This site is an archive of ChiotsRun.com. For the latest information about Susy and her adventrures, visit the Cultivate Simple site.
Thank you for all your support over the years!

Make Your Own: Toothpaste

October 5th, 2010

For the past couple years Mr Chiots and I have been trying to get rid of any products that contain harmful chemicals especially when it comes to personal care products. We were using some all natural toothpaste for a while, but it still contained fluoride. I won’t go into the details of why we try to avoid fluoride and sodium laurel sulfate here today, you can google it and find all kinds of information. The toothpaste brand we were buying was also bought out by a large corporation so that helped prompt our decision to make some toothpaste at home. Making toothpaste is quite easy, you can make it in powder form with things you probably already have at home. If you want it to have a sweeter taste and paste like texture like store bought then you’ll have to buy some vegetable glycerin.

I used a recipe that I found over at Mountain Rose Herbs which is where I bought the vegetable glycerin that I used for the batch I made. They have a bunch of recipes on their website. This is the one I used:

Citrus Mint Toothpaste

¼ cup baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons vegetable glycerin
10 drops peppermint essential oil
10 drops orange essential oil (I used lemon)
5 drops eucalyptus essential oil

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly in a small bowl. Store in a small, tightly covered container. To use, scoop a small amount out onto your toothpaste and brush. Beware, you’ll think you add to add more glycerin when you first mix this up, but resist the urge. If you do it will be too runny after it sits.

We actually were very impressed with this toothpaste and we really like it, we’ve been using it for about a month and a half now. It leaves your teeth felling fresh and clean, much cleaner than with regular toothpaste. The flavor and consistency are not like store bought toothpaste and it doesn’t foam since there are no added foaming agents (which is what we were trying to avoid). I think I’m going to try to make some tooth powder with myrrh next. We’ll be making homemade toothpaste from now on since we like it and it’s very inexpensive, this batch above cost me only about .50 to make, which is a great price for fluoride SLS free toothpaste!

Have you ever made your own toothpaste?

If you’re going to buy a few ingredients at Mountain Rose Herbs I’d appreciate a click through the link to the right as they give me a small portion of what you buy.

18 Comments to “Make Your Own: Toothpaste”
  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mark mile, Susy Morris. Susy Morris said: Make Your Own: Toothpaste http://goo.gl/fb/Vvcxh #frugalliving #makeyourown #doityourself #homemadetoothpaste #recipe […]

    Reply to Tweets that mention Homemade Toothpaste | Chiot’s Run — Topsy.com's comment

  2. Sense of Home on October 5, 2010 at 8:59 am

    We’ve been making our own toothpaste for nearly a year now, a similar recipe to yours, though we just use peppermint essential oil. I have read that glycerin is not good for your teeth, but I need to do more research on this to see if it is true. If it is I guess we will use the baking soda and salt in powder form, without the glycerin. I like having the fresh peppermint taste in my mouth though, so I would probably mix up a mouth rinse if we go that route. I agree, the homemade toothpaste makes our teeth feel extra clean.

    -Brenda

    Reply to Sense of Home's comment

    • Susy on October 5, 2010 at 9:35 am

      We’re on to some tooth powder now and we’re enjoying it much more. it’s simply baking soda, sea salt and a little ground cinnamon. I also love that we won’t need the vegetable glycerin any more!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  3. Tree on October 5, 2010 at 9:11 am

    I have brushed on and off with just baking soda paste, but this sounds like something I could get the whole family to use. I buy Toms of Maine without Flouride (but can’t get no SLS and no Flouride in the same tubes and it is my understanding they are a conglomerate now, and I don’t like the parent company much).

    Reply to Tree's comment

    • Susy on October 5, 2010 at 9:35 am

      We were using Toms of Maine as well.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  4. kristin @ going country on October 5, 2010 at 9:45 am

    My husband’s grandmother used to sometimes make them brush their teeth with baking soda and salt. This does not go down very well with small children, apparently.

    Also, diluted hydrogen peroxide as a mouthwash. I’ve seen the instructions for that right on the bottle of hydrogen peroxide, but the idea is a little weird to me, since the only thing I’ve ever used it for is cleansing wounds.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  5. sallymander on October 5, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    I would think that a few drops of tea tree oil would be a good addition for it’s natural antiseptic properties. What do you think?

    Kristin, I’ve often used hydrogen peroxide as a mouth rinse. It kills all the icky bacteria in your mouth, just like it does on a wound.

    Thanks for a great blog! I’ve been a lurker for a while :)

    Reply to sallymander's comment

    • Susy on October 6, 2010 at 7:58 am

      I’m guessing that would be a great idea as well, although it might have a bad flavor. I have seen a recipe for a tea tree oil mouthwash. I too like to use peroxide when I’m having a gum issue, it works like a charm.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  6. MAYBELLINE on October 5, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    Never. I may give this a try.
    I do hope that you are against flouride in municipal drinking water?

    Reply to MAYBELLINE's comment

  7. Lisa on October 5, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    I have never thought about making toothpaste! good idea. thanks for sharing this with us.

    Reply to Lisa's comment

  8. Kathryn on October 5, 2010 at 4:22 pm

    I love Myrrh oil for a number of things, especially skin infections. (It cleared one for me last year that even a topical prescription didn’t manage.) But, i’m not sure i’d care for the flavor. One problem with myrrh is that it is a tree rosin & if exposed to air will harden to a varnish-like hardness. (I fear i may not get the bottle open again.) It is also expensive. Clove is very good for numbing in your mouth if you have a sore.

    I’ve been making my own toothpaste/tooth powder for some time now. I usually make it with 1 part baking soda & 1.5 – 2 parts xylitol. Xylitol is sweet (tho i don’t use it for anything else like baking) & is suppose to be very good with tooth decay. I tried different mixtures with this to make it “paste.” Over all they were disappointing & i never had any “mint” flavor to it. What i eventually decided to do was to purchase Miessence toothpaste (expensive but no fluoride) & use a tiny amount of this for the mint flavor, but to use it with the baking soda/xylitol tooth powder. I’m very pleased with the results.

    When i run out of the Miessence toothpaste (which won’t be for a couple of years yet), i may rethink this, but it works well for me now. I’ll never use fluoride again. I’ve a number of personal horror stories about this toxin.

    I’ve changed out a lot of personal care products, tho i never used many products before. Now make my own deodorant of healthy oils & butters. I’m even trying (again) the “no ‘poo” method of shampooing (uses baking soda & vinegar or lemon juice). I didn’t have much success with this before, but thought it worth trying again.

    Reply to Kathryn's comment

  9. heather best on October 5, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    When I learned that Tom’s of Maine had been bought out I felt the same way. I also felt that way about my favorite Burt’s bees products. I do have some mixed feelings about these mergers, but I can’t decide if it’s all bad or partly good. I heard an environmentalist talking about his company being purchased and how he never thought he’d let that happen, but then he realized how much further his reach would be if he sold. I think it was actually the Tom’s of Maine owner. He was saying that he still has a surprising amount of control over his business and he’s been pleased with how much more marketing he’s been able to do. Same goes for Kashi and several other “natural” brands that started totally grass routes and have now been bought out by major brands.

    In the end I’m a big advocate of anti-consumerism and I don’t think any of these products are really necessary as so much of what they are selling can be made at home without processing and bi-product waste, but most Americans have convinced themselves that they need to work, work, work so they can buy, buy, buy and now they no longer have time to make the things they need. Of course sometimes I give myself a break and buy convenience items as well, so I’m glad they are available when I need them. I just wish we could shrink grocery stores down to about 1/4 their current size and carry only real food and healthy home/body products.

    End rant. Thanks for he fodder for thought.

    Reply to heather best's comment

  10. Lemongrass on October 6, 2010 at 7:40 pm

    I have been making my toothpaste for some time now, sea salt and baking soda. A few months ago I starded adding dried herbs from my garden. After the herbs are dried I run them through my herb grinder and add a pinch or two to the mixture. I’ve added rosemary, cocoa mint, cinnimon and oregano. I use one herb with each new batch. I am thinking of using tarragon for the first time.
    I use backing soda for my armpits with a drop of apple cider vinegar.
    Lots of great information. Thanks.

    Reply to Lemongrass's comment

  11. Sustainable Eats on October 7, 2010 at 4:18 pm

    It looks great – I was doing that too until I read a post over at Cheeseslave about how glycerin prevented the teeth from remineralizing so now I just use salt and baking soda and follow it with rinse water that I’ve added 1 drop of EO to (either mint or clove) to pass the “mommy coffee breath” test with my little guys.

    Have you read anything about glycerin?

    Reply to Sustainable Eats's comment

  12. Kay on October 13, 2010 at 4:51 am

    Thank you for this post! I have been wanting to get away from store bought toothpaste. I have ordered my supplies and some of their teas! I love good tea, so I cannot wait to try it. :)

    Reply to Kay's comment

  13. Make your own Lemon toothpowder | Chiot's Run on February 9, 2011 at 4:48 am

    […] Learning to make things yourself from scratch is a great way to save money. I blogged about making homemade toothpaste last October. That recipe used vegetable glycerin, which Mr Chiots and I weren’t really fond of. […]

    Reply to Make your own Lemon toothpowder | Chiot’s Run's comment

  14. Link Love « Not Dabbling In Normal on May 26, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    […] Our very own Chiot’s Run’s (Susy) recipe for toothpaste […]

    Reply to Link Love « Not Dabbling In Normal's comment

  15. Homemade Toothpaste | Teaberries on October 26, 2011 at 11:44 am

    […] I have been making my own toothpaste for a little over a year now, and I must say that I like it so much more than conventional toothpaste. I got the idea from Susy over at Chiot’s Run. […]

    Reply to Homemade Toothpaste | Teaberries's comment

About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

Admin
Read previous post:
Saving Tomato Seeds

I've been saving tomato seeds for a few of my favorite varieties including: 'Principe Borghese', 'White Beauty', 'Brandywine' and 'Goldman's...

Close