Zero Waste Toothpaste - Part Deux

I was really excited about this one.  Because the last time I tried to make homemade toothpaste, all I ended up with was wasted baking soda and this:

One year later, I'm ready to try again.

I bought peppermint oil instead extracting it from the verdancy of my backyard like I said would.  I'm doubly upside on waste with this experiment because additionally I could not find stevia in anything but individual packets or a non-recyclable bag.

So in a moment of weakness (read:  at the grocery store with two young kids and a set of crutches), I bought some anyway.

I tried three recipes for homemade toothpaste or powder.

Top left:  3 Tbsp coconut oil, 1   1/2 Tbsp baking soda, 25 drops of mint oil

Top right:  2 Tbsp baking soda, 1/8-1/4 tsp stevia

Bottom:  2 Tbsp baking soda, 1 Tbsp coconut oil, 1 tsp stevia, 25 drops of mint oil

Oh man, was I excited.  It was easy, it was cheap, it was non-toxic or something and it got me out of throwing away toothpaste tubes.

Oh, girl.

Such a long way to fall.

I threw the girls in the bath, gave them their toothbrushes and started testing each sample.

I didn't make it very far.

This picture sums up the results.

I ended up mixing ALL THREE together for me to use (for the next year and a half I predict).  The stevia got sent to the baking drawer.  And while I haven't purchased Crest or Colgate in sometime, I've been remiss on learning how to Terra Cycle my Tom's of Maine toothpaste tubes because I thought I would eventually switch to homemade.

Well, so begins my next lesson.