To make your own hand sanitizer you only need a few ingredients, such as rubbing alcohol, aloe vera gel, and an essential oil or lemon juice.
Although hand sanitizers can be an effective way of getting rid of germs, health authorities still recommend handwashing whenever possible to keep your hands free of disease-causing viruses and other germs.
*What Germs Can Hand Sanitizer Kill?*
According to the CDCTrusted Source, an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that meets the alcohol volume requirement can quickly reduce the number of microbes on your hands. It can also help destroy a wide range of disease-causing agents or pathogens on your hands, including the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
However, even the best alcohol-based hand sanitizers have limitations and do not eliminate all types of germs.
According to the CDC, hand sanitizers won’t get rid of potentially harmful chemicals. It’s also not effective at killing the following germs:
• norovirus
• cryptosporidium (which causes cryptosporidiosis)
• clostridium difficile (also known as C. diff)
Also, a hand sanitizer may not work well if your hands are visibly dirty or greasy. This may happen after working with food, doing yard work, gardening, or playing a sport.
If your hands look dirty or slimy, opt for handwashing instead of a hand sanitizer.
For a larger batch of hand sanitizer, the World Health Organization (WHO)Trusted Source has a formula for a hand sanitizer that uses:
• isopropyl alcohol
or ethanol
• hydrogen peroxide
• glycerol
• sterile distilled
or boiled cold water
you can substitute glycerol (gylcerin) with aloe vera gel
they are included to reduce or stops the dryness caused by the alcohol (moisturizing effect)
you can also skip water if you are making hosptal grade
ADHERE TO THESE TIPS:
• Make the hand sanitizer in a clean space. Wipe down counter tops with a diluted bleach solution beforehand.
• Wash your hands thoroughly before making the hand sanitizer.
• To mix, use a clean spoon and whisk. Wash these items thoroughly before using them.
• Make sure the alcohol used for the hand sanitizer is not diluted.
• Mix all the ingredients thoroughly until they are well blended.
• Do not touch the mixture with your hands until it is ready for use.
No do NOT use methylated spirits or denatured ethanol in these formulas. Only use undenatured ethanol or isopropyl alcohol in these formulas. Denatured ethanol and methylated spirits contain chemicals that are not meant for topical application, and are not suitable to use in these formulas.
No – vodka and strong spirits, are at best, 40-50% alcohol. Even if you used these straight, they are not sufficiently strong enough to provide effective sanitizing.
When using 60% or more ethanol/isopropyl alcohol, these formulas are ‘selfpreserving’. This means they don’t need a preservative, as micro-organisms can’t grow in these formulas. These formulas kill micro-organisms – they don’t need additional preservative.
Be Careful which essential oils you use (if you use any at all)
You don’t need essential oils in the products, they are only added to cover some of the alcohol smell. Remember, they are not adding to the sanitizing effect, they are simply there to make the product smell nicer.
DO NOT USE bergamot, bitter orange, grapefruit, lemon or lime in leave on products, especially multi-use leave on products like hand sanitizing products. These essential oils contain a phototoxic agent that can leave *permanent stains* on your skin when exposed to the sun.
These products are at least 60% ethanol/isopropyl alcohol = they are HIGHLY FLAMMABLE!
If you are making a gel, then use xanthum gum, carbopol, carbomer, antisol, nitrosol or any desired or available thickener (gel maker) that support or in a way it will solubilize alcohols
You can also use a surfactant in the spray to make it self foaming
Summary
Ethanol 70% or isopropyl alcohol 70 + glycerol 5%/glycerin 5% +Hydrogen peroxide 20% or 25% + water 0% or 5% = *hand sanitizer spray hospital grade*
NB
Any other ingredient is optional
To make sanitizer gel, you should replace hydrogen peroxide with water to dissolve the thickener (to make the gel)
NB
What makes a sanitizing product ‘sanitizing’? And when is it hospital grade?
The ethanol in these formulas makes them sanitizing. Sanitizing means it removes dirt and micro-organisms, but a very few spores may remain. This is why you often see claims like ‘kills 99.9% germs’ (or similar) on the packaging. It can kill most, but not all micro-organisms present.
Sterilisation kills all micro-organisms including spores. These products are called sanitizing because they are effective on 99.9% of micro-organisms when strong enough.
NB
Not only ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide cando the same
Sanitizing can be achieved with 60%w/w full strength ethanol or isopropyl alcohol in a formula – it is effective, but not as good as hospital grade products.
Hospital grade sanitizing is achieved with 70%w/w full strength ethanol or isopropyl alcohol – some hospital grade sanitizing products use more than 70%w/w but this is the minimum to achieve hospital grade sanitization
Less than 60%w/w and the efficacy of the product to sanitize effectively diminishes.
You may be asking, Can essential oils and herbal extracts sanitize? Aren’t some essential oils like tea tree and eucalyptus anti-bacterial?
Neem oil and pine oil etc
While some essential oils and herbal extracts have some anti-bacterial or anti-fungal activity, they are not considered ‘broad spectrum’ enough to be properly effective at sanitizing. Broad spectrum means effective against most bacteria, yeast and mould, and in the case of hand sanitizing products, most viruses as well. While some essential oils and herbal extracts can be effective against specific types of bacteria, yeast and mould, they have a very narrow range of action – so they are not broadly effective. So no, essential oils and herbal extracts can’t be used to provide effective sanitization. The sanitizing agents and concentrations we have used in our formulas will provide broad spectrum sanitizing activity.
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