Zero Waste Toothpaste

This post is soooo long overdue. Switching to homemade Toothpaste was one of the first changes I made! It’s so simple. You only need three ingredients for this specific recipe. There are other versions, even a Tooth Powder that you can find on Rogue Ginger’s Site.

You will need:

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking soda
• 25-30 drops Organic food grade peppermint essential oil (Or anything else you’d prefer. Anise, Spearmint

I’ve used many variations of this recipe. In the very beginning, I couldn’t find Peppermint Essential oil anywhere. The only oils I could find, was massage oil and not suitable for ingesting. Somebody said it wouldn’t make a difference, as I wont be swallowing it. I tried. It burnt my tongue…

So I used only a mixture of Coconut Oil and Baking Soda. That worked, it tasted okay, but was just too oily in texture for my liking. Then I switched to just using Baking Soda on its own. That worked better, but it definitely takes some getting used to. I don’t think many people will like the saltiness of it, but my teeth never felt so clean.

Then I went back to using normal tooth paste for about a week or so as I still had conventional toothpaste at home that I figured I need to use it up.

Two things happened:

• I nearly gagged… The minty toothpaste I always loved, was so horrible I almost threw up. It was disgusting.
• Someone told me maybe my Homemade Mix wasn’t working so well, as my teeth had a slight build up. I noticed this too, and have been brushing like mad every morning to get them cleaner but my teeth just didn’t feel as clean as I wanted it… They were very surprised when I said that I actually haven’t been using the home made mix for more than a week and “normal” toothpaste was to blame the build up.

So, back to my homemade version I went. I recently found Lennon’s Peppermint drops, which (I assume) works just as well as Essential Oil would.

I use more baking soda than the recipe tho, because as much as I like the coconut oil taste, I DO NOT care for the oiliness… So my version 1:2 Oil & Baking Soda, instead of the other way around.

Play around with it. If too oily, add more baking soda. If too salty, grainy or dry, add more oil. Add more peppermint or any other oil of choice if needed.

Instructions:

Mix all three ingredients in a glass dish or bottle. I bought an itsy bitsy glass jar, as you can see.

To use, simply scoop out a little bit with a spoon and put it onto your toothbrush. Or, just dip your toothbrush in the mix, and use.

As simple as that.

 

This is a snippet I stole from Lauren’s Trash is for Tossers. Food for thought:

Sure, you have to get over the saltiness of the baking soda, get into using a spoon instead of a tube, and you might miss the frothing and bubbling of commercial toothpaste, but I think of it this way: There was a time when we were trained to tolerate the stinging minty paste that we all grew up with, the one that burned because it was “working.” That burning became normal – I was taught to believe that it was what clean felt like. Not because it was super clean, but because that is what my family and my authority figures said. I later realized that my aversion to brushing with baking soda wasn’t because it doesn’t work, it was because it didn’t align with how I was raised to view cleanliness.

Transitioning to a Zero Waste lifestyle has really been as simple as understanding why I believe the things I do and retraining myself to form new habits and make simple changes to my daily ritual. It has not added hardship or strife or inconvenience at all. It’s just different. Different has been great. By challenging my preconceptions about what clean means, how I should clean, and what I need to achieve “cleanliness”, I feel more immaculate than I ever did before.

Have you tried a different version, perhaps the powder? What are your thoughts?

Let me know in the comment section below!