Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or a dentist. This is not dental advice. I’m simply sharing my journey as I learn, experiment and find what works for me.
I have been making most of my own personal care and cleaning products for the past year. Not only is it a good way to save money and cut down on packaging waste, it also allows me to control exactly what goes into the things I’m putting on my body and releasing into my home.
So many commercial bath, beauty, and cleaning products are loaded with unpronounceable, unrecognizable, and often toxic ingredients. Making my own solutions at home helps me lower the amount of chemicals I expose myself and my family to.
I find recipes to test by searching through books and websites. I look for simple recipes with a short list of ingredients and no special equipment needed. We live very minimally so I don’t like buying an ingredient that’s only needed once or kitchen gadgets that serve one function.
Sometimes I test multiple recipes for one purpose (such as shampoo) and decide on the one I like best. Sometimes I tweak the ingredients or combine the parts I like from each recipe into one that works for me. I will credit the original source, author, or inspiration in a link.
Basic Homemade Mouthwash
When I began reading about what is in commercial mouthwashes and why those chemicals aren’t necessarily helpful to maintaining good oral health, I wanted to find an easy solution that I could make at home instead. I found this recipe on the blog, Oh The Things We’ll Make!, over a year ago. Tracy has a background in dentistry so please check it out for more information on what you want to avoid in commercial mouthwash and why. I omit a couple of her ingredients in the version I use, just the Xylitol, a sweetener, which she states is optional and the essential oils, which I go into more below.
What You Will Need:
- 1 tsp salt (I use fine ground sea salt)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a cup of water (distilled)
- 20 drops of trace minerals
I warm a cup of water and add in the salt and baking soda, stirring until they are dissolved. Then I pour the ingredients into a bottle (I use an 8 oz glass swing top bottle). My trace minerals came with an eye dropper so it’s easy to add 20 drops to the bottle. Then I close it and shake the bottle well to mix.
This recipe usually lasts me 2 weeks.
Thoughts on Essential Oils:
I know some people add essential oils to their mouthwash. Tracy discusses this too in her article. Peppermint, Clove, Cinnamon, or Tea Tree oil are all common choices. I have not experimented with this yet. I don’t ingest essential oils. They are natural but also powerfully concentrated substances. I have read that they do not mix into water so even putting them in my mouth to later spit out makes me nervous.
I recently read Just the Essentials: How Essential Oils Can Heal Your Skin, Improve Your Health, and Detox Your Life by Adina Grigore. There were two mouthwash recipes I may try. Both includes essential oils but one also uses coconut oil (which is soluble with essential oils). I have been curious about oil pulling after hearing about it’s benefits on The Wellness Mama Podcast.
Other parts of my oral health routine:
- I make my own 5 ingredient toothpaste including baking soda and trace minerals and floss before using this mouthwash.
- I brush with activated charcoal at least once a week.
- After reading a few books on Ayurveda, I’ve added tongue scrapping to my morning oral care routine as well.
Other Recipes I Use These Ingredients For:
- I use baking soda in my 3 ingredient dish soap, homemade deodorant, and diy shampoo recipe.
- I also add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda to my water kefir ferment every few batches to help mineralize the grains.
Resources Mentioned:
- Oh, The Things We’ll Make! Blog
- Just the Essentials: How Essential Oils Can Heal Your Skin, Improve Your Health, and Detox Your Life by Adina Grigore
- The Wellness Mama Podcast
- 6 Reasons to Make Your Own Personal Care and Cleaning Products
What care products do you make at home?
