I have had a number of concerns about toothpaste over the years, some of the ingredients can be a bit questionable (yes, I know you don’t swallow it……but) and it is almost impossible to get locally made stuff, it all comes from Asia these days. I wanted a formulation that I had some control over and would be able to produce at least some of the raw materials to make it. So as usual I cast around on the net for a formulation and came across a fairly common one I have seen repeated a number of times –
- 2 Tablespoons of coconut oil
- 2 to 3 Tablespoons of baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of sweetener of some description
- a few drops of peppermint essence to flavor it
Interesting but I would not be able to make any of the raw materials (strike 1). Anyway I decided to give it a go. I made up a small batch and tried it out one night. I no longer have to wonder what it would be like to have a mouthful of salt. It seemed to clean OK but the saline taste was revolting (strike 2). In this case 2 strikes and you’re out!
But I still wanted to make my own toothpaste so I kept researching and fooling around with formulations and I came up with this one –
- 1/8 cup calcium carbonate
- 1/8 cup arrowroot
- 1/8 cup water
- 10 drops peppermint oil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
It’s not perfect, it has a tendency to settle out and can taste a bit like Quickeze indigestion tablets but it does the job, has a passable taste and some of the components can be home produced. I bought food grade calcium carbonate commercially but it can be made from egg shells if you let them dry out and remove the internal membrane and then whizz them in a blender or spice grinder. If you can grow arrowroot (and we do here in Sydney) you can extract the starch and use it in the toothpaste, so it ticks the major boxes.
The work continues…..
