What's in your....
Do you know what's in your toothpaste? Chemicals! Lots and lots of chemicals. I typically don't really harp on chemicals here too much. I presume it's pretty much understood that I lead as chemical free life as I can. It's been a long road convincing the Mister that chemicals and processed foods are bad, bad, bad. But since he likes the processed, chemical life and I don't sometimes we use different products from each other. One of those products is toothpaste. He's all for the more commercially made products, where I try to use more environmentally friendly kind. BUT a lot of the reason as to why I tend to make my own products is because of cost and convenience. It just kills me to try to make it to a store that has eco-friendly products at a price that I can afford. So I end up doing research and then attempt to make my own products. Some things that I just haven't quite gotten right yet are dishwasher detergent and shampoo. I'm still working on these things but in the meantime I buy eco-friendly. Some products that I haven't attempted to make yet includes deodorant, shave cream, and toothpaste. Until today.
I had some time this morning to start some research on making my own toothpaste. It's been on my mind lately because I'm almost out of toothpaste. I really like the Tom's of Maine fennel flavored toothpaste and the clove flavor is a close second. And even though Tom's of Maine is considered an eco-friendly company, it's still chocked full of hard to pronounce ingredients. I remember the days when the toothpaste from Tom's came in an aluminum tube. And that wasn't all that long ago. But now you pay close to $6-$10 for one tube of toothpaste. I can certainly make my own for less money. Even if I have to purchase ingredients.
So. This morning I armed myself with my favorite 'DIY' homesteading resources and the internets. Most homemade toothpastes use calcium carbonate and xylitol. I don't really know what these things are except xylitol is an artificial sweetener that you find in diet sodas. Umm. What? It's primary purpose in homemade toothpaste is...as a sweetener! I don't need my toothpaste to be sweet or taste good. I just need it to do its job. And my research showed that calcium carbonate is derived from...egg shells! So after some thought and comparing notes and looking at countless formulas, here's what I've come up with:
Recipe
4 tablespoons baking soda
3 tablespoons ground eggshells
ground cloves (to taste)
ground cinnamon (to taste)
Since I have chickens I usually save the egg shells to feed back to them because the shells are an eggs-cellent source of calcium. If you want to save your shells to use for your chickens or to make your own toothpaste the process is the same. Rinse the shells with warm water. Let dry. I keep them in a container on the counter until I've collected enough to make the rest of the harvesting process worth my time. Once you have enough cleaned and dried shells, spread them out on a baking sheet and bake on a low temp (200F) until they are completely dry and brittle (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven. Let cool and then you can break them up to be used as desired. For our toothpaste purposes, I put enough in a spice grinder and ground them to dust. I needed 3 tablespoons of ground up shells for my recipe so I just kept adding to the grinder until I got that amount.
Once you have your ingredients ready, combine thoroughly in a container. The toothpaste will not go bad as long as it stays dry. I elected to make a tooth powder versus a paste. My main reason in doing this was because the ingredients were all natural and I wanted a shelf stable product. Plus I had everything on hand so no money was spent for this experiment.
I also made an essential oil blend for using as well. I used sweet almond oil as my base and then used the following essential oils: cinnamon, peppermint, clove, chamomile, and tea tree. The oil blend is supposed to help restore the natural balance in our mouths. I just thought is sounded good and would work well with my tooth powder. I found a product online and just used the ingredient list and came up with my own blend. I plan on dipping my toothbrush into the oil then into the powder and using them together at one time. Once per day. The other times I brush my teeth will be with just the powder.
I've also been curious about using activated charcoal once per week. There's some controversy about using it so I'm going to do some more research. Plus it's a messy ordeal. I don't know if I'm up for that big of a mess and the resulting clean up. So I'll report back.
Have you made your own products? How has it gone? I'll keep you updated on the tooth powder and oil blend. I like experimenting and figuring out what works best.
'til next time
-k
xoxo