Insane and unheard-of: Make your own Toothpaste!

Another weird mission - Danger! - If you chose to accept this mission - you might never go back to regular toothpaste.
I don’t know why I did not think about this earlier - but lately I have been quite upset about how much toothpaste actually costs.
Granted, I buy one of the most expensive ones out there - I have gotten hooked on Weleda’s Salt Toothpaste, which retails for anywhere from $3.75 to $5.00 for 3.3 ounces! I have also been buying Tom’s of Maine, which is a bit less expensive at around $5.00 for 5.5 ounces.
If we look at the ingredients, the first one listed for Weleda is:

“Sodium Bicarbonate” which is of course a fancy name for “Baking Soda” - so have I been buying Baking Soda for $5.00 per 3 ounces? It almost seems to be!

Water - could be free out of my faucet!

Glycerin - which is basically a fancy name for vegetable oil - (again - that costs close to nothing)

a list of herby sounding things - but on their website even Weleda admits, that those are present only in highly diluted forms - Translate: miniscule trace amounts

And Sodium Chloride - which - you guessed it, is salt. Again not terrible expensive.

So here is my recipe for home made toothpaste - it is so good, it is almost addictive.
Try your own variations - as always, have fun and experiment wildly!

Ingredients:

* Baking Soda - the same kind you hopefully use for cleaning everything else in your house - so why not your teeth? Cost: can be as low as $0.50 for 2 pounds! Buy store brand - no need to go fancy here.

* Salt - whichever you use - it is really good for your gums - Cost: cents

* Glycerin - or any other vegetable oil - no real medicinal use - just used as a binder
It is available in any pharmacy or health food store and costs about $2.00 for 4 fluid ounces - but will last you probably a year! Or you could also use any other oil, that you already have.

* essential oil flavorings: you can use the traditional peppermint, spearmint or go more exotic and use fennel, cinnamon or vanilla. All of these are just meant to add taste, so even though we are conditioned to have minty fresh breath, there are options here. The essential oils will set you back around $5.00 per miniscule 5 mili liter bottle, but they are worth it! First of all, one of these will again last you for years, and second you can use the oils to flavor lots of other things , from cleaning vinegar to perfume.

Instructions:

1. Mix two to three drops of the essential oil of your choice with 3 tablespoons of baking soda. Add one tablespoon salt and two teaspoons glycerin to bind. Mix well and add additional flavors such as fennel or vanilla and you could also add one or two drops tea tree oil.

2. Store in an airtight container - or go to an art supply store and buy tubes to fill yourself, which are meant for paint - but you should be able to use them for your homemade toothpaste. I don’t remember off hand how much those go for, but it can’t be too much!

 Anyway - Let me know how you did - I am really curious to see what you think!