Here’s a recipe for a hand sanitiser I’ve been making at home that’s strong on germs (antibacterial, antiseptic, antifungal) and kind on hands with the added bonus of an essential oil blend aromatherapists recommend for boosting the immune system (antiviral).
Mix together the following then spoon into an empty, thoroughly clean pump bottle:
- 200ml of aloe vera gel for its soothing, moisturising and restoring properties
- one tablespoon of witch hazel, a natural, non-drying cleanser
- a quarter of a teaspoon of vitamin E oil for added moisture
- half a teaspoon of tea tree essential oil for its antibacterial properties
- 3 drops of eucalyptus essential oil
- 4 drops of lemon essential oil
- 4 drops of niaouli essential oil
Aloe vera gel, witch hazel and vitamin E oil are all readily available to buy online. My advice would be to buy the purest form (i.e. additive-free) of each that you can.
I now buy my essential oils from Fairyland Aromatics in Glastonbury. They use 100% pure ingredients of high grade, therapeutic quality and avoid the addition of unnecessary additives. As such they are infinitely better quality than those supplied by online high street chains.
If you’re looking for a recipe for a home-made multi-purpose surface cleaner, here‘s the one we use in the Pilates studio to clean the mats and other equipment.
To close, here’s my go-to cleaning song from Ani DiFranco…
PS. The beautiful metal gloves in the image at the top are by Lory Sun.
PILATES x MELISSA 
Many thanks – my hands are SO dry ! will make some.
I did an online shop yesterday, and then picked up from the supermarket car park – really good system, lessening contacts with people and food handling. Used Sainsburys and collected from Portishead supermarket. The Sainsburys van was parked in car park with coned off reserved space for us to park in alongside, just had to transfer food from their crates to ours. Brilliant. Will use again.
Feel better now we have supplies in, confess to have shopped for 2 weeks or a bit more, didnt fancy having to run to shops lots of times, not that I wanted to hoard.
Interestingly the supermarket guy said Retail are learning from this, that we all dont actually want millions of choices for baked beans , toilet rolls etc, life could be simpler, no one would mind. He said they are only stocking limited choices but have plenty of everything.
Stay safe.
Hope to see you online sometime ! Have to say though that i’m not really enjoying Live sessions , I prefer having the option to look at things on Youtube , etc dont mind paying of course, I just feel a bit uncomfortable with the Live aspect – its OK if the Presenter is Live, but I’m not keen on being seen or heard !!! but thats me , shy. Probably not alone, I’m not impressed with Weight Watchers using this one and only medium (Zoom).
Chris
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Hi Chris. Glad you’ve found a way to get your food supplies in more safely. Take care. Melissa
Hi Melissa
Where would you recommend getting Witch Hazel, Aloe Vera gel and Vit E oil please ? cant see those 3 on Fairyland Aromatics .
Thanks
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Hi Chris. I got the witch hazel from Boots and the aloe vera gel and Vitamin E oil from Holland & Barrett. I’m sure there are plenty of other suppliers in the UK if you do a Google Shopping search for each. You could email Fairyland Aromatics from their website and ask for the essential oils if you can’t find them in their online shop. Otherwise again try a Google Shopping search. Best wishes. Melissa