How to Make Hand Sanitizer: Stop Buying and Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer at Home

Written in March 2020, How to Make Hand Sanitizer captures a specific moment in public-health history: the early COVID-19 period, when sanitizer shortages brought homemade preparations into the spotlight. Rosalind Jones’s brief guide outlines ingredients and topics associated with making and using hand sanitizer, while also comparing sanitizer use with washing hands.

Important: This is a historical publication, not current medical guidance. The CDC does not recommend producing or using homemade hand sanitizer. For present-day hygiene advice, follow current public-health guidance and use commercially produced products as directed.

Inside this short guide

The contents follow the subject from ingredients through use and context. Sections address the ingredients named in the text, homemade aloe vera gel, preparation directions, application to skin, germs hand sanitizer may affect, and the difference between handwashing and sanitizer use.

A snapshot of early-pandemic advice

Jones’s booklet reflects the concerns and practical questions that circulated during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read today, it offers a compact historical record of how household sanitizer preparation was presented at that time—not a replacement for updated health information or professional advice.

For readers interested in public-health history

This ebook may suit readers researching everyday responses to the 2020 sanitizer shortage, or those interested in how home-health advice was communicated during the pandemic. Its value is best approached with that historical lens and with current safety guidance kept firmly in view.