Homemade Hand Sanitizer for a Science Fair Project
It takes only a few ingredients and less than 10 minutes to make a batch of your own hand sanitizer. When working on a science fair project involving germs and antiseptics, homemade hand sanitizer gel can be a helpful addition to your display. And because it's so easy to make and much less expensive than store-bought sanitizers, you can mix up as much or as little of it as you'll need.
Things You'll Need
- Plastic container
- Isopropyl alcohol
- Aloe vera gel
- Tea tree oil or witch hazel (optional)
Instructions
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Obtain a plastic container to mix and store your hand sanitizer. This can be a brand new pump bottle or a leftover empty bottle from a store-bought hand sanitizer.
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Pour a base of isopropyl alcohol into your container. The alcohol is the part of the mixture that actually kills the germs; you can begin with as much or as little alcohol as you'd like, depending on how much sanitizer you're making, but make sure that the other ingredients don't dilute it so much that it won't be effective. Your finished product should consist of approximately 60 percent alcohol.
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Include a moisturizing agent, since alcohol on its own is extremely drying. Aloe vera gel is a popular choice for this purpose because of how well aloe soothes skin. You will want there to be approximately four parts aloe vera gel to six parts isopropyl alcohol in your sanitizer mixture.
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Add a small amount of a natural antiseptic ingredient such as tea tree oil or witch hazel. This step is optional; the alcohol and aloe vera gel mixture will work perfectly well on its own, but these additional ingredients can give your mixture some extra germ-killing power and may also help to mask the smell of the alcohol. If you choose to include tea tree oil or witch hazel, add about five drops for every half-cup of sanitizer.
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Mix all of the ingredients together by vigorously shaking the bottle for about 30 seconds. Your final product will be slightly more watery than store-bought hand sanitizer gel, but will work just as well and cost a lot less.
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Tips & Warnings
You can make a large batch of your homemade sanitizer at once and store it in a large bottle at home, then transfer some of the mixture into smaller, more portable bottles as needed.
Frequent use of hand sanitizer can severely dry out your hands, even if the sanitizer contains aloe. You may want to consider using a good moisturizer periodically throughout the day, particularly during the winter months, to prevent your skin from getting too dry.
References
- Photo Credit washing hands image by Julia Britvich from Fotolia.com
