How to Make Hand Sanitizer

If the current situation has got you wishing that you bought a metric ton of hand sanitizer before last week, no fear, you can make homemade hand sanitizer spray at home with a few simple and easier to get ingredients.

Making Hand Sanitizer Spray without Aloe vera

When I realized that hand sanitizer, like Purell, was nowhere to be found in our area, I thought fine I'll order some Aloe Vera Gel. I already had some alcohol in the garage.

If you don't have rubbing alcohol. Vodka or grain alcohol can be substituted.

Once I started looking for 100 percent aloe vera gel online, I couldn't find it anywhere. Everything is sold out, and a lot of the varieties that were available have additives that do not mix with alcohol. If you try to use these aloe vera varieties you will end up with a stringy clumpy mess.

The best option I found was to make a spray with witch hazel.

In normal circumstances, I'm not big on hand sanitizer.

Soap and water is always the best way to sanitize your hands. However, right now, I am extra cautious. So hand sanitizer is a must.

With the traditional Purell selling for way over market value and a lot of ingredients in short supply, I thought it was best to use my good old fashioned science knowledge to make my own.

The recipe for a DIY hand sanitizer gel that I found online was:

• 5-10 drops of lavender oil
• 30 drops of tea tree oil
• 3 ounces of 70 percent alcohol
• 1 ounce of 100 percent aloe vera gel
• ¼ teaspoon of 100 percent vitamin E oil

I didn't have all of these ingredients, so I made a few substitutions.

• 5-10 essential oil, I used lily scent from my P&B floral collection of essential oil
• 3 ounces of 70 percent alcohol
• 1 ounce of Thayer's Witch Hazel
• ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil

This mixture was lovely. It smelled great and even felt moisturizing.

I didn't have tea tree oil. I suppose that you could use more essential oil OR more coconut oil. But I found that it was fine without it.

I stored the mixture in a tiny spray bottle.

It turned out to be the perfect viscosity for a spray-on hand sanitizer.

Either of these recipes for hand sanitizer should be a cheaper option that the premade variety.

The first recipe makes a thicker gel.

So, you will need to have a squeeze bottle.

I found a set of travel containers at Target that had two squeeze bottles and a small spray bottle.

The second recipe makes a spray.

For this recipe, I used a small spray bottle to store the mixture.

Other recipes for coping with the pandemic situation

While my husband and daughter mixed up this recipe, I made a batch of chocolate chips cookies.

Actually I made two batches of cookies.

Everyone's favorite: Fleur De Sel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten-Free Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Did you make the hand sanitizer? I would love to hear about it. Please leave me a comment 👇and let me know what you thought about the recipe.

Or if you made the cookies. I would love to hear about them too!

Stay safe. Wash your hands and most of all! Keep a positive outlook.