Homemade toothpaste

Making our own sustainable versions of everyday products is something we're pretty interested in here at PragSust HQ.  It's nice to know and control what's in the products we use on our bodies and those we clean our homes with.  

Homemade toothpaste is something that's been on our radar for a while.  There are lots of recipes online but we liked the sound of the one posted by Morag on her blog Our Permaculture Life, so we thought we'd give it a go. Here's the recipe:

Homemade toothpaste

• 1/2 cup bentonite clay (food grade)
• 1 tablespoon activated bamboo charcoal (food grade)
• 2 tablespoons baking soda (sodium bicarbonate/bicarb))
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup coconut oil (warmed to be liquid for mixing)
• 2 leaves of stevia (dried and crushed) or 1/4 tsp stevia or 2 drops (optional)
• 1 teaspoon himalayan salt
• 4 drops peppermint oil (food grade)

Homemade toothpaste ingredients

As the charcoal powder is very fine and easily flies about, it's best to add the charcoal powder to the water, not the other way round.  The information sheet that came with the charcoal suggested using stainless steel equipment and doing any mixing in a stainless steel sink to avoid splashing the charcoal as it could stain. 

 We gently melted the coconut oil in stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Once melted we placed the bowl in the sink then added the water, followed by the charcoal.  The other ingredients were then added in the order listed above.  A stainless steel spoon was used to mix everything by hand.  The ingredients combined easily and we soon had a dark grey mixture with the consistency of........toothpaste. 

The mixture was transferred to a glass jar for storage. The toothpaste has been in use for a while now and I can honestly say that my teeth feel nice and clean after using it.  So we'll chalk that up as a win and something we can cross off our grocery list from now on.