We are living through quite challenging times ... fear seems to be distributed and promoted everywhere. They tell you to wash your hands as soon as you have touched anything or anyone outside the home, to use a hand sanitizer when you are out and about (and at home when you return). But what do you do when the shelves have been stripped, what do you do when the fear grips you that you can't protect yourself (and carrying a bucket of water and some soap around the town is only feasible for a window cleaner). Then you read a small, single piece of advice not to make your own sanitizer - because you might use too much of this or not enough of that. So you are stuffed! - the only family in the whole wide world who does not have a hand sanitizer. Or are you! Can you imagine a Dad's Army type WW2 scene - "don't wear a gas mask that you have created out of a coal scuttle and a tea cloth, because it may not work" said in the context of ... no other alternatives are available at the time! I'm sorry advisers, but that's not the way I was brought up. You need to do the best you can with the resources you can find.
The background to this is that the other day I went into my local Boots the chemist to buy ......a hand sanitizer ... it's good to try and be as safe as one can be nowadays isn't it? But ... much to my surprise there were none on the shelves, all gone. Then I had the usual old fashioned options ... to start wondering around the town like a headless chicken, scanning the increasingly empty shelves, getting more and more aggravated... or to do my own research and work out whether and how I could make my own sanitizer. Why not? I had taught myself to make all sorts of great skin care soaps and balms, so I was sure it must be possible.
Because my memory took me back to the old times (1990!) - in Romania, when each household had a bottle of spirit used to disinfect by rubbing alcohol into whatever it was that needed to be disinfected. It was used for many curative things (not drinking!) - I remember using it for a back massage when one has a cold... with very good results! So I was really surprised when, a couple of years ago, when I needed rubbing alcohol for an art related project I couldn't find it anywhere in the shops in my town ... I had to order it on line.
Anyway ... I came back home... started my on-line research for "how to make a hand sanitizer" ... and of course I found the formula...... which reminded me that my father, an electronics engineer, had said to me a long, long time ago .... that engineers are trained to solve problems .... are trained where to look for solutions..... and as my degree is also in engineering ...maybe this is why ... I love solving problems and that's what I always try to do. So, forward the cavalry:
Here are the ingredients
1/3 cup of aloe vera gel + 1 tbsp more
2/3 cups of rubbing alcohol in the region of 70% strength
essential oils ... about 30 drops or so
Method? Really easy ... simply mix the ingredients together ... and pour them into a little bottle, shake vigorously ... then... start using ... I made two types .. one with grapefruit essential oils and one with sweet orange essential oils. The scents are amazingly good (as soon as you open the bottle the scents tell you that this is going to be a great experience - which it was) and even the tiniest amount feels really good rubbed into the hands.. so, my own hand made sanitizer, orange scented, is now in my purse - and the other is in my husband's bag as he loves red grapefruit. Job done! Problem solved for me, my way.
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