Introduction: Classic Homemade Toothpaste

By Hack42 (in Dutch)
About: I like to tinker. I'm a co-founder and active participant of my local hackerspace: Hack42 in Arnhem, the Netherlands. You can also find me on BookCrossing.com under the name Moem.

Why would you want to make your own toothpaste? Plenty of good reasons...

  • It's cheap.
  • You have full control over the ingredients.
  • It works really well. Leaves your teeth nice and clean.
  • It's great for your gums. No more redness or irritation!
  • Coconut oil is naturally anti-bacterial.
  • You're sticking it to The Man by not buying commercial rubbish from multinationals.
  • You don't like store-bought toothpaste, for one reason or another.
  • It's cheap.

And finally...

  • Because you can.

Of course, Scoochmaroo posted a great recipe for fancy toothpaste that is rather a lot like store-bought. But some of us prefer the good old classic baking-powder-and-coconut-oil approach. So this is a pretty basic, glycerine-free recipe. The choice, as always, is yours!

Step 1: What You'll Need

Here's your ingredient list. It's nice and short.

  • Coconut oil
  • Baking soda (I used the famous 'Body Part and Tool'-brand)

Optionally:

  • Peppermint oil (or other fragrant and food safe oil)

Even more optionally:

  • Blue food colouring
  • Wodka, if using food colouring in powdered form

Why the peppermint oil? Because it tastes nicer.
Why the food colouring? Because as we all know, anything blue cleans better.

Of course, none of these embellishments are needed. They're just nice, if you like that kind of thing.

Finally, you'll need

  • something to put it in. Glass or ceramics = good.

Step 2: Melt Stuff

Put your container, if fireproof, on a heat source. If it's not, use a small saucepan.

Add coconut oil. A little bit less than half of what will fit into your container. Heat on low heat until it's mostly liquid; then, shut off the heat and stir with a fork.

Step 3: Add Stuff

Add baking soda in a more or less equal amount to the coconut oil. Stir well.

Add up to about a teaspoon of your chosen flavouring, and stir some more.

Step 4: Add More Stuff (if You Want)

Mix the food colouring (if it's powdered) with a spoonful of wodka. You don't need much. It's just for fun anyway.

Add it to your mixture. If your food colouring is liquid, just pour some in. If you want to of course.

Step 5: Mix Stuff

Stif your mixture until it's all the same colour. Then allow it to cool. Before it's completely solid, give it a final stir.
What more can I say? Yes, it really is this simple.

This toothpaste is solid at room temperature, depending on your climate. If you find you cannot scrape some out of the jar with your toothbrush, find a cute-looking little spoon. Yes, I tried adding water; it did not help.

Enjoy using your home-made toothpaste! I'm sure you'll like the clean feeling it leaves behind. If you feel that you must have fluoride* you can always add a suitable mouth wash to your dental routine.

*This is controversial and highly debatable and I don't actually want to get into that debate, so I'll not state my own preference here. I'm just mentioning it as an option.