I’ve made my first natural toothpaste! Yay! And it turned out great. 😀 It’s an Edwardian recipe: The Orris Root Tooth Soap Recipe from 1916 (ca. in the middle of the page).

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp calcium carbonate
• 1 tsp orris root powder
• 1 tsp grated castile soap
• 1 drop peppermint essential oil
• water

Grate the castile soap bar (or other pure olive oil soap) finely. The original recipe says to use 225 parts each of calcium carbonate, soap and orris root and 7 parts of peppermint oil (and 4 parts clove oil – but I had none so I left this out). I made just a small batch to try out the toothpaste, so I used 1 tsp each of the dry ingredients and 1 drop of peppermint oil; but this makes a strong peppermint flavor, so I’d use less peppermint oil the next time. Mix all the ingredients with some water till it has the consistency of ordinary toothpaste. Then brush your teeth with your fresh, homemade toothpaste.

I liked this toothpaste a lot: it’s just like ordinary, store-bought toothpaste, and therefore even better because its natural (without dangerous chemicals) and homemade. It foames like ordinary toothpaste, and has a strong, fresh peppermint flavor (one doesn’t taste the soap). It cleans the teeth very well. I don’t think it’ll keep very long: but one could just mix the dry ingredients, and mix some of the powder with water as needed. I’ll surely make the toothpaste again! 😀

More about tooth care on my blog: Victorian and Edwardian tooth powder and toothpaste recipes, basic tooth powder recipe, brushing teeth with soap and Diy twig toothbrushes.