Today I have a guest post from April Pointer, who blogs at Oily Wisdom, a site dedicated to essential oils. April is a wife and homeschool mom to boys and she is passionate about health and science. While I am not particularly afraid of germs and feel we should all build up our natural defenses by maintaining healthy gut flora, I am really thrilled to share this recipe with you for a Homemade Disinfectant Spray as an excellent non-toxic option vs. commercial sprays. When I am out and about it is nice to have something non-toxic and effective on hand in case we encounter something icky.
Thieves Essential Oil blend is my HERO!
As a mom to boys I have played my fair share of superhero games, and while I like to play, I actually do have a favorite superhero I call on when my family needs help. Thieves essential oil blend is my all time favorite superhero. It has saved the day more times than I can count.
It may seem funny that the name of my hero is “Thieves” but it is actually named after a 15th century family of thieves who would rob and pillage the dead and those dying from the Black/Bubonic Plague. They became famous because they were not contracting the this highly contagious disease. 1 out of 2 people caught the plague, and when contracted they would die within two days. YIKES! Now, that’s a REAL pandemic! When the law finally apprehended them, in exchange for a more lenient sentence, they had to divulge how they stayed healthy. Well, this famous family who had escaped the plague for 40 years…they were actually spice traders and would rub themselves in these oils and spices to ward off disease. Clearly it worked! The recipe was posted all over town, on real paper. No doubt thousands of lives would have been saved had those posts been on Facebook.
Fast forward six centuries. There are now studies to show why these particular oils and spices kept these robbers healthy. Thieves essential oil is a proprietary blend of cinnamon, clove, lemon, rosemary, and eucalyptus therapeutic grade essential oils. This concoction is a great way to support a healthy immune system. In 1997, Weber State University showed Thieves oil to have a 99.96% success rate against airborne bacteria. After diffusing Thieves, there was an 82% reduction in M. luteus bioaerosol, a 96% reduction in the P. aeruginosa bioaerosol, and a 44% reduction in the S. aureus bioaerosol following only 10 minutes of exposure.
Uses for Thieves
My family has gone to battle against ear and throat infections, colds and flu, bleeding gums, post-surgery discomfort, dirty produce, germy shopping carts, and to oil up stinky boy feet after karate all with the help of Thieves oil boosting our immunity naturally. It can be used in an essential oil diffuser, internally and topically (diluted with olive oil).
Homemade Disinfectant Spray
This spray penetrates beneath the skin’s surface providing a long lasting barrier of protection.
Ingredients
- 20 drops of Thieves Essential Oil Blend (where to buy)
- 4 oz spray bottle
- Distilled water
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Directions
Place salt in spray bottle
Drop oil into bottle, aiming towards the salt. Allow salt to absorb oil.
Slowly add water.
Put the lid on, shake and spray!
Disinfectant Spray Uses
- Sore Throats
- Germy shopping carts
- Grimy hands
- Public toilets & water fountains
- Black mold
- Counter & table spray
- Fungal Infections
- Stinky shoes
- Bug repellant
- Diaper pail & garbage cans
- Pet accidents
- Herbicide in your garden
- Clean stuffed animals
- Lunchboxes
- Linen spray for dust mites
Toss a bottle in hubby’s gym bag, mom’s purse, baby’s diaper bag, the car console, and the kid’s backpack! Wherever I go – Thieves has to go!
Note: Thieves oil also comes in different products including a foaming hand soap, body soap bar, household cleaner, toothpaste, mouthwash, dental floss, hand sanitizer gel and a spray.
When I was young, I dreamed of growing up to be someone able to help others get well. So I did just that! Got my B.S. Degree in Nutrition and have loved being able to take my family’s health into my own hands with whole foods and therapeutic grade essential oils. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to help others do the same. I’m committed to using the knowledge, talents and skills God has given me to my fullest ability. Hope you’re blessed by my post and what has helped our family.
Want to virtually attend one of my essential oils 101 classes? Watch my class here!
Further Reading from Around the Web
- 10 Uses for Thieves Essential Oil
- Everyday Essential Oils: Thieves
- How To Buy Therapeutic Essential Oils
- 50 Uses For Essential Oils
More Thieves Essential Oil recipes here!
- Homemade Daily Shower Spray
- Kid-Friendly Squeezable Toothpaste
- Homemade Disinfectant Spray
- Immune Boosting Foot Rub
Great article! I will absolutely do this. I really love reading your blog. One thing tho, I wish your links to buy products took you directly to the exact product, instead of the entire product line. Maybe it has happened to me only a bunch of times? But, I end up buying somewhere else each time. If you really want people to buy this particular sea salt, for example, link to the sea salt-where you just click add to cart, not the entire website of the product line and then make people search for it. Just smart business and making it simpler and easier for the viewer. Like the way you did it for the spray bottle. Hope this helps.
Thank you for your suggestion but I am not an e-commerce site. I do not have this capability. I do understand your concern and glad you like the blog!
I love this idea! But is there a substitute for the theives oil? I have so many essential oils I would like to use if possible. Or you think maybe baking soda or Borax or something in the mix would work? Thanks a bunch!!
Sorry–this recipe is for Thieves.
Can I use lemon essential oil instead of theives Let me know thanks Pamela
Sure!
Is there testing that shows it’s efficacy against all of those bacteria and viruses? I’d buy it if there was. Specifically does it kill E. coli, Influenza, Norovirus, and stomach viruses? Hydrogen peroxide does a fabulous job (with scrubbing) and it’s cheaper to clean surfaces. Purell does zero for anything but basic germs on hands. Clorox Bleach Free Hand Sanitizer is one of the few that claim to kill influzena and the like. Just curious. I don’t want to waste money on something that doesn’t have lab testing against the germs that really bring us down. It may be chemical free (nice), but is it proven effective?
do you have to use distilled water? can you use filtered (Berkey) water? Thanks, great post!
I used distilled.
I don’t think it is very responsible to encourage people to use eucalyptus in the mouth as it is recognized to be toxic if ingested.
Have no fear, this isn’t even close to an amount that would be harmful. 🙂 It’s comparable to saying you could die if you eat too much rice because it has arsenic…only you’d have to eat about 1800 cups of rice!
Eucalyptus is safe internally up to around 0.5ml/kg of body mass (in one dose), so I would have to drink about 30ml as an average build, petite woman. This recipe calls for about 1 ml of a blend of oils – not even straight eucalyptus – in the entire bottle! A few squirts won’t come close to hurting you. Just look at all the gums, candies, lozenges, etc that use eucalyptus. Definitely no where close to harmful in this recipe. Great post, and we can’t leave home without Thieves!! 🙂
Eucalyptus can be toxic, but it is known to be safe in very small amounts. In fact, it is used on a regular basis in moth washes and other hygiene products in France. The thieves blend is a complex blend of several oils and this very complex blend only contains a very small amount of Eucalyptus when a drop or two is ingested.
I also think it is important to note that Young Living has a rigorous quality check process. Every single batch of essential oil is rigorously tested both in the Young Living lab as well as at a 3rd party lab. You won’t find that everywhere. Only 28% of Young Living essential oil makes it to the bottle stage. That’s how particular they are about their products. They make sure they are tested for both purity and quality so that that you are not ingesting anything that can bring harm to you.
Many companies will purchase there plant matter from a 3rd party and distill it themselves. Young Living owns many of their own farms and actually harvests their own plant matter in order to distill their product.
Wow! Some people go nuts over plants! If you are going to ask to read books on the research behind the use of plants for killing germs, you also should be asking to read and research every ingredient in the cleaners you buy from the grocery store shelf. It seems like some people are over critical towards plants and very accepting of chemicals in commercial mainstream cleaners, JUST because they are mainstream .
So tried this today. Def would not recommend the sea salt. It left a salt film on everything! We think my son has the flu so I sprayed this everywhere today. Now I have to go back and clean everything to get the film off. I will retry but just use a little vodka to suspend the oil like I do for my linen spray! Just wish I had thought it through before a made a double batch of this as recipe written above!
Hi, thanks so much for this awesome recipe. I tried it right a way 🙂 I was wondering though, if you just wanted to use it for hand sanitizing etc, if adding some vitamin E oil would alter the recipe too much? I have very sensitive skin and so does my husband and my two toddlers. Looking for a little bit of a moisturiser as well as an antisanitizing option. Thanks so much 🙂
I have another recipe for just that! http://www.homemademommy.net/2013/10/homemade-hand-sanitizer.html
Sorry, my last comment was supposed to read sanitizing option, not antisanitizing 🙂
One very reasonable site to get bottles and jars in plastic and glass is http://www.specialtybottle.com/ I use them and have had no problems.