Tea Tree Moisturising Hand Sanitiser Gel

With everything that happened last year until now, I believe that you all have picked up a new habit, that is – sanitise your hand! So this entry is all about how to make your own hand sanitiser gel. If you are like me, having problems like dry hands because of too much alcohol gel (and dry weather don’t help too), this moisturising hand sanitiser gel is for you. Of course, one should not forget the importance of handwashing too.

What is a hand sanitizer? Hand sanitiser is a liquid, gel, or foam generally used to kill the vast majority of viruses/bacteria/microorganisms on the hands. In most of our outdoor daily life settings, we will need hand sanitizer. But keep in mind that, only alcohol-based hand sanitizer with greater than 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol as active ingredients is recommended by ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control)[Source]. So when it comes to DIY hand sanitiser, we should carefully calculated the concentration of alcohol to keep the efficiency of our hand sanitizer gel.

Ingredients of Moisturising Hand sanitiser gel

The moisturiser in the formulation comes from hyaluronic acid. Yes, you hear me right. In my formulation, I decided to incorporate hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid (HA) occurs naturally in our bodies, with about half of the HA in our bodies residing in the epidermis and the dermis (another source). This little magic powder is “primarily obtained from bacterial fermentation and rooster combs” (It often varies depending on the source, so ask your supplier to clarify which source their HA is from! This paper details how it is produced from each source.). It has been found to be very safe and works well on sensitive skin (it can even help calm it). It is also extraordinarily good at holding water: “Hyaluronic acid has a greater capacity to hold water than any other natural or synthetic polymer. One gram of hyaluronic acid can hold up to 6 L of water” (source). Our sanitiser gel, in the end, will content 0.4% of hyaluronic acid. Which itself is enough to turn our mixture into a gel form and also keep our hands moisturised.

Are you still here with me? Good. We have hyaluronic acid in powder form, so we need water to dissolve it. Now move on to the other ingredients of our sanitizer gel, we have also ethanol as our source of alcohol. Last but not least, tea tree essential oil to complement the antimicrobial properties of my formulation.

Moisturising hand sanitiser gel formulation :

• 0.4% hyaluronic acid (Phase A) [US/ Europe]
• 28.15% mineral water (Phase A)
• 70.45% of 96° denatured ethanol (Phase B) [US / Europe]
• 1% tea tree essential oil (Phase B)

So with 70.45% of 96° ethanol, our sanitiser gel will be ended up having 66% of ethanol as active ingredients for the sanitising purpose. I proposed denatured ethanol in my formulation as I prefer my sanitiser gel to smell neutral so that I can scent it as I want. Tea tree essential oil in the recipe is totally optional as the sanitising properties come from the alcohol itself, not the essential oil.

Others essential oil with anti-microbial properties:

DIY Tools

You will need the following tools for a mess free preparation:

• mini inox whisk / mini electronic mixer
• mixing bowl
• electronic balance precision 0.01g
• plastic pipette
• 50ml measuring cylinder (you don’t really need one if your electronic balance can switch between g and ml)

packaging

• 50ml airless pump bottle (It is what I am using, and I found it very useful as I can clean easily the internal of the bottle)
• Or, 50ml plastic bottle
• Or even better, any 50ml recycled empty bottle that you have.

Recipe

Tea Tree Moisturising Hand Sanitiser Gel

Recipe by Calleigh/ www.scentofdripsndrops.comCourse: Household RecipeDifficulty: Easy

Yield

50

ml

Prep time

30

minutes

Resting Time

12

hours

This recipe is prepared for 50ml of solution. You are welcome to scale up or down according to your needs. Phase A: Preparation of 1.4% hyaluronic acid stock. Phase B: Preparation of ethanol and essential oil mixture.

Ingredients

• 14 ml of mineral water (phase A)

• 0.2g of hyaluronic acid powder (phase A)

• 43 ml of 96° ethanol (phase B)

• 20 drops of tea tree essential oil (phase B)

Directions

• Weigh and measure phase A ingredients. Slowly whisk the hyaluronic powder into the water. Whisk it until the mixture is in a smooth gel form. Let it settle for 20 minutes. If the mixture is still not smooth, whisk again and let it rest for another 20 minutes.
• While waiting drips in the essential oil to the carefully measured ethanol.
• Incorporate the phase B mixture into the phase A mixture. You will need the help of a pipette by slowly transferring it in a stretch of 9 to 10 times. Stir and mix the liquid mixture each time to ensure total incorporation until the liquid achieves a homogenous state.
• Transfer the gel to a storage bottle.
• Wait for 12 hours before use.

Notes

• Before mixing up those ingredients, please sanitise all your DIY tools and equipment by spraying them with 96° ethanol.
• Essential oil is optional, in case you opt it out, you can top up with 1% more alcohol.
• If you don’t have tea tree essential oil and you really want to incorporate essential oil for the fragrance and antimicrobial properties, you can replace it with the same amount of lemon or eucalyptus essential oil.
• You can substitute the ethanol with isopropanol but it will require a whole new formulation for this.
• Hyaluronic acid has to be purchased in powder form, is the only way to know that it exists in 100% pure HA concentration. And it is easier for us to calculate and control our mixture preparation in a later stage.
• Hyaluronic acid is expensive stuff for what it can do. It is also the main ingredient that turns our sanitiser into gel form. It can be substitute with plant-based glycerin or aloe vera gel. But again it will require a whole new formulation for this.

Well, I have to say my hands are happy with my homemade sanitiser gel as finally for once the gel sanitise my hands and protects them in a gentle way (Thank you hyaluronic acid!). On top of it, it has that lovely smell from tea tree oil. As you know those sanitiser gel from the supermarket often smells awful. Now that you can make one for yourself and knowing what is inside, what are you waiting for?!

Have fun making it and enjoy your moisturised hands!

Stay safe and sane.

If you like this tutorial and what I am doing, please consider donating a cup of cappuccino. As caffeine is my source of inspiration. =)

Calleigh

Hi, I am Calleigh, MEng Chemical Engineering and a process engineer, and I'm here to show you how to DIY your skincare and household products with the correct formulation and using only natural ingredients. I believe that eating good food (Yes I have cooking recipes too!) and living in a chemical-free environment are the keys to having a healthy lifestyle. And that doesn't need to be expensive.