fairfolio
Saved Projects

A Clean Conscience: Formulating an All-Purpose Dental, Hair, and Body Cleansing Powder for the Homeless Population

CSEF · 2017 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) First Award

Leia Gluckman · Beverly Vista Middle School, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County

Overview

Objectives/Goals As the most requested hygiene items at homeless shelters are toothpaste, shampoo and body powder, I wanted to create an all-purpose tooth, hair and body cleansing powder that could be made from natural and inexpensive ingredients. Taking common ingredients found in tooth powder, body powder and dry shampoo, I set out to formulate a natural powdered product that would: (1) absorb sweat and oil, (2) clean teeth, (3) kill bacteria, and (4) have a pleasant taste/smell. Methods/Materials A variety of food-grade flours, clay, baking soda, salt, essential oils and stevia mixed in various proportions. Tested individual ingredients and combinations for absorptive and antibacterial effects, cleansing ability and taste/smell, using water, oil, sterile swabs, LB agar plates, tryptic soy agar plates, incubator (I built), sweaty shirt, toothbrushes. For absorbency, I used a dropper to add water/oil to each powder and observed when the water/oil was fully absorbed. For antibacterial properties, I contaminated my science classroom counter, cleaned it with (1) essential oils, and (2) my best formulas, then swabbed the cleaned areas and grew bacteria in agar plates. For tooth-cleansing, I brushed coffee-soaked eggs with toothbrushes dipped in each of the powders. Taste and smell were my own opinions. Results I created 13 formulas, most of which had absorbent and antibacterial properties, but did not taste well enough to function as a tooth cleanser, until I added stevia and significantly increased the amount of essential oils. Conclusions/Discussion I created three formulas that are able to absorb sweat and oil, clean teeth, kill bacteria, and have a pleasant taste/smell.

Summary statement

I created an all-purpose tooth, hair and body cleansing powder to assist the homeless population

Help received

I designed and performed the experiments myself, supervised by my mother and Caryn Asherson, my science teacher.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2017 Materials Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1409

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google