Home Made Hand Sanitizer

Making hand sanitizer at home is both easy and inexpensive.  It can be made with two ingredients.

1. Aloe Vera
2. 91% Rubbing Alcohol

Fortunately, I keep plenty of both at the house so it's always easy to whip up a batch.  Here's how you do it.

1) Cut some spires of Aloe Vera
As Aloe Vera is handy to have around, I have several plants growing in my yard. It stays soft year round so can be harvested at any time.  Let the "goop" drain out for a bit.  Supposedly, this is Latex so maybe you don't want it.

2) Carve out the Gel
I used a cheese slicer to open up the leaves, I then carved out the gel with s spoon.

3) Blend with Alcohol. 
Make sure you have the 91%, not the wimpy 70% type.  Hand sanitizer has a LOT of alcohol.  You need to keep your overall alcohol percentage at or above 62%.  If you go below,  besides not working as well, it won't evaporate off your hands and will leave you with a sticky mess.  You'll want to blend the Aloe for quite a while to break down the cellular structure then add in the alcohol.

4) Bottle!
This stuff leaks out easily and also evaporates in hot weather so something with a good stopper or lid.  you don't want to loose your precious alcohol on a hot day!  These cork based bottles are not the best, but they look nice.

5) Experiment!
Long as you keep your total alcohol at or above 62%, try different natural flavorings.  I keep oregano, mint, ginger, thyme, lemons, and rosemary all growing at the house and they all can be used for natural aroma. I also make home made vanilla.  Though, the alcohol is only 40% so you have to add it sparingly.