Homemade Recipe for Hand Sanitiser

We *really* believe / hope that the Coronavirus is going to be another massive scaremongering story which ends up being much ado about nothing. Like the whole Y2K 'Millenium bug' thing. But little germy bugs rather than computer bugs this time round.  

Our local MP in Brighton has been great sharing actual information and in his words 'at the heart of how Coronavirus spreads isn't just being in the same general space as someone with the virus.  We know with a high degree of certainty that you need to be in very close proximity of someone with the virus for about 15 minutes or when they sneeze. To be specific, droplets of saliva containing the virus need to pass directly from one mouth to another'.

Which is why the NHS guidelines recommend not touching your face, washing your hands with soap and water, or using hand sanitiser if you can't easily wash your hands.

That all sounds GREAT, but predictably, people have been panic buying hand sanitiser (or buying it by the bin load and then selling it on EBay) and there's none to be had.

Luckily for you, we've got a fantastic way to make your own, with just 4 ingredients - and if you use our all-in-one wipes kit, you'll already have two of them in the house! 

The key ingredient is alcohol.  The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to buy surgical spirit with contains 91% ethanol alcohol.    I had no problem getting this from the local chemist.  The aloe gel acts to help keep your hands from drying out.   As with any sanitiser this is best used in emergencies and doesn't replace good old soap and water hand washing!

Home-made hand sanitiser ingredients

• 2/3 surgical spirit
• 1/3 aloe vera gel 
• lavender & chamomile fresh wipes oil (or plain lavender)
• tea tree & teatree lemon mucky wipes oil (or plain teatree)

This is simple to make.  Take any appropriate bottle you may have around and just fill it in the appropriate ratios.  I used an old foundation bottle which has a pump top and works perfectly.

1. Pour the aloe vera gel into the bottle
2. Top up with the appropriate ratio of alcohol
3. Add essential oils.  Be very generous, allow 15 drops of each per 100ml of sanitiser

We know that the fear of Coronavirus has also wiped the shelves of toilet roll in Australia.  Obviously if you've got the Cheeky Wipes Toilet Paper Alternative Kit, this won't be a problem for you.  :-)