Gunner Quinn
I will be the first to admit that aftershave does not rank high on any list of survival necessities. In fact, if used in the wrong way, products like aftershave may actually produce threats to one’s chances of survival. SurvivalBlog reader David L. shared some insights along this line in the September 13, 2023 Snippets column in SurvivalBlog:
Like many well-prepared preppers, I have gotten past location, food, guns, ammo, etc, etc, to stocking toilet paper, paper towels, and things such as shampoo and deodorants. The last two can be literally DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH! Yeah, right, you say! Bear with me…You have survived the bomb(s), fallout, EMP, CME, et cetera and are venturing into town for a little recon with your hair combed and nails trimmed, freshly bathed or showered and doused with your favorite Brut deodorant spray. You arrive at town on your freshly washed and waxed UTV and immediately notice that many of your friends and neighbors look ill, dirty, slovenly, under-nourished, and more importantly, are staring at you in your sartorial splendor. Did you forget to pin a sign to your shirt stating “LOOK AT ME AND THINK OF ALL THE STUFF I HAVE AT HOME THAT YOU DON’T”! Guess who will be having lots of visitors for supper (with bad attitudes AND MORE!!!!). MORAL OF THE STORY – think: Situational Awareness.
So the purpose of this article is not to promote the production of aftershave per se. Instead it is to promote the idea of learning how things are made in general, and how you can make many of the things that you regularly use in particular. This will both make you more self-reliant in a crisis situation, provide you with useful skills which may enable you to better assist others, and save money in the present which you can then utilize in ways that will provide better long-term benefit. This knowledge and the products thereof can also contribute to a sense of stability and a positive mental attitude that can greatly enhance the odds of survival in a difficult situation.
Background
More than a decade ago now, my in-laws moved from their home into an independent living apartment several hours away. It fell to my wife, “Kari”, her sisters, and me to empty their home of all the extra items that they had not taken with them in the move, and to prepare the house for the market.
“A Lifetime Supply”
As we were sorting through things to keep, things to sell, things to donate, and things to throw away, we came across a large number of decanters of aftershave and cologne. My mother-in-law had once sold Avon products, and she had given my father-in-law a large selection of the products that she sold. I took the various decanters and emptied their contents together into several nearly empty rubbing alcohol bottles. If I remember right, I ended up with about two and a half quarts of mixed aftershave and cologne. I joked with Kari that I now had a lifetime supply of aftershave.
A Lingering Presence
One of my previous senior pastors, Pastor “Matt”, was a wonderful man. He was godly, humble, gracious, wise, and intelligent, among many other wonderful qualities. But Pastor Matt did have at least one flaw. He used too much cologne.
More than once, I entered my office and could tell by the lingering scent that Pastor Matt had stopped by looking for me. I would then go down the hall and say to his secretary, “Has Pastor Matt been looking for me?” Invariably he had.
Partly as a result of this experience, I prefer to use aftershave with relatively little fragrance. I like just a tiny hint of fragrance as I put it on after shaving; a tiny hint that fades quickly away.
To achieve this result, I mixed the aftershave/cologne blend that I salvaged from my father-in-law’s house with generous amounts of alcohol before use. For many years I used isopropyl to dilute the aftershave. After Covid, large amounts of liquid hand sanitizer went on sale at the local thrift stores for prices as low as 50 cents a gallon. Eventually, one thrift store even started throwing in a gallon of liquid hand sanitizer free with any purchase. I then switched from isopropyl to liquid hand sanitizer as the thinner of choice for my aftershave.
The End of the Line?
Finally, after more than a decade, I noticed last spring that my “lifetime” supply of aftershave was depleted to the point that it would run out in a matter of just a few weeks or months. Were my words prophetic? Would my life end when I ran out of aftershave? It was time to take drastic action! I decided to restock my supply with some homemade aftershave. (Irony alert: I don’t really believe that the length of my life is in any way related to my supply of aftershave).
Possible Ingredients
I went online to research homemade aftershave. I discovered a long list of possible ingredients at a number of different websites.
I was not surprised to find out that alcohol is a major ingredient in many homemade aftershaves. Some people use vodka and some use rum, and some use other types of alcohol in their mixtures.
A second major ingredient is witch hazel. Witch hazel water is a clear, colorless liquid prepared from the witch hazel plant through the steam distillation process from the leaves, bark, or twigs. It consists of 13-15% ethyl alcohol along with the fragrance of the essential oil of the plant. It is mildly astringent, and soothes minor skin irritations.
Other possible ingredients for homemade aftershave include, but are not limited to alum, glycerin, eucalyptus oil, peppermint oil, juniper berry juice, pine needles, cloves, yarrow, orange zest, plantain weed leaf, cinnamon, allspice, thyme, dandelion flower, chamomile, sage, lemon zest, lime zest, menthol crystals, cedar shavings, rosemary, lavender, aloe, sandalwood oil, bay leaf, vanilla, and nutmeg.
Making the Brew
With the foregoing information as inspiration, I began collecting the ingredients for my homemade aftershave.
First I took an empty pint peanut butter jar. I went out into the woods near our home and filled it with spruce needles. Then I collected a handful of plantain weed leaves. I took the spruce needles and plantain weed leaves to my work surface in the pole barn, and dumped them out on a piece of plywood about the size of a cutting board. I then used my EDC knife to chop the spruce needles and plantain weed leaves into tiny pieces. I then placed these tiny pieces back into the peanut butter jar.
Next, I headed for the house and raided Kari’s essential oils and spices. I added a drop of peppermint oil and a drop of lavender oil. I added 1/4 teaspoon each of nutmeg, thyme, cinnamon, and allspice. Then I added a drop of vanilla.
Next, I took the styptic pencil from my toiletry drawer, and scraped a pinch of powder from the pencil into the jar.
After this, I filled the remaining space in the jar with liquid hand sanitizer. The liquid hand sanitizer I used was composed of 70% ethyl alcohol, aloe, water, and some other trace ingredients.
I then sealed the jar and placed it on a shelf in my work room to steep. Over the course of several weeks, the liquid hand sanitizer gradually took on a brownish hue as it absorbed soluble substances from the infused materials.
Filtering and Mixing
After more than three weeks of steeping, I poured the contents of the pint peanut butter jar through a coffee filter into a quart-sized peanut butter jar. I then cut the filtered liquid roughly 50% with witch hazel, which I had purchased at a local big box store. I subsequently found that I could have purchased the witch hazel much less expensively at the local “dollar” ($1.25 with inflation) store. The mixture of the infused liquid and the witch hazel filled the quart canning jar about 2/3s full.
I then filled the remaining 1/3 or so of the jar with more 70% alcohol liquid hand sanitizer.
The fragrance of the resulting mixture was a bit stronger than I prefer, so I cut it an additional 50% with still more liquid hand sanitizer.
I then removed the orifice reducer on the bottle of aftershave that I use each morning, and filled it with the homemade aftershave. I estimate that this batch of aftershave is enough to last me several years. The fragrance of the aftershave is primarily spruce, with just subtle hints of the other ingredients. Next time I will probably skip the essential oils and spices, and focus just on the spruce, plantain weed leaves, and alum. I would also like to add juniper berry and dandelion flower if they are in season.
Testing
I have been using the homemade aftershave now for almost a year with excellent results. It does a good job of soothing my skin and preventing infection after shaving. The spruce scent is pleasant, and fades quickly so that it does not announce my presence throughout the day.
Conclusions
I like my custom, homemade aftershave better than the various commercial products that I have used throughout my many years of shaving. I plan to continue to make my own for the foreseeable future. The money I save on aftershave can be put to better use elsewhere.
Disclaimer
I did not receive any financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.
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