I have been making my own toothpaste for almost a year now and while I do love my toothpaste, I was getting a little frustrated with it being hard to get from my jar onto my toothbrush. You see, we keep our house pretty cold (because it is so unbelievably hot outside right now). Because my homemade toothpaste is made with coconut oil, it is basically rock hard. I have to use a butter knife to cut off a piece and then put this ‘pebble’ on my toothbrush. I end up losing a few crumbly pieces down my drain all the time and the texture is not pleasant in my mouth until it warms up a bit!
The one upside was that my hard homemade toothpaste was quite easy to travel with because I never had to present it at airport security as a liquid. This freed up my ‘liquids’ bag for other products. Yet I still longed for a squeezable toothpaste. So I experimented with a few recipes and finally landed on this one.
Eureka! Squeezable toothpaste! And the cute BPA-free tubes make the whole thing quite fun. My daughter helped me fill up the tubes and was so excited to try it herself! She was not a big fan of the hard toothpaste at all!
Squeezable Toothpaste
The recipe makes enough to fill one 3 oz. BPA-free tube. You can double or triple the recipe as needed to make a few batches at once for the whole family or as gifts.
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp bentonite clay powder
- 2 tbsp coconut oil, at room temperature/liquid state
- 1 tsp whole ground stevia (this should be green not the white powder)
- ¾ tsp unrefined high mineral salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 Tbsp distilled water to thin, more as needed
- 1/4 tsp Thieves oil or any therapeutic grade essential oil you prefer. (I like to mix peppermint oil and Thieves and my husband likes fennel oil)
Directions
In a small glass bowl, blend together the coconut oil, stevia, salt, baking soda and essential oil until well incorporated. Mix in the bentonite clay and then slowly add the water a tablespoon at a time. When you have a smooth paste you are done! Scoop into your BPA-free tube and you will have squeezable toothpaste!
Notes:
It is important when making homemade toothpaste that you use top quality ingredients as I have suggested.
The natural stevia is what gives this toothpaste its green color so I guess you could say real toothpaste should be GREEN!
Further Reading from Around the Web
- Attend one of my Essential Oils 101 classes here!
- Over 25 Uses For Peppermint Essential Oil
- 20 Uses for Peppermint Essential Oil
- How To Buy Therapeutic Essential Oils
- Ditch Your Toxic Toothpaste!
More Peppermint Essential Oil recipes here!
- All Natural Homemade Toothpaste
- DIY Peppermint Muscle Balm
- Cooling Peppermint Toner
- Luscious Lemon Lip Balm
dont care for stevia. is there anything you could substitute with?
Possibly xylitol but you would need more to make it sweet. (Stevia is a lot sweeter in smaller quantities). You would need to experiment with proportions. I also do not care for stevia in the white powder and liquid forms but actually don’t mind it just for this toothpaste recipe in the whole ground form. You might be surprised.
thank you. i may have to try it then. i have been looking for a better toothpaste. do your kids use it?
My 4 year old was initially put off by a harder/crumbly version of this toothpaste I made previously but never posted. I am easing her into this one. She is using something similar now that is made with xylitol (a commercial one made by Young Living). I think the flavor is similar so hopefully she will use this one soon when that one runs out!
Hi all,
Thought I would comment on the XYLITOL suggestion. I have been doing copious research on it for my own teeth health and not only does it help prevent cavities but Xylitol can even help remineralise the teeth and get rid of small ‘just appearing’ decay! They recommend at least 5mg of xylitol a day but putting it in toothpaste is a great way to start!
Replacing the stevia with xylitol would be a great idea. 🙂
you used thieves oil but my hubby and I love tea tree oil, is it for taste or other purposes?
I just loves Thieves but you can use any oil you prefer.
have you tried Neem oil? It is one that was recommended on the Dr. Oz show. I don’t like the odor or the flavor, but with peppermint I think it would work. Just asking, I got some recently and incorporated it into my toothpaste and shampoo. (It is great for psoriasis as well as dental health)
Any reason why you need stevia at all? Can you make this without a sweetener? I have tons of bentonite clay and coconut oil and have been thinking about trying it out. I might try Wintergreen EO 🙂
Thanks TONS for the link to the tubes!!! I can’t wait! Now tell me (PLEASE) about those ultra-groovy black-lided jars in the photo holding the tooth brush. Thanks for all you do…VERY appreciated!
Yes! Please send link to the jars!!
All of my DIY beauty resources are now on this page: http://bit.ly/HMDIYBeautyEOs
Bentonite clay should only be kept in glass because of it’s drawing properties! But you can easily sub calcium powder that’s what we use for our squeezable toothpaste and keep the bentonite toothpaste in a glass jar for occasional use.
The whole stevia you suggested, does it leave an after taste like the powder stevia?
It doesn’t taste like the chemical taste of the powder – No.
Hi, I am wanting to make this toothpaste, but on another site they say it is vital that the paste with bentonite doesn’t come into contact with any plastics ? Is ok to store in plastic tube then with the bentonite ? What could be a replacement for the bentonite in your recipe here ? thanks shirley
You can store it in a glass jar if you are concerned.
I just read above you recommend bpa free plastic tube – so is this ok to store the bentonite toothpaste in as it is bpa free so won’t absorb the toxins perhaps ? thanks
Hey tell me where you got your cute mason jars? They don’t look like ball or kerr. Thanks!
does this stay squeezable even at colder temps? does the coconut oil harden? thats the problem I have with my current batch. I have to melt the whole thing on my space heater or in the microwave first. So I’m trying to find a recipe where I don’t have that problem.
I’ve been using this formula for months and my bathroom is quite chilly…no issue of it hardening on me. Squeezes out perfectly
I’ve been thinking to make my own toothpaste and this squeezable toothpaste looks nice and easy. Would love to try it this weekend. Thanks for sharing!
Hi there! thanks for the detailed instructions! I am looking to make the toothpaste for use by my kids as well. My son is 2 yrs old and swallows the paste, is it okay for him to swallow the clay?
He should learn to spit it out – not good to encourage swallowing toothpaste. What if he ate the whole thing?
I’ve been using this toothpaste for months and LOVE IT!! For extra whitening, I added 1tps of Activated Charcoal into the mixture.
I want to try this toothpaste, but I ordered the white powdered stevia by accident instead of the green whole ground powder. What will be the difference in this recipe? Can I still use the white powder?
So many stevias on the market and they are all different. Just know stevia is extremely sweet. I would start with less and see how sweet it is and then add more as needed.
I’ll be trying this but substituting calcium powder & xylitol. The green stevia paste made me think “Shrek Paste” LOL
Hi Lindsey,
How long does a batch of the paste last if kept in a squeezable tube?
Thanks,
Hannah
I have had some for about 2 months. No issues that I can see.
Great recipe! Thanks so much for posting it. I substituted aloe juice for the water, since I try not to use water in my homemade body care concoctions (too much risk of early spoilage). I omitted the sweetener entirely. The resulting toothpaste takes a bit of getting used to, but it leaves my teeth super clean and definitely fresh.
I have to admit I was pretty iffy about doing this, but I have been making strides to take charge of caring for my 2yr old son’s teeth naturally. I found myself shaking my head throuhout the whole thing. Besides adding extra water it worked out just like the posts describes! It’s one of those moments where you think “why didn’t I do this sooner?”. My son was more iffy about it than I was and it took several moments to convince him that it really was toothpaste but he did use it. This will be fun to play around with!
I see a few posts about keeping the clay in the plastic tube. I have to add that I have never bought bentonite clay that has come in glass. It has always come in a plastic container or a plastic bag. All recomendations I have read about the clay say not to let it come in contact with any metal and, if you use plastic, use a food grade plastic.
I am so glad you tried it!