I tried out one of the Victorian and Edwardian tooth powder recipes: it’s the Basic Tooth Powder With Camphor from 1902 – but I left out the camphor.

Ingredients:

• 1 part calcium carbonate
• 1/2 part orris root powder
• 1/4 part castile soap (pure olive oil soap)

Grate the castile soap bar finely; then add calcium carbonate and orris root powder. The original recipe calls for camphor, but I didn’t add that.

To use the tooth powder: Dip the wetted toothbrush into the powder, then brush your teeth just as if you’d be using normal toothpaste.

Did I like it? The tooth powder doesn’t foam very much, but as the toothpaste I’m normally using doesn’t foam very much either, that wasn’t a problem for me. But I didn’t quite like the powdery feeling in my mouth – maybe because this is the first tooth powder I’ve tried. However, the tooth powder makes the teeth very clean and has a fresh, unobtrusive flavor. And you doesn’t taste the soap at all. (-> here I tried to brush my teeth just with soap 😀 ) I think the tooth powder could be used instead of ‘normal’, store-bought toothpaste, but I liked this DIY natural toothpaste better (-> here you’ll find my recipe).

I also added some cinnamon powder to a part of the tooth powder inspired by the Premium Tooth Powder of 1896.

Premium Tooth Powder Ingredients:

• 12 parts calcium carbonate
• 1 part cinnamon powder
• 2 parts orris root powder

I didn’t use the exact measurements of the Premium Tooth Powder; just added some powdered ceylon cinnamom to the Basic Tooth Powder from above (cinnamon has an antibacterial effect). The tooth powder has a fresh, slight taste of cinnamon.