Part of keeping happy and healthy is keeping clean. And hygiene is so easy to do without buying “products”. Here are seven do-it-yourself (DIY) natural hygiene products you can make at home.
There is a reason life expectancy is so much higher than it was just a few hundred years ago. It’s all about hygiene. Kill the germs. Fumigate the bacteria. Crush those viruses.
Gone are the days when foreplay was all about picking gnats out of your partner’s hair.
The good news is that you don’t have to buy hygiene. You can make it yourself. The benefits of homemade are:
- It’s frugal! You save money.
- It’s green! You save the planet by by-passing wasteful plastic packaging.
- It’s right there at home, no shopping required.
Here are six easy and frugal DIY tips to keep yourself clean and feeling fresh. And we have some recipes for you, too!
Make your own DIY natural deodorant
Commercial deodorants often contain chemicals that can be harmful to your health. I worry about what I put on my skin, so I avoid them.
You can make your own deodorant. Here’s a good recipe:
- Mix 1.5 tablespoons baking soda with half a cup of arrowroot flour.
- Blend 2.5 tablespoons each of coconut oil until blended and shea butter while slowly heating the mixture.
- Add no more than ten drops of essential oils. Tea tree, lavender and grapefruit are popular, but it all depends on what you want to smell like.
- Place the paste in a glass jar to cool.
- Warm a small amount between your fingers to soften it for use.
It’s so easy to make your own deodorant, and homemade is always better. Here are some more recipes for homemade DIY deodorant.
Make your own homemade toothpaste
The three main ingredients in toothpaste are abrasives, fluoride, and detergent. If you drink city water, you already get more fluoride than is healthy in your body. But that’s another topic for another day.
You can make your own toothpaste with or without the fluoride. If you are on well water or choose not to drink the over-chlorinated and over-fluorinated city water, you will need a work-around. It might not be healthy to fill your stomach with fluoride, but it is critical that your teeth get plenty.
Here is a recipe
- 2/3 cup of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon of finely ground sea salt
- Clean water (filtered, for example)
- 1 or 2 teaspoons of arrowroot flour
I left out two ingredients. The first is fluoride. It’s not easy to add at home. If you do not drink city water, you should make sure you get plenty of fluoride, ideally only on your teeth and not in your stomach. A fluoride mouth rinse will do nicely. If you drink city water, you are probably already getting too much fluoride.
The other ingredient I left out is flavor. Store-bought toothpastes offer you the option of mint, cool mint, spearmint, natural (read mint), original (read mint) and no flavor specified (which also means mint).
When you make homemade toothpaste, you get to pick the flavor. Cinnamon? Ginger? Anise? Why not?
Curry? Garlic? Well…um, why not?
Here are more homemade DIY toothpaste recipes.
Make your own DIY hand sanitizer
Before the Covid pandemic I hated hand sanitizer. It stinks. It dries the skin around my nails. Sometimes it stays sticky on your hands.
But with all the germs on door handles, shopping carts, store counters and elevator buttons, I have come to love the stuff.
Yes, I know that washing your hands with soap and water is the most effective way to clean your hands. And that’s what I do at home. But I don’t have running water in my car when I come back from germ-fest stores and restaurants. So, pass the hand sanitizer.
- 3/4 cup of 99% isopropyl alcohol
- 1/4 cup of aloe vera gel
- 10 or more drops of essential oils
Note that you can play with the ratio of alcohol to gel, depending how liquid you prefer the lotion. Here are more details on how to make this and other DIY hand sanitizer recipes
Try dry brushing your skin
Want softer skin? This is a refreshing way to up your beauty game and feel invigorated at the same time.
Dry brushing is a great way to exfoliate your skin and improve circulation. Use a dry brush to gently brush your skin in circular motions, ideally before taking a shower or bath (so as to rinse off the skin dust). Choose a natural stiff-bristled bath or shower brush, preferably one with a long handle for those hard-to-reach places.
This should be a weekly ritual. It is not recommended to do it more often, because you want to allow your skin a healthy growth time.
Make your own homemade body scrub
Store-bought body scrubs can be expensive, but making your own is easy and affordable. And fun.
If you love the smell of coffee, this body scrub is for you. Mix these three ingredients, and feel free to play with the quantities to get just the consistency you like best:
- 1/2 cup of coffee grounds
- 2 tablespoons of hot water
- 1 tablespoons of warm coconut oil
If you prefer the smell of lime, this one is for you:
- 1 cup of finely ground sea salt
- 2 or 3 tablespoons of warm coconut oil
- zest of 4 limes
- 20 drops of sweet lime essential oil
Tip: this recipe works just as well with lemon, orange or grapefruit. You have citrus options!
Here are some more homemade DIY body scrub recipes.
Use apple cider vinegar as a hair rinse
If you have oily hair or dandruff, using apple cider vinegar as a hair rinse can be a game-changer. Apple cider vinegar does not necessarily replace shampoo or conditioner, but it can lower both hair and scalp pH.
Mix equal parts apple cider vinegar and water, and apply it to your hair after shampooing. Or shampoo less frequently and replace some shampooing with apple cider vinegar. Don’t forget to rinse it out. Your hair will be left feeling clean and refreshed, and your scalp will be better balanced.
Enjoy these DIY homemade self-care tips and recipes
These tips are cheap, easy good for the environment and refreshing. Who would not want to make their own self-care cleansers? And if you have kids, get them involved.