Hand Sanitizer - Is it impossible to make at home

[Lankan]

I read a number of articles including in BBC stating that homemade hand sanitizers are not effective. even if 99% alcohol is used, it will cause more harm to hands as commercial hand sanitizers contain emollients which protect the skins.

Can anyone explain how to prepare an effective homemade hand sanitizer which can come in handy when stores are running out of stock?

 

[BattleGnome]

We’ve had a thread or two recently talking about hand sanitizers, you an easily find them by using the search.

for a quick answer this is DeeAnna’s article about making hand sanitizer. You’ll have to judge for yourself how you feel about making your own. Using aloe or glycerin will help combat the dryness of the alcohol but you may want lotion on hand at home to help fix a day’s worth of hand washing/sanitizer usage

 

[IrishLass]

Here is the most recent thread we have going on making your own hand sanitizer: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/hand-sanitizer.78473/

I made my own (quite emollient and effective) hand sanitizer just the other day using 190-proof Everclear which contains 95% ethanol by volume, and vegetable glycerin/glycerol. Using the math equation DeeAnna spelled out in the above linked thread, I diluted my 190-proof Everclear with enough vegetable glycerin/glycerol to make a hand sanitizer that contains a total of 71% ethanol by volume in the end, which I find to be quite moisturizing/emollient. In any case, it makes my hands feel like I applied lotion to them.

I chose glycerin as my emollient ingredient because I have a lot of it on hand, and also because lots of people down through the ages have been making their own handmade moisturizer using just glycerin and rose water. If people for years have been making their own moisturizer with just glycerin and rose water, then glycerin should be good enough to pair with alcohol to make an emollient hand sanitizer. Some folks might find the after-feel of glycerin to be somewhat sticky/tacky on the skin, but I for one am good with it and find it to be quite nice.


IrishLass

 

[DeeAnna]

I seem to recall you live in a dry climate, @IrishLass ? If so, that might make a difference. But I am in the same boat as you -- no aloe, but lots of glycerin -- so I'd be making the same choice if I wanted to make hand sanitizer.

There was a product that was popular some years (uh, decades?) ago called Cornhusker's Lotion. I suppose it's still around, but not nearly as easy to find. Anyways, it had a lot of glycerin in it. It sure made my dry chapped hands feel better, but the lotion left my skin very sticky too. It was kind of a tossup for me whether the softening and soothing effects of the lotion were worth the sticky feel.