At the end of a hearty meal, what more could you ask for than a no-calorie, delicious treat that also doubles as a crud-picker?
(I am not ashamed of my lack of finesse with words, when it comes to oral hygiene. Oral hygiene should be a laughing matter. How else are you going to show off your shiny white choppers?)
Homemade flavored toothpicks are ridiculously easy to make, and not only will you want to keep a bunch around for yourself, but they also make adorable little gift additions. Or you could carry a few batches in your purse to hand to people with offensive breath. Talk about incredibly easy social graces. You just say, “You HAVE to see these adorable flavored toothpicks I made? Here. Have some! Try them! Aren’t they awesome?”
Problem = solved.
And who wouldn’t want something that looked like this?
This is, for some odd reason, an incredibly photo intense tutorial. Do not let the over-abundance of pictures fool you: Making homemade flavored toothpicks is so easy, even a caveman could do it.
(It’s been long enough, right? That joke is funny again?)
Anyway, it goes like this:
- Soak toothpicks in oil.
- Dry toothpicks.
- Pick your teeth.
But let’s talk about details. That’s where all the fun is!
Homemade Flavored Toothpicks – The Tutorial
Choose Your Oil Flavor
The first thing you’ll want to do is choose an essential oil.
And it is VERY important that you choose an essential oil that is GRAS (or, in long form, “generally recognized as safe”) to ingest (and that just means in VERY, VERY small quantities – don’t drink your essential oils). Not that you’re really ingesting the oils. But this part is very important.
Here’s a quick list of some GRAS essential oils that you could use:
- Peppermint
- Cinnamon
- Tea tree
- Anise
- Fennel
- Clove
- Nutmeg
- Orange (or sweet orange)
- Lemon, lime, or grapefruit
- Vanilla (but this would be HORRIBLY expensive, so only do this if you’re Melinda Gates)
NOTE: One, in particular, that you might be tempted to use that you absolutely, 100% should AVOID is wintergreen – never put wintergreen essential oil in, on, or near your mouth.
I used a bottle of anise essential oil (which tastes like black jellybeans, which I know so many people hate, but I love them, so there). I’ve had this oil for a year and a half, and it never seems “right” for anything I make for my body. So – finally – I found the perfect use for it.
And you will, most likely, need at least an ounce of essential oil for this, in order to cover the entire layer of toothpicks that you’re flavoring.
Get crazy and creative, too! Mix a couple of essential oils together to achieve something like … say … CINMAMINT? Or PIE SPICE? Or TROPICAL TWIST? Mmmm. Endless possibilities.
Gather Your Flavored Toothpick Necessities
In other words, this:
What you need:
- Toothpicks
- Your favorite oil
- A jar with a lid
(Later, you will need paper towels and tongs or tweezers, as well as something to keep the toothpicks in.)
By the way, please make sure your jar is very clean (you can sanitize it in boiling water or with a squirt of hydrogen peroxide, to make things even cleaner).
Soak Your Toothpicks in the Oil – Overnight
Really, all you have to do at this point is drop a handful of toothpicks into your jar and shake them around until they form a single-ish layer over the bottom of the jar.
Pull the dropper top off the oil bottle, or else you’ll be “dropping in” oil for a few hours.
Then you pour the oil in over the top of the toothpicks.
Please, whatever you do, don’t try to take pictures of yourself pouring oil into the bottle, or you’ll end up with a monstrous waste of a mess on your working area that will forever and always, until the end of time, smell like the oil you’re working with.
My house smells like black jellybeans, and it probably always will now. I enjoy this. Skip wants to bonk me in the head.
Once you’ve assessed that you haven’t made a ridiculously stupid mess, turn your attention back to your covered toothpicks.
Give the toothpicks a few shakes in the jar to even them out completely, and make sure the oil is covering all of them.
Now put the lid on the jar, put the jar on the counter, and walk away for at least 8 hours, or overnight (the longer you steep, the more flavorful the toothpicks will be).
The Next Day …
Now you want to carefully remove the toothpicks and leave as much oil in the jar as humanly possible.
Why?
You can reuse the oil to make more toothpicks whenever you so desire! Don’t throw it away! (What a waste that would be!) More exclamation points!
Pull the toothpicks out using a pair of tongs or a tweezer (depending on how deep your jar is) and place them on a layer of a couple of paper towels or a very clean dish towel (that you wouldn’t mind staining a bit or having it smell like your oil).
Give them a gentle pat with another paper towel or the top of your dish towel and leave the paper or dish towel lightly covering them.
Leave these alone for a few hours to dry.
Once they’re dry, you can package them or use them. I recommend storing them in glass with a lid, or something very natural.
And, if you want to give them away in an adorable hand-folded envelope, here’s what that’ll look like:
These are actually the envelopes that Skip folds for the Crunchy Betty’s Natural Market Cleansing Grains Sampler.
They’re SO easy – and once he learned how, it takes him no more than a minute to fold an envelope. This is a GREAT way to be savvy with your ecofriendliness and reuse paper or magazine pages. Check your local hobby store (like Hobby Lobby or Michaels) for sweetly designed scrapbook paper, too, if you want to make several of the same pattern/design.
Oh.
You get the “tinderness” joke, right? Because toothpicks are made of wood. And tinder is wood. And … my punny genius is such a turn on, isn’t it? ISN’T IT?
Learn How To Fold These Envelopes: THIS is the most excellent tutorial Skip used to learn how to fold origami envelopes in this manner. Perhaps some day I’ll do an actual picture tutorial here, but until then, visit this link and find your new obsession.
And It’s JUST That Easy!
Carry these toothpicks around for a tasty treat whenever you’re craving food (and need to wait to eat), give them out as “subtle hints,” give them as adorable little gifts, or just keep them on hand because … it’s fun!
And, not only are they great to use as tooth pickers, but most essential oils are antibacterial, so they’ll also help keep your mouth in great shape (breath-wise and health-wise).
Awesome, yeah?
—
Oh, and as always, for those of you who are still wondering where to find these essential oils, here’s your shopping for essential oils reminder: I HIGHLY recommend organic and/or wildcrafted essential oils (especially for stuff you put in your mouth or on your skin). These are my current favorites. 🙂
Wanna Love Your Body? Start With Loving Mine
Wow…thanks so much for your post. I forgot all about flavored toothpicks! They’re awesome! It brought back memories of finding an old bottle of cinnamon oil in my grandma’s kitchen. Hey, nobody had used it since 1927, so I claimed it. (Wish I had that bottle now) Anyway I made some kickin’ cinnamon toothpicks. Charged a dollar a pack at school. That was high dollar for the 70’s. I never thought of using a jar. I just created mine in a square of foil. Watch it though….the longer they sit the hotter they got! Thanks again for the post. I like the homemade envelope idea. Cleaver chicky!
This is such a great post. Anti-bacterial toothpicks I think it’s pretty cool. I’m going to try with organic lemon or peppermint essential oils.
Hi i am a toothpick producer in Ghana and am thinking of making flavored toothpicks in commercial quantities. In this case can i mix the oil with water before soaking the toothpicks ? ? So that i use just a little quantity of the oil to flavor more toothpicks
I’m trying it now soo excited about it, my father made these as a kid and he loved them.also I used sarsparilla and spearmit oils thnx for the recipe
😀
I notice that some websites recommend a carrier oil with 10-20 drops of essential oil, but it looks like you use straight essential oil. Is that right?
ooh. im not rich, but I do have some vanilla extract. im trying that. the cinnamon ones I made actually made my lips swell up, and now I have a couple sores on them. oops too strong I guess. One tip, dont use cinnamon leaf oil, that was really gross.
Oh god, I just made cinnamon ones and came here to say this ): I used cinnamon leaf oil too, and I double checked to make sure it was generally safe, but oh, IT BURNS! Highly unpleasant. Should have checked the comments first… I’m disappointed that I wasted them and the oil ):
When I was in high school, we all used to make cinnamon toothpicks. We carried them in the oil, in old prescription bottles.
Oh what a sweet idea!! I love this blog, I will be following to see what you come up with next for sure! Love this for a party favor!
Emily
emilyp711.wordpress.com
This is so awesome! You’re so creative 🙂 Do the toothpicks leave a faint taste of the oil?
Toothpicks are actually bad for your gums. They damage the gum tissue between the teeth. Over time the gum tissue receeds and leaves an even bigger space where more food will get stuck. So just dont use toothpick and use already minty fresh floss.
Personally I just use toothpicks as something to occupy my mouth while I’m trying to quit smoking. Flavored toothpicks are even better, especially cinnamon. That burn definitely helps with my cravings!
This is a great idea and essential oils are so good for you. You have the best ideas on your site. Keep it up.
Just read this, ran to kitchen to make my own then back here to see what other gems you have for me!
Super awesome! Gonna give it a try for the winter season. I believe Anise is beneficial for coughs/colds and I work in an office. So, hopefully, I can try a combo flavour (don’t know what else to do with the anise either, lol) and help ward off the cooties in the office… subtly… thanks lady! 🙂
Made some yesterday with tea tree oil and feel like a champ now.
This is SUCH a great idea — I happen to have some anise eo on hand as well (I LOVE things that smell like licorice!). I think this will be the perfect thing I can make and hand out as a freebie for an outdoor festival that I will be attending soon — thank you!
(It’s been long enough, right? That joke is funny again?)..haha…you crack me up. this post is yet another reason I can be sad for not having any essential oils though…bummer. One day!!! I will so make these out of the cinnomon too if I get some for my bf cause he loves them. That would be such a neat little handmade gift for him just to give whenever. Love your recipes!
Could you use vanilla extract, in place of the elusive and expensive vanilla essential oil? Or would the toothpicks not be flavorful enough?
I’m curious about this too..though I think I know the answer is that it won’t be flavorful enough.
another fun idea,thx!! will be doing for the guys on my list
I can always count on you to make me smile and laugh, Crunchy Betty! Since I started reading your blog a month ago, I have drunk a green smoothie every morning (hello energy…it’s like I’m a kid again!), made my own facial oil, have daisies steeping in EVOO for daisy salve, orange peels soaking in vinegar for homemade cleaner (previously just used straight vinegar and water), made my own yogurt, made deodorant, and I’ve had more food on my face and in my hair than my friends know what to do with! My to-make list is long and I cannot wait to do it all! One thing I did that was pretty awesome is I took orange peels (not the white part though) and put them in a mason jar with epsom salts. um…it was AMAZIMG!
My favourite part of the envelope-folding tutorial:
“Things you’ll need:
– 1 square piece of paper
– Something to put in your envelope (optional, but suggested)”
Lol…I just looked through the tutorial but didn’t see that part. That’s funny
Could you please tell the reason not to use wintergreen? It doesn’t make sense to me. Wintergreen is in alot of different products. Thanks!
I had to look that up, too, for the same reason. I did find this, on organicfacts.net
Few Words of Caution: The Essential Oil of Wintergreen is highly poisonous due to presence of Menthyl Salicylate. It should never be ingested and should not be used in aromatherapy. External application is sufficient for making this oil work inside since it readily seeps through the skin and is absorbed by the muscles and tissues. Further, if accidentally ingested, it can cause severe damages to the internal organs like liver, kidneys etc. One more caution. Excessive external application on skin may also turn fatal because of absorption of excessive Menthyl Salicylate in the tissues and consequently in the blood stream. There are examples of death of a sportsman who rubbed too much of relaxing ointments on his thighs which contained Menthyl Salicylate. It should never be given to patients who are hyper-reactive to salicylates.
I saw your older post about Christmas gifts and this was one of them. I bookmarked the page because these would be PERFECT for my dad for the holidays this year. He is a toothpick-aholic. I can’t wait to make them!
Hey CB, you mentioned Anise …. My next project to list in my Etsy shop is going to be Anise Lip Balm. I bet that’s something you’d like! Your comment made me think of it. Let me know if you make some!