Rather than going to the store to purchase more, I thought I’d try to make my own toothpaste.

There are a few reasons I wanted to try making my own toothpaste:

#1 – I feel absolutely HORRIBLE every time I throw away an empty plastic toothpaste tube. I know that plastic is going to sit in a landfill FOREVER. I thought if I could make my own toothpaste at home, we could stop throwing all of those plastic tubes into the trash, and it would be a small step toward cutting back on the trash our family creates.

#2 – I don’t really understand what’s in most of the toothpaste we buy or why it’s in there. PEG-12?? Sodium lauryl sulfate?? Sodium saccharin?? This stuff just doesn’t sound like it’s very good for us.

#3 – If it works out, I figure we will save a little money — the cost of all the ingredients together is much less expensive than store-bought options.

So, I decided to give it a go, and…the entire process took a lot less time (and was a lot less messy) than I thought. It was actually really easy.

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Here are the steps I followed:

STEP 1: Gather the ingredients. (I used: coconut oil, baking soda, and peppermint essential oil.)

STEP 2: Pre-measure each ingredient and set it aside. (For this batch I used: 10 tbsp of coconut oil, 5 tbsp of baking soda, and about 10 drops of peppermint essential oil — I say “about” because we started with 10, and then my husband snuck in a few more.)

STEP 3: In a bowl combine the coconut oil and baking soda, a little of each at a time until it forms a paste. Add the essential oil and continue to stir it all together until thoroughly combined.

STEP 4: Transfer to a storage container.

And that’s it.

It was really very simple.

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My initial reactions after trying it:

* I thought maybe the texture of the paste might be too different from what I was used to, but it wasn’t. The texture reminded me of a natural, brand-name toothpaste that I had tried before.

* The flavor was nice, not too overpowering, definitely minty.

* It just so happened that I had a cup of coffee right before I made the toothpaste. (I didn’t plan that, but it worked out to be a good test!) Once I finished brushing, I asked my husband to smell my breath for me — I was curious if he could smell the peppermint and if any of the coffee smell might be lingering. He just smelled peppermint, and no coffee!

* My teeth felt soooo smooth afterwards.

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Moving forward, we (the grown ups in the house) will try it out for a while and see what we notice. I have a dentist appointment coming up in a couple of weeks, and I’m going to ask him what he thinks about this kind of toothpaste compared to store-bought. I’m also really curious to know how long the batch is going to last us.

I’d like to try out other recipes in the future. I know some people make theirs with a lot less baking soda or use different oils, for example.

Is this something you might try? Have you already made your own toothpaste before? What do you use?

~Melissa