If you’ve ever been with me making yoga mat cleaner sprays or aromatherapy room vs. facial sprays、these are just more of the same idea …but serving a different purpose to keep us well protected and healthy while ultimately, nothing beats proper hand washing. It’s all good.
But when caught in places and situations when there’s no running water nor soap what are we to do?
Scarcity and Necessity, Mother of Invention? How about anti-viral, anti-bacterial sanitizer:)
No I am not drinking the Vodka (80 proof so only 40% alcohol) for this project is a little low BUT there are Vodkas out there at 60% and more which clears the minimum. For spray version, just mixing with 20% witch hazel water and bit of hydrogen peroxide, it’s maybe not WHO version but acceptable by most standards.
Here are some items picked up at Trader Joes and Walgreens … the face toner, once 3/4 used, you can pour the 70% alcohol for quick hand sanitizer. If you want to make the jell, but don’t have the compact dispenser then their hyaluronic moisture boost serum at 30 ml, also once 1/2 used, pour in the 90+% alcohol and few drops of antibacterial essential oils… you have a “Purell”-ish hand sanitizer.
Easy Hand Sanitizer:
1 cup of isopropyl alcohol (90% min &+ flammable so be careful)
1/8 c hydrogen peroxide
1/2 cup aloe vera gel
15-18 drops of tea tree oil or lemongrass
Mix well and dispense into sanitized mini-lotion dispensers you can carry around.
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What if … you cannot find alcohol on store shelves? My aromatherapy teacher used Vodka … most Vodka is at 40% not potent enough for this intended use but there are some out there clears the threshold of 60% alcohol content and that makes for a good substitute. At that point, there’s no dilution needed but just add on the essential oils to add a better sense while getting the antibacterial effect. Here’s the actual How-To by WHO but this is institutional amount and way too much (10 mls !) for most private citizens. So do some math and reduce the recipe amount by 1/20th …) Remember to sterilize everything used in preparing and storing these potions and sprays – and always coming back to … washing your hands well before getting started:)
Note on Alcohol: I always thought of course 90% is better than 70% but according to this, not necessarily !