One day I decided to see if I actually *could* brush my teeth without using store-bought toothpaste, and I’m so glad I did. In my search, I ran across this recipe for Homemade Lemon-Peppermint Toothpaste, and decided that I would give it a try.
The first time I used it, I liked it, but it was VERY different from using toothpaste. First of all, it was salty. Secondly, there isn’t as much “good flavor”, though there is some. Thirdly, the consistency is different than I’m used to. Ignoring my aforementioned negative points, I forged ahead and got through a few weeks of using it, running out the very day that we were leaving for vacation. I decided that for ease it would be fine to just use store-bought toothpaste. My mouth was not happy! It was really strange, but I found myself feeling bummed out that I didn’t have my homemade toothpaste with me on the trip! Still, when I got home I waited about a week before I made some more, still feeling bummed that I didn’t have any. I finally got it together and made some, and thought it a good opportunity to share this with you.
While I originally made the recipe that I linked earlier, I found that I like to tweak it a little. Here’s my version:
Lemon-Peppermint Toothpaste
1/2 cup baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
20 drops lemongrass essential oil
20 drops peppermint essential oil
3-4 Tbsp water
Mix baking soda and sea salt with a fork. Add essential oils and mix thoroughly, so the EOs are no longer clumped but evenly distributed throughout the baking soda/sea salt mixture. Add water, 1 Tbsp at a time until it comes together to the consistency you like.
To use: Use a small spoon to load it onto your toothbrush. I use about as much as I would of regular toothpaste. Brush as usual. Nice and lemony-minty!
NOTE: Some books say that swallowing essential oils is not safe, and some say it is ok. For your own safety, please do not swallow this toothpaste until you have researched the essential oils and are comfortable with the safety of doing so.
Now, I know you must be thinking one of the two thoughts below, or both:
~Will it get my teeth clean?
~Will it disinfect my mouth and freshen my breath?
As far as getting teeth clean, I would say it does! Here’s the rundown of the ingredients and their properties (as much as matter for toothpaste) so you can see that the ingredients in this toothpaste are perfectly capable of taking care of bad breath odor, coffee stained teeth, and bacteria:
Baking Soda* – stain-lifter, abrasive (scours without scratching), eliminates odors
Sea Salt* – stain lifter, keeps bacteria at bay
Lemongrass Essential Oil** – antimicrobial (resists or destroys pathogens), antiseptic(destroys or controls pathogenic bacteria), bactericidal (prevents the growth of or destroys bacteria)
Peppermint Oil** – antiseptic, astringent
Now, to find a homemade mouthwash recipe to tweak!
Have fun and let me know if you try this, and how you like it. If you tweak it with different essential oils, let me know that too! I’m always interested in what others are doing to save money and their health with homemade household and personal products!
Sea Salt? Is that a special type of salt? We use Kosher salt (thick grained)… but do have some finer grained salt. Which one would we use?
Pam, sea salt is pretty much available anywhere. I do think that regular salt would do, I just use sea salt, because that’s what’s in my cupboard.
Kosher salt would be too big and might scratch your gums. Love that stuff tho!
Okay I made a blog page, but I don’t know how to use it hahaha. It’s called PaimbiasCorner. So even if you never go there could I send you an invite just to see if it works?
Oh wait, that’s to have you try it out, never mind. I wanted to know how to have you look at it …. see I’m so green at this.
Yes, please! I’d love to read your blog.
Oh, that’s a great idea! I just learned that about xylitol recently, but it never occurred to me to use it in toothpaste. Thanks for sharing!
I want to try this one day….but we end up getting toothpaste free with coupons pretty regularly. I don’t make special trips to get it or anything like that…and since it’s free, I guess it would actually cost me more for homemade. But I’m wondering if there are dangers with commercial toothpastes (have you heard anything like that?) or reasons that homemade is better for you?
I’ve always kind of thought that toothpaste, since we spit it out anyway, is pretty innocuous. Also, since we have well water, I figure the floruide in the toothpaste is probably a pretty good idea too. Still…I just love stuff like this!!
Wonderful! I used to make my own toothpaste as a teenager, but I cannot recall the recipe… baking soda and mint leaf taste
I suffer from terrible aphtous mouth ulcers and I think this will be worth a try, as there is only one brand of toothpaste that does not make it worse. This may be a fairly silly question, but what do you store it in? And how long do you think it would keep? I wonder what people used to store their old fashioned tooth-paste in, you know like the pioneers?
Your blog is great, you’re so encouraging and down to earth, thank you!
Lindy Greaves,
South Africa
Hi Lindy in South Africa! Welcome to my blog and thanks for stopping by!
I store my toothpaste in a 1 cup (half pint) mason jar, the kind that is wide mouthed, rather than the taller variety. Any glass jar would do, though. I dunno what the pioneers used to store theirs, or if they even made any.
Thanks for the compliments, Lindy! Feel free to come back as much as you like!