Yesterday morning I had used the last of my toothpaste and made a mental note to grab some more at the store later. And almost as if the plastic karma spirits were watching over me, I opened my instagram maybe five minutes later and the first post to pop up was a recipe for homemade toothpaste! Better yet, after reading the ingredients, there was only one thing that I didn't already have!
The ingredients are as follows:
-2 tablespoons of coconut oil
-1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
-1 tablespoon of baking soda
-5 drops of peppermint essential oil
The baking soda is used to raise the pH of the toothpaste to neutralize acids and fight cavities. Cocoa powder contains theobromine which boosts your teeth ability to remineralize...not to mention it tastes good! The peppermint essential oil is really an optional ingredient, but it does help eliminate odors. I use Young Living essential oils and the peppermint is part of their Vitality line used for culinary and dietary uses.
I decided to make my own toothpaste for the main reason of eliminating the single use plastic packaging that store bought toothpaste comes in. However, when it comes to the decision of switching to homemade toothpaste, plastics are not the only sustainability concern. There's a lot of talk about certain chemicals used in commercial toothpastes and people are debating on whether or not they want these in their mouth. THINK DEEPER! If you wouldn't to brush your teeth with it, then it certainly shouldn't be spit into our water! Chemicals from toothpaste can flow into waterways and create water pollution. For example, sodium pyrophosphate is used in toothpastes to prevent tartar build up, however, there are now studies linking that chemical to major algal growth in our seas and oceans. Large algae growths remove all the oxygen from the water creating "dead zones" where no marine wildlife can survive. Many toothpastes also use microbeads, which are tiny little pieces of plastic to make the toothpaste abrasive. Microbeads are found in many cosmetics, but these bits of plastic go down our drains, through the water treatment plants, and out into our waterways. I recently heard that almost 99% of the plastics floating in our oceans are microplastics. Look at our beaches and all the plastic we can see, then imagine all the plastics we CAN'T see.
The bottom line? I LOVE this DIY toothpaste. It tastes decent, my mouth feels cleans, and I've heard of others who tried it claiming that their dentists even asked what toothpaste they use! Will YOU try it? Let us know how it goes! Email us or tag us on instagram!
XX Erin
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