One of the most useful plants you can have at home is the aloe vera plant. It is easy to care for and loves being indoors or outdoors. But it’s best use is that you can make your own aloe straight from the leaves. Those long, greyish green leaves contain a decent amount of aloe each – enough for a small tube of toothpaste or moisturiser.
You may be wondering how to extract all that great gel from the aloe vera leaf. It’s not as complicated as it looks. Below are the key steps to making your own aloe direct from the plant itself.
Step one
With a sharp knife, gently cut the base of the leaf to remove it from the plant.
Step two
Place the leaf on a cutting board and gently cut from the stem to to remove one side of the green outside leave.
Step three
Turn the leaf over and repeat step two by gently cutting away the other side of the leaf. You should be left with a see through gel. If there are any specks of green leaf, simply use the knife and gently remove them.
Step four
Put the gel in a container and stir until it forms a smooth gel.
You can either use the gel straight away or seal it in an air tight container to use within one to two days. Aloe vera gel can be rubbed onto your skin straight from the leaf as a moisturiser direct from Mother Nature.
When growing your aloe plants, keep them out of direct sunlight as they don’t like their leaves getting sunburnt. They so love lots of light though and can last for up to two weeks before you need to give them a drink. They are a low maintenance plant, look great and provide ready made gel for natural health products.