In my attempts to wean myself from commercial hygiene products like shampoo, soap, and now toothpaste, I am happy to report that the blogosphere is a bountiful resource of information and testimonials about recipes for homemade scrubs, moisturizers, shampoos, soaps, laundry soap, all purpose cleaners, and toothpaste.
I found a toothpaste recipe a few days ago on Crunchy Betty's blog and bought the ingredients yesterday.
Homemade Coconut Oil Toothpaste
3 tbsp coconut oil [this was news to me - coconut oil is more of a gel or puree than a liquid oil]
3 tbsp baking soda
25 drops peppermint essential oil
1 packet stevia
2 tsp vegetable glycerin (optional) [note: Some commenters on Crunchy Betty said glycerin wasn't good for your teeth so I chose to not use it.]
Put the coconut oil and baking soda in a bowl and mash up with a fork until blended. Add the peppermint essential oil, stevia and optional vegetable glycerin and continue to mash and stir until you’ve reached toothpaste consistency.
Being the geek that I am, and armed with my trusty digital kitchen scale, I weighed the ingredients and did a cost breakdown:
coconut oil - $9.99 for 414 ml
baking soda - $1.99 for 500 g
stevia - $10.99 for a box of 70 packets (works out to 1 g per packet)
peppermint essential oil - $8.99 for 30 ml
I weighed out the ingredients as called for in the recipe:
coconut oil - 45 ml (weighed 41 g)
baking soda - 49 g (volume 45 ml)
stevia - 1 g
peppermint essential oil - ended up with just less than 1/2 tsp, which worked out to an estimated 2.3 ml.
The ingredients mixed together really easily and smelled strongly of peppermint - just like the commercial stuff. I rubbed some between my fingers and it had a very slightly gritty texture from the baking soda.
I dipped my toothbrush in and gave it a run. First impression was a very salty taste from the baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Bleh. New trick - keep my tongue away from this stuff while brushing. In the past I briefly tried brushing with baking soda. It tasted terrible, but my teeth felt clean - although it also seemed to dry out my mouth. This new recipe, while salty, had a much nicer consistency. My teeth definitely feel very clean, but the coconut oil left a really pleasant softness in my mouth. The salty taste pretty much beat out the peppermint taste, so I may have to adjust either the stevia or peppermint amounts, or both, to get a better flavor. I don't miss the sodium lauryl sulfate foam at all!
Cost Analysis
coconut oil - $9.99 ÷ 414 ml x 45 ml = $1.09
baking soda - $1.99 ÷ 500 g x 49 g = $0.20
stevia - $10.99 ÷ 70 = $0.16
peppermint essential oil - $8.99 ÷ 30 ml x 2.3 ml = $0.69
Grand total for approximately 92 ml of toothpaste = $2.14
So the cost is much cheaper than the Sensodyne I've been using for the last year or so, which is currently about $5.00 for a 100 ml tube - although the homemade stuff may not address the tooth sensitivity, the Sensodyne wasn't really eliminating that either. If you can catch a sale you can get 100 ml tubes of Colgate for $1.29 or something, so that may be a better deal for you, but I'm liking the fact that I know exactly what my toothpaste ingredients are. I also didn't shop around for coconut oil. I could probably get a better price at a health food store or whole foods store. The store I got it from had just a few jars of one brand, so that doesn't scream "we price competitively!" to me.
Another nice feature is that if I don't want to make any more toothpaste, I haven't wasted money on specialized ingredients. I can use everything but the essential oil in the kitchen.
