Soap Making, Oils and Recipes
I am not going to take sides on the ADHD controversial wall but I have been asked to share this Essential oil recipe. This blend of oils, which not only helped one woman but has many more praising it’s Natural ability. Check out the full article as well as details on where to get this. You can try it out from as little as $28 per bottle. Full Story can be seen here.
If you’ve ever tried to squeeze the very last smear of toothpaste from a tube, rolled it from the bottom, folded it in half and then attacked it with the handle of your toothbrush, you’ll understand why toothpaste tablets have become such an interesting zero-waste bathroom swap.
They’re tiny, dry, easy to store and — rather wonderfully — don’t require another toothpaste tube.
You simply pop one into your mouth, chew it until it breaks down, wet your toothbrush and brush as normal.
And yes, you can actually make them yourself.
Before we get into the recipe, there is one important dental note. Most homemade toothpaste tablet recipes do not contain fluoride. The American Dental Association recommends brushing twice daily for two minutes with fluoride toothpaste, and NHS guidance also recommends fluoride toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay.
So think of homemade toothpaste tablets as an interesting DIY formulation rather than an automatic replacement for the toothpaste your dentist recommends.
For me, the attraction is partly the packaging.
Instead of continually buying toothpaste tubes, homemade tablets can be stored in a little reusable glass jar.
They’re also brilliant for travel.
No squashed tube.
No toothpaste exploding inside the toiletry bag.
No wondering whether your tube counts toward your liquids allowance.
You can simply put the number of tablets you need into a tiny container and go.
They also last in a way that homemade wet toothpaste often doesn’t because you’re creating a dried product rather than keeping a water-rich mixture sitting beside the bathroom sink.
This formulation is based on the DIY Toothpaste Tablets Recipe created by dentist Tracy Ariza.
Her recipe uses calcium carbonate and baking soda as the main powdered ingredients, along with xylitol and a mild surfactant. The ingredients are combined with enough water to form a thick paste, pressed into small moulds and completely dried before storage.
50 g calcium carbonate
20 g baking soda
10 g xylitol
3 g sodium cocoyl glutamate or another appropriate toothpaste-formulation surfactant
Around 5 drops peppermint, anise or another suitable flavouring
Approximately 20 g filtered or distilled water
Small silicone mould
Small mixing bowl
Spoon or spatula
Airtight glass jar
Combine the calcium carbonate, baking soda and xylitol in a clean dry bowl.
Mix thoroughly so the powders are evenly distributed.
Add your chosen flavouring and surfactant and mix again.
Now add the distilled or filtered water very gradually.
You’re looking for a thick mouldable paste rather than a runny toothpaste consistency.
Press small amounts firmly into your silicone mould.
The smaller the mould cavities, the more practical your finished tablets will be. Think tiny mint rather than ice cube.
Allow them to dry completely.
Depending on humidity, this can take several hours or considerably longer. The original recipe suggests allowing the tablets to air dry and notes that a very low oven can help in cool or humid conditions.
Once completely dry and firm, remove them from the mould.
Store them in an airtight container away from moisture.
Take one tablet with dry hands.
Place it in your mouth and chew it until it breaks into a paste.
Wet your toothbrush and brush your teeth normally.
Brush thoroughly for around two minutes, covering the inside, outside and chewing surfaces of your teeth.
Then spit out the excess.
Calcium carbonate isn’t just an obscure ingredient you’ve suddenly encountered because you’re making something in your kitchen.
It’s commonly used as an abrasive ingredient in toothpaste.
In a homemade formulation it provides much of the tooth-cleaning powder that gives the tablet substance.
Baking soda — sodium bicarbonate — is another ingredient frequently found in tooth-cleaning formulations.
It also helps create the firm powder-heavy structure needed for a dried tablet.
More isn’t necessarily better, though.
DIY toothpaste isn’t the place to start enthusiastically increasing abrasive ingredients because you assume extra scrubbing means cleaner teeth.
Stick to a properly formulated recipe.
Xylitol gives toothpaste tablets some sweetness without adding ordinary sugar.
One very important household warning: xylitol is highly toxic to dogs.
If you have dogs in the house, store xylitol and any xylitol-containing toothpaste products well out of their reach.
That includes the cute glass jar of toothpaste tablets sitting on the bathroom vanity.
You can find DIY tablet formulations online without it, but removing an ingredient can alter flavour, texture and how well a formulation presses together.
If you’re going to experiment, make small test batches rather than changing half the ingredients and hoping for the best.
That’s a lesson I’ve learned with practically every DIY bath and body recipe I’ve ever made.
One small substitution somehow becomes six substitutions and suddenly we’re not following a recipe at all.
You don’t need anything fancy.
Small silicone candy moulds work beautifully because the dried tablets can simply be pushed out.
Look for very small cavities.
A large chocolate mould might give you a tablet that looks impressive in the jar but feels slightly ridiculous when you’re trying to chew it before breakfast.
Moisture is the enemy here.
Always remove tablets with dry hands and keep the lid firmly closed.
Don’t store an open jar right beside the shower where it is repeatedly exposed to steam.
A small lidded glass jar inside the bathroom cabinet is a much better option.
This might actually be my favourite use for homemade toothpaste tablets.
Take a tiny screw-top tin or little reusable jar and fill it with enough tablets for your trip.
If you’re away for four nights and brush twice a day, you only need eight tablets plus a couple of spares.
It takes up almost no room.
I’d be cautious about swapping a child’s regular toothpaste for homemade tablets without speaking to their dentist.
Current NHS guidance recommends fluoride toothpaste for children, with fluoride concentration and toothpaste amount varying according to age.
There’s also the obvious issue that toothpaste tablets are designed to be chewed before brushing and could be mistaken for sweets.
Keep them securely stored away from young children.
“Zero waste” is always a slightly ambitious phrase.
The ingredients still need to come from somewhere and will usually arrive in packaging.
But buying ingredients in larger quantities and repeatedly refilling one small container can reduce the stream of individual toothpaste tubes leaving your bathroom.
The broader zero-waste principle is really reduce first, reuse wherever possible, then recycle what remains. That’s also consistent with current EPA waste-reduction guidance.
And that’s why I like this project.
It’s not about creating a Pinterest-perfect bathroom where everything has magically become plastic-free overnight.
It’s about looking at one product you use every single day and asking whether there’s another way to do it.
Sometimes that alternative is surprisingly tiny.
I wish you would not encourage people to fork over $28/bottle for something that has only anecdotes to back up its claims. If essential oils truly did work for ADHD, there would be clinical trial results. This is an expensive bit of wishful thinking and you do your readers no favors by lending credence to it.
Keep up the great job! I have to disagree with Shay! As a mother of a child with Tourette’s….I know that there are times that a traditional medicine may or may not work…so great to have some alternatives to use or help out what you are already using! Plus I am a teacher and find that some times the little things can work especially for kids with sensory issues. I have several friends who are school psychologists and it is amazing the number of these women who believe in these oils and use them personally! That right there says a lot when they have resources to therapy, doctors, & meds…..they go for their oils first….which are natural!
I have to disagree with Shay. I have several friends who are school psychologists and they head for the essential oils first. They know they are natural and have been around for thousands of years….read about them in the Bible as well!
Essential oils are not generally used by traditional western medicine doctors and they are not made by big pharma so there are no clinical trials required. There’s no FDA oversight demanding such trials, nor will essential oils be endorsed by the FDA. The results vary person to person, but we too have had enormous benefits using non traditional treatment options for our kiddos. I am interested to know what oils were used because some oils are too harsh for my little one’s skin. Do you use a carrier oil, like almond oil?
So glad you found something that helps. It’s hard enough for kids with challenges. I hate that society thinks it’s okay for schools to try to force medications on them. There’s a class action lawsuit against the makers of “risperdal” which went through the “clinical trials” that Shay suggests prove a drug works. Apparently it causes boys who took it to develop female breast tissue. I don’t know about you, but I’d sooner take a chance on EOs before trusting big pharma and their chemical concoctions with so called “positive results”.
Shay, I wish you would not DIScourage people from trying something more natural, less expensive, less harmful, and potentially more beneficial than high priced chemicals regulated by the pharmaceutical companies. These remedies have been around for centuries, and, with all due respect, you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I use a homeopathic remedy on my dog that has completely eliminated seizures, so please don’t disregard remedies that can and do work for some people.
There are no chemicals in essential oils? That’s scientifically impossible. I wish someone would explain to me why it’s okay for an individual, online, to flog an unknown concoction with no oversight — ‘natural’ treatments aren’t regulated and can say anything they like about their contents and usage — and make a nice profit… but a corporation that has to undergo product testing to support any claims is somehow suspect.
Barnum was right.