Last weekend hubby and I worked outside and we got so sunburnt! This prompted me to make my own homemade aloe vera gel using the flesh from the aloe plants we have growing in the landscaping. If you don’t have your own aloe plant you can sometimes find aloe leaves in the grocery store. Making homemade aloe vera gel is a pretty easy process.

How to Make Homemade Aloe Vera Gel

Cut leaves from the outer bottom of the plant. These are the most mature leaves and will yield the most flesh. I cut 3 leaves and it yielded about a cup of gel. Let the leaves sit in water for 5-10 minutes to allow the resin to drain out.

Begin peeling the skin off the aloe leaves. Find a technique that works best for you but I like to use a paring knife to cut the aloe into manageable sizes, cut the pointy sides off first then cut the skin off one side revealing the flesh. 

Then use a spoon to scrape the flesh off of the other side of the skin and put flesh into a clean bowl. 

Once you have extracted the flesh from your aloe leaves, add the gel from 1 vitamin E soft gel capsule to the bowl of flesh. 

I also like to add 1/4 teaspoon of coconut oil. 

Transfer the flesh, vitamin E and coconut oil to a blender and blend until smooth. 

Once the mixture is smooth, transfer to a glass jar and put in the fridge. Freeze any excess for later use. 

The gel will last for a couple of weeks or so in the fridge. Some people like to add vitamin C powder but I didn’t have any on hand. The addition of the vitamins preserves the gel and makes it last longer. The vitamin C powder also thickens the mixture a bit.

There you have it, that’s how to make homemade aloe vera gel. Use it on sunburns, minor cuts and as a skin moisturizer.