DIY Natural Shower Spray

Here's a tutorial for a simple and affordable DIY natural daily shower spray to prevent mold, mildew and soap scum from building up in your shower in between cleanings. It uses Hydrogen Peroxide, Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds or other natural dish soap, essential oils and water – that's it! Pure, nontoxic, natural and effective.

Why Make Your Own Natural Daily Shower Spray?

It’s Cheaper

Making your own products from home is cheaper, especially when you buy the supplies in bulk. When you buy products from the stores, unless you’re buying a concentrate, you’re paying for mostly water!

It’s Eco Friendly

Many ingredients in store-made dishwashing, cleaning, laundry, bath body and beauty products contain ingredients that are toxic and even fatal to aquatic life. They harm our delicate ecosystems and are polluting the planet. Also, when you buy the ingredients in bulk and reuse your bottles and containers, you produce less trash and waste, which is better for our planet.

It’s Healthier

Regular store-made daily shower sprays and other cleaners contain numerous toxins that also harm our health, and you can read more about that below! Toxic ingredients like bleach (aka sodium hypochlorite), artificial fragrances, preservatives, and abrasive cleaning agents.

Artificial Fragrances

I’ve written about the dangers of artificial fragrances many times here on the blog! Artificial fragrances can trigger asthma attacks, worsen allergies, and cause inflammation in the sinuses that can lead to more frequent colds and respiratory infections. That’s why I prefer to scent my homemade products with essential oils.

Fake fragrances disperse particles of formaldehyde and phthalates (thy-lates) into the air. Phthalates are small particles of plastic that are used to bind the artificial fragrance molecules together. We then breathe in those tiny particles of plastic and they get into our nose and lungs – yuck!

Learn About the Ingredients in this DIY Natural Daily Shower Spray Cleaner

Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds

Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds is made of Sodium Laureth Sulfate. Now, as you probably know, in the natural world, we have vilified Sodium Laureth Sulfate. We say it’s a carcinogen and highly toxic to aquatic life. In most cases, this is true. But did you know that not all SLS is created equal? It depends on how it’s processed.

Check out Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds rating on the EWG.org – it gets a perfect score! Totally nontoxic and safe.

According to this article,

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is a surfactant that cuts grease and dirt, generates copious suds, and biodegrades quickly and completely. SLS is made by combining a sulfate group with lauryl alcohol from coconut oil, then attaching sodium. If improperly formulated, SLS can irritate skin, but our superb formula uses coco-betaine and lauryl glucoside to counter this.

Also note that SLS is not a body care product. I would not use it in my homemade body washes or hand soapsunless you’re actually washing car grease or motor oil off of your hands! And definitely don’t use it in your hair – most shampoos in the stores contain SLS and they really dry out and then damage the hair. It is meant to clean objects – like clothes, the kitchen, bathrooms, cars, etc.

Essential Oils

Essential oils are wonderful to use in cleaners. They add extra cleaning and germ fighting power, and also smell wonderful, making the cleaning experience more enjoyable! In my family, we also use them for our health. I only use Young Living Essential Oils as I’ve found them to be the best and most effective ones on the market. Learn more about their oils here.

I chose to use Lemon, Tea Tree or Thieves Essential Oils in this natural daily shower spray because they all have powerful cleaning power and an ability to cut through soap scum.

Thieves Household Cleaner

I wrote a whole post (see it here) just about this one cleaner! It smells like Christmas (it contains lemon, clove, eucalyptus, rosemary and cinnamon essential oils) and is both a glass cleaner and all purpose household cleaner. It’s totally safe, biodegradable and nontoxic as well!

Hydrogen Peroxide

This is a safe and effective disinfectant and alternative option to chlorine bleach. Its molecules are made of two hydrogen and two oxygen atoms (H2O2) that decompose after use back into oxygen and hydrogen, so it’s completely green and nontoxic, and is colorless and odorless to boot. It must be stored in a dark container or cabinet out of direct sunlight as sunlight will break it back down into oxygen and hydrogen.

For household cleaning, like in this natural daily shower spray, the 3% solution is an effective disinfectant if left on for 30 minutes or more. It can also be used as a laundry and upholstery stain remover for light or white items. I wouldn’t use it on colored items as it will remove the color like bleach does.

Another option to get stronger disinfecting power from your hydrogen peroxide is to use the 12% solution, which you can find here.

I have a whole post I wrote just about hydrogen peroxide – see it here!

Print

Other DIY Natural Cleaning Recipes

• Use my baking soda scouring powder to remove soap scum and clean the grout
• Use my Natural All-Purpose Household Cleaner to clean the shower
• If your shower is really grimy, use my Natural Degreasing Spray for extra scrubbing power