Can You Use Vegetable Glycerin Instead of Aloe Vera Gel for A Homemade Hand Sanitizer?

Hand sanitizers are essential products in the home, office, or other public places. This is because they help people sanitize their hands without using soap and water. Hand sanitizers make it easy and convenient to clean hands, thus protecting against disease-causing bacteria and viruses, such as the novel coronavirus. Since many people are concerned about the coronavirus, the demand for hand sanitizer is high. This will eventually make the supply at local stores run low, thus prompting people to use homemade hand sanitizers.

To make a hand sanitizer, several essential ingredients are required. These include
● Alcohol (at least 60%),
● Essential oils, and
● Aloe vera/vegetable glycerin.

These ingredients are mixed in certain proportions to make a hand sanitizer. Though most people use aloe vera to make hand sanitizers, vegetable glycerin is another effective ingredient. This is because vegetable glycerin has various properties and uses that make it suitable for making hand sanitizers.

Vegetable glycerol is an unscented, transparent, and viscous liquid derived from oils of plants like palms, coconuts, soy, e.t.c. Vegetable glycerol is a modern liquid because its extraction began in the early 20th Century. Traditionally, vegetable glycerin has particular significant uses in the food industry as a sweetening ingredient. This is because vegetable glycerol does not cause a spike in blood sugar levels. Hence, it is ideal for people living with diabetes. Moreover, vegetable glycerin has certain properties that make it ideal for making homemade hand sanitizers.

● When vegetable glycerol is used to make homemade sanitizers, it gives the skin ability to lock in moisture, thus softening and soothing the skin’s complexion while still cleansing it. This is because the pH level of the glycerol is quite close to that of the skin. This particular property also makes vegetable glycerol ideal for baby skincare or people living with skin complications. Therefore, while making homemade sanitizer, vegetable glycerin is a suitable alternative to aloe vera.

● Vegetable glycerin is suitable for making homemade sanitizer because it does not clog the skin’s pores.This ensures that the skin absorbs active and beneficial ingredients from the glycerol. Moreover, these active ingredients help to regenerate the skin and improve the skin tone. Unwanted marks and spots are also diminished by vegetable glycerol. Hence, a homemade sanitizer made with vegetable glycerin is very beneficial to the skin, among many other uses.

● Vegetable glycerol is ideal for hand sanitizer because it eliminates congestion in skin pores, maintains skin’s elasticity, soothes itching and dryness, regulates the skin’s oil production, and protects the skin from harmful bacteria.

A good hand sanitizer made with vegetable glycerin will have all these unique properties beneficial to the user/s.

There are various medicinal benefits of using vegetable glycerin to make homemade hand sanitizers. This is because vegetable glycerol can soothe, cool, and enhance the quick healing of skin complications. Moreover, the vegetable glycerin has many other uses like facilitating the healing of cuts, burns, sores, itches, blemishes, inflammation, e.t.c. This is because vegetable glycerin forms a protective layer on the skin that also guards against environmental pollutants.

Conclusion

Though the uses of vegetable glycerin have many, it is a good option for making homemade hand sanitizers. This is because it has all the requisite properties that will effectively make the homemade sanitizer kill bacteria and disease-causing microbes.