The best natural hand sanitizer without harmful chemicals
At the office, in your handbag, at school and of course at home, a hand sanitizer is one of your best friends during the day for safeguarding your health. But is it equally friendly to your skin and pocket? Most of you will agree that commercial products, apart from being highly priced, often cause skin irritation. For this reason, I searched and I present to you the best homemade recipe for a natural, high-strength hand sanitizer which does not contain any harmful chemicals.
In the last year alone, the Hellenic National Organization for Medicines (EOF) has recalled at least three antiseptics from the market, which, after laboratory tests, were found not to meet the standards for ethyl alcohol content. In short, they were ineffective at killing microbes. At the same time, the vast majority of hand antiseptics we find on the market cause irritation, since the fragrances and excipients they contain destroy the natural lipids that form the protective barrier of the skin. In fact, instead of protecting us, they end up having the exact opposite effect, making our skin more vulnerable to bacteria.
My own natural hand sanitizer
Wanting to ensure that the product I and my children use every day provides us with the necessary protection without bombarding our skin with harmful chemicals, I asked the chemistry expert and cosmetic product innovation consultant, Katerina Vasilatou, to show me how to make my own natural hand sanitizer, with pure ingredients from nature's "pharmacy" that nourish the skin, while creating a protective shield against germs.
The recipe meets the standards set by the World Health Organization as to its alcohol content in order to be effective in neutralizing germs, while containing ingredients with healing, restorative and soothing properties. The most important of these is aloe gel, which is derived from the leaves of Aloe vera and contains vitamins A, C, E and B12, aloin, glyosaminoglycans, enzymes, amino acids and salicylic acid—substances that add moisturizing and soothing properties to our homemade antiseptic. It also contains calendula, which is rich in anti-inflammatory compounds, flavonoids and antioxidant carotenoids, thus contributing to faster healing of scars, as well as propolis, the “natural antimicrobial of bees”, with more than 300 active ingredients such as ferulic acid, vitamins E and C and zinc, which enhance the production of elastin and collagen, giving a healthy and youthful appearance to the skin. Both the calendula and the propolis we use is in alcohol-based tincture form, so that we produce a perfectly homogenized high-strength mixture.
Recipe for natural hand antiseptic
Ingredients
72 g. alcohol
5 g. calendula tincture
3 g. propolis tincture
5 g. aloe vera gel
15 g. water
Directions: Mix the alcohol, calendula tincture and propolis tincture in a container. In another pan, mix the aloe gel and water until the gel is completely dissolved and you get a homogeneous mixture. Then add the aloe solution to the container with the rest of the ingredients, stir and transfer the homemade hand sanitizer to a bottle with a spray pump. You can see in detail the process for the preparation of the natural hand sanitizer on my GoodLife by Gina YouTube channel.
2+1 different uses of natural hand sanitizer
If you think that an antiseptic is only for disinfecting hands, you are mistaken. In case of emergencies you can use it in the following ways:
- Deodorant substitute. As we know, the odour of sweat is caused by bacteria. In cases of emergency, the application of natural antiseptic can save you the embarrassment, due to its alcohol content that will temporarily neutralize the bad smell, while accelerating sweat evaporation.
- First Aid. If you are outdoors you can disinfect small abrasions on your children's feet and hands until you return home and follow the usual disinfection procedure.
- Soothing for mosquito bites. It helps relieve itching and it disinfects the area.
