Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer!

Many people carry hand sanitizer around with them, but the widely used varieties have some startlingly harmful ingredients.  If you want to use something that kills microbes without the nasty chemicals, give my recipe a try!

Tea Tree (Melaleuca) Oil is one of the most widely used and proven effective essential oils.  It is highly antimicrobial, killing bacteria (including anti-biotic resistant strains like MRSA,) yeast, fungus and even viruses!  Can your hand sanitizer do that??!

Here's what you need:

a 10-15mL amber glass bottle with inset dropper top (I reuse an empty essential oil bottle)
Clear Vodka 80 proof
40-50 drops of Tea Tree Oil

That's it!  And you guessed it, making this sanitizer is as simple as pouring the vodka in the bottle (be sure to leave room for the oil, you can always top it off with more vodka if necessary) and then dropping in the tea tree oil one drop at a time.  Put the dropper top and cap back on, then shake gently to mix.  Done.

To use the sanitizer, shake before each use, then simply allow about 5 drops to fall into your palm and rub it all over your hands.  This sanitizer is very safe and effective for adults and adolescents, but I would take care using it around small children.  Tea Tree Oil is not safe to ingest, so young children who put their hands in their mouths a lot probably shouldn't use it.