-Based Diy Hand Sanitizer?

World health organization recommends using alcohol-based sanitizer for germ killing. To make alcohol-based hand sanitizer with a minimum of 60% (v/v) alcohol.

But while going for a recipe, you must wonder which alcohol to use. To make your hand sanitizer more potent use, isopropyl alcohol or isopropanol also, called rubbing alcohol, or you can also use ethanol.

Sanitizers with at least 60% alcohol kill germs and are safe to use.

Things Required

For Making Your DIY Hand Sanitizer:

To make this easy skin-friendly DIY hand sanitizer with essential oils,3 you can try the hand sanitizer recipe below:

  • 6 teaspoons of aloe vera gel or add glycerin.
  • Next, you need to add essential oils. Add 20 drops of tea tree oil.
  • 10-12 drops of lavender oil.
  • 5-8 drops of lemon essential oil.
  • 1 teaspoon of vitamin E is optional.
  • 12 teaspoons of alcohol (isopropanol or isopropyl alcohol or ethanol)

To mix all these ingredients properly, you need a small glass bowl. Mix all ingredients of the above hand sanitizer recipe gently.

All these ingredients are easily available at any local health food store.

To Store Your DIY Hand Sanitizer.

DIY hand sanitizer with essential oils
Image source: Cottonbro / pexels

Transfer hand sanitizer carefully to a spray bottle and store it in a dark and dry place.

Keep it out of the reach of kids.

NOTE: Use a plastic spray bottle with a flip-flop opening as it remains handy. You can look for a pump bottle. Your homemade own hand sanitizer4 is travel friendly also.

How to use Homemade Hand Sanitizer?

  1. Shake gently before using homemade hand sanitizer.
  2. Take an ample amount of sanitizer on your palm.
  3. Rub your palms, the backs of your hands, and between your fingers as well.
  4. Let it dry. Do not wash or wipe your hands before the sanitizer drys out.

Does Sanitizer Expires or Becomes Less Effective?

Commercial hand sanitizers have a shelf life of 2 – 3 years. These alcohol-based sanitizers work well because of their active ingredient alcohol5.

This alcohol can evaporate and leaves your sanitizer less potent to use. Close the bottle of sanitizer properly to avoid evaporation and keep it working.

Is Hand Sanitizer Better than Soap?

Stick to the traditional way of handwashing that is with a bar of soap and water. You can use hand sanitizer where handwashing is deferring.

Water and soap kill all types of germs on, the other hand, sanitizer kills only certain germs. Sanitizers may not remove hard chemicals. One must properly wash hands for 20 seconds to kill germs with soap and water.

Takeaways

DIY hand sanitizer with essential oils is not lab tested but, it will surely be gentle on your skin. Moreover, with the potential side effects of sanitizers, these essential, oil-based home sanitizers work well.

Hand sanitizer cannot replace the conventional method of handwashing, and one must stick to it. Try it out yourself and be ready to be amazed!

To read more interesting articles click here

Top 5 Harmful Ingredients You Should Check In A Sanitizer
Icy Health
  1. Barello, Serena, et al. “The psychosocial impact of flu influenza pandemics on healthcare workers and lessons learnt for the COVID-19 emergency: a rapid review.” International journal of public health 65.7 (2020): 1205-1216. ↩︎
  2. Al Aboody, Mohammed Saleh, and Suresh Mickymaray. “Anti-fungal efficacy and mechanisms of flavonoids.” Antibiotics 9.2 (2020): 45. ↩︎
  3. Franz, Chlodwig, and Johannes Novak. “Sources of essential oils.” Handbook of essential oils. CRC Press, 2020. 41-83. ↩︎
  4. Jing, Jane Lee Jia, et al. “Hand sanitizers: a review on formulation aspects, adverse effects, and regulations.” International journal of environmental research and public health 17.9 (2020): 3326. ↩︎
  5. Rumgay, Harriet, et al. “Alcohol and cancer: epidemiology and biological mechanisms.” Nutrients 13.9 (2021): 3173. ↩︎

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