‘Tis the season for New Years Resolutions, and if my yoga studio is any indication, yoga is a popular New Years Resolution. I will easily confess that I attend fewer classes in January than in December or November due to the flood of new people, turning each class into an exercise in not accidentally goosing the person next to you (yes, this has happened to me—I was on the receiving end. Ack.).
This disinfecting mat spray is just the thing for the aspiring yogi. With a bit of patchouli its just hippy-yoga enough, brightened up with lavender and bergamot. A bit of rubbing alcohol and vinegar act as disinfectants. It all comes together quickly, and works like a treat.
You might notice there are no emulsifiers in this spray. The alcohol helps dissolve the essential oils a bit, and when you give the bottle a brisk shake before spritzing, it works well enough without the solubilizer.
Disinfecting Yoga Mat Spray
10 drops patchouli essential oil
25 drops lavender essential oil
15 drops bergamot essential oil
1 tbsp alcohol (rubbing, perfumery, or vodka)
1 tbsp white vinegar
Water, to fillStart with a 60mL (1/4 cup) bottle. Swirl the essential oils together in the bottom of the bottle and add the alcohol. Cover, shake, and let sit, capped, for about 5 minutes to allow the essential oils to dissolve a little.
Add the vinegar and top off with water. Cap with a spritzer. To use, spritz your mat after class.
Yes! Been meaning to spray down my mat for some time now, and I love the essential oil combination you chose! Thanks for this recipe!
Thanks, Tessa! Namaste 😉
I have been making homemade yoga mat disinfectant for the past few years. This is the same exact recipe that I make and sell. Thanks for sharing it, as I feel it is a great thing to have for disinfecting just about anything.
Great minds clearly think alike, eh? 😉
brilliant! i have been wanting to make a shoe spray. it seems that most closets around here smell a bit like foot. my neighbor sprays her shoes with lysol, which i do not want to do. would this work with shoes? i realize this might sound weird, but i think that you would understand 🙂
I think a good shoe spray would be:
1/2 spray bottle white vinegar
1/2 spray bottle distilled water
and then about 30 drops of your preferred scent
– good disinfecting choices being citrus (esp lemon) or tea tree as about a 10 drops of the combo
Shake well. Allow shoes to air dry before wearing.
This sounds great! This spray would also be a good room freshening spray 🙂
Yikes! I’d be terrified to put lysol near my shoes, lest I destroy all that beautiful leather. But yes, I am very familiar with the stanky shoe issue 😛 I tend to take the phrase “barefoot shoe” too literally, and that never ends well 🙁 I had a pair of summer shoes that I practically had to cart off to the biohazard disposal by August… ewwww. Anyhow, you could use this spray on shoes. Something else that works quite well is sprinkling baking soda in your shoes, letting it rest overnight (or longer), and then vacuuming it out. You can also use a coffee grinder to blend a few drops of EO into the baking soda to boost its power 🙂
Can you make a Makeup Brush disinfectant without alcohol?
You see, alcohol damages squirrel bristles and ruins luxurious brushes from Suqqu, Chikuhodo and others….
So i wonder if you know about disinfectant solutions to avoid alcohol and how much bacteria (%) would it kill?
I always just wash my brushes (from Sigma, some natural fibres, some not) using soap, and I’ve also seen brush cleansing recipes that use warm water, vinegar, and some optional disinfecting EOs (like lemon). I can’t speak to the percentage of bacteria that would be killed off without a degree in microbiology and a lab, but I’ve certainly found the soap & water route to be perfectly acceptable for me. However, if you need the brushes to be sterile for professional applications, I can understand that soap and/or vinegar probably isn’t enough, but in situations like that I’d guess there are probably professional sterilizing regulations… hmm. Yeah. My $0.02, at least.
Nice! I think the combination of EOs will be great in a soap…:)
Oooh, good idea! Post-yoga soap, perhaps?
Couldn’t you also use this as a general disinfecting spray? Maybe for hands, counters, and air freshener too?
You definitely could! I’ll likely do a variation or two on this for house cleaning & air freshening sometime in the future 🙂
Love this! Do you know how long a bottle would last for? Does it go ‘off’?
Just found your site, Marie, and loving it, thank you! Next stop, making my own mascara…..! x
Good question! In general things that contain water & anything for bacteria to eat (like oil) can go bad… but this has rubbing alcohol in it, which kills bacteria… so, I suppose it could eventually, but I imagine you’d use it up well before then. Let me know if it spoils on you, lol. Thanks for reading & enjoy your new mascara!
I love your blog! I recently discovered it since I’ve recently been trying to use and make more natural products. For the yoga mat spray, are those three specific essential oils needed? I have lavender and a variety other essential oils (like lemon, tea tree, thieves, etc), but not the other two.
Thanks, Betty! For this spray any antibacterial essential oils would be a great choice, so all the ones you mentioned would work—just blend up something that you like the smell of 🙂
HI Marie,
By white vinegar you mean a grape, Apple or any other vinegar? And how strong should it be? We mostly have 30% vinegars in local stores. Thanks!
It’s just called white vinegar; this stuff 🙂
Just gave this a try. I think it works great, but I’m not a fan of patchouli. I love a lemongrass-lavender mix, what do think a good ratio for those would be?
Whatever your nose likes 🙂
Hello, 2 questions:
1) Do the EOs stay mixed or would you suggest using polysorbate?
2) Did you choose those EOs b/c they have disinfecting properties or just for the smell? (I don’t have patchouli)
Thanks!
I did find it required some shaking; the alcohol solubilizing didn’t work as well over time as I’d hoped. However, I did want to avoid polysorbate because of the sticky factor because I wasn’t lovely the idea of a sticky yoga mat (not that kind of sticky at least, ha). That’s just an in-theory, thing, though—I haven’t actually tried a spray containing polysorbate on my yoga mat 🙂 Most of the disinfecting power will come from the alcohol and vinegar; the EOs are supposed to help, but dropping one definitely won’t break anything!
Hi Marie! I was just referred to you over from Reddit’s DIYbeauty sub, and I want to thank you for teaching me so much in such a short amount of time!
I’m new to using preservatives, so my question is this: Does this yoga spray really not need one?? Is the alcohol acting as the preservative so long as it is used at this ratio? I can’t find anything that confirms or denies alcohol being enough to preserve a mixture like this. Thank you for your help!
Welcome! I highly recommend this resource for preservative info. Very useful!
So—they state that formulas that are 20–25% ethanol are self preserving. This recipe calls for 50% of an alcohol, though of course that wouldn’t be 100% ethanol. To hit that 20% of the total (there’s not much else in here to feed bacteria, so I’m hypothesizing the lower amount would be suitable), you’d need to be using an alcohol that is at least 40% ethanol. Most isopropyl is 70–99%, and vodka (the lowest of the lot) is at least 40%. Hope that helps!
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. You’re the best!!!
Happy making! 😀
Hi! Thanks for your recipe. Can I use witch hazel instead of Alchohol?
And why not using preservatives to last longer or that’s optional. 🙂
The alcohol is our preservative due to its high concentration 🙂 If you remove it you’d need to add a preservative and likely some kind of solubilizer as it’s also acting as a solvent for the essential oils.
Namaste !