Source Invigorating Gel Advanced Hand Sanitizer

Last Updated on July 9, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve had people asking if Source Hand Sanitizer is part of the FDA recall. As of August 1, 2020, the answer is no. You can find the full list on the FDA recall page.

This post contains affiliate links.

Hand washing is a proven way to help reduce the transmission of many diseases. A person’s hands potentially touch their mouth, nose, and eyes (and food), transferring whatever is on the hands into places where they can get into the body. The traditional way to wash hands is with soap and water, but there are times when soap isn’t available.

For those moments, there is alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Now, most experts believe that washing with soap and water is more effective than sanitizer — especially with a few specific diseases or with removing things like grease or grime —  but sanitizer made from ethyl alcohol is still a really effective way to kill most viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens. In fact, it is so effective that it is the standard in most health care settings.

In the alcohol-based hand sanitizer universe, the biggest names are the likes of Purell (owned by Akron, Ohio-based GOJO Industries) and Germ-X (owned by St. Louis, Missouri-based Vi-Jon). But there are plenty of generic equivalents out there now, too, including those sold by pharmacies, big box stores … and, of course, grocery stores.

Our (partially-used) bottle of hand sanitizer. (Click to enlarge.)

Source Invigorating Gel Advanced Hand Sanitizer is a Regular Buy at Aldi, meaning you can find it in stores all the time. In our stores, it is almost always stocked in the checkout aisle, so if you want some, don’t forget to grab it before you depart. It comes in a familiar plastic hand-pump bottle and currently runs 99 cents for 8 ounces, or about 12 cents per ounce. For comparison, an 8-ounce Walgreens hand sanitizer is 31 cents an ounce, while a bulk bottle of Purell from Target is 16 cents an ounce. In other words, Aldi sanitizer is cheap.

The ingredients in hand sanitizer — be it Purell, Germ-X, or otherwise — are broadly similar. Most of them use 70% ethyl alcohol (also known as ethanol) as their base active ingredient, a concentration above the 60% recommended by the U.S. CDC. Ethyl alcohol attacks pathogens through a variety of mechanisms and is the essential component. Aldi’s hand sanitizer, likewise, has 70% ethyl alcohol.

Source Hand Sanitizer also contains:

• water
• glyceryl caprylate / caprate, which helps to replenish oil on skin
• glycerin, a gel that is a central ingredient in any hand sanitizer (including homemade ones)
• isopropyl myristate, which helps with skin absorption
• tocopheryl acetate, a form of Vitamin E that is an antioxidant
• acrylates/C10-30 akyl acrylate crosspolymer, a thickening agent
• fragrance
• benzophenome-4, which helps protect skin from UV rays

Most of these sanitizer ingredients are common to other hand sanitizers.

The fact sheet. (Click to enlarge.)

Source sanitizer pretty much works like you’d expect. It’s easy to use, smells nice without being overwhelming, and is formulated to do the most important work … namely, to help rid your hands of things that could make you or other people sick.

The Verdict:

While there are lots of options out there for hand sanitizer, Aldi’s Source Hand Sanitizer is a perfectly competent option that compares favorably to other brands and is very inexpensive. If you need bulk-sized options you might want to look elsewhere, but for a modest size that’s good for a work desk or other smaller space, this is worth looking into.