How to make your own hand sanitiser

When you go shopping you are touching things and it's very hard not to touch your face before you get home and wash your hands. Alcohol based hand sanitiser is a good solution to this problem.

The shelf at Coles was empty, except for a few exotic non alcohol based hand lotions.

But I found these ingredients readily by shopping around in Alice Springs:

• 1 litre of Diggers methylated spirits from Bunnings for $4. I was only allowed to buy one and my ID details were taken.
• aloe vera gel 250g $9 (at Chemists)
• lavendar oil 25ml $5 (at Chemists)
• TOTAL $18 to make a litre of hand sanitiser

Methylated spirits ("metho") is a mixture of ethyl alcohol (95%) and methyl alcohol (%5). The methyl alcohol is poisonous and is added to prevent the methylated spirits being used as cheap drinking alcohol.

The recipe I used: (source)

• 3/4 cup of isopropyl or ethanol alcohol (99 percent)
• 1/4 cup of aloe vera gel (to help keep your hands smooth and to counteract the harshness of alcohol)
• 10 drops of essential oil, such as lavender oil, or you can use lemon juice instead

Directions:

• Pour all ingredients into a bowl, ideally one with a pouring spout like a glass measuring container.
• Mix with a spoon and then beat with a whisk to turn the sanitizer into a gel.
• Pour the ingredients into an empty bottle for easy use, and label it “hand sanitizer.

Another recipe:
“You just need one cup of alcohol, two teaspoons of glycerin and one teaspoon of tea tree oil - mix it together and there’s your hand sanitiser.
(source)