A few weeks ago, I made deodorant. I’m not a hippie, but I also don’t like how store bought deodorant contains aluminum and other bad-for-you things in it. I am also someone that truly needs to wear some sort of underarm protection (just ask Jeff, who has a superhuman sense of smell).
I decided to try out one of the recipes on Wellness Mama’s blog. She’s got two recipes, and I used her second one because I had all the ingredients at home, minus the essential oil (I ended up buying a bottle at Whole Foods).
It was really easy to make the deodorant. The recipe says to mash all the ingredients together, but I ended up microwaving the coconut oil so that it would mix more easily with the powders. And at first I had wanted to store it in an old deodorant tube, but ended up storing it in a jar I had lying around (The coconut oil would have also leaked all over the place if I tried to pour it into the tube as a liquid!).
So you’re probably wondering how well it works, right? I’ve been using it for two weeks, and so far it has held up pretty good. I haven’t noticed any weird odors, and I’ve used it for yoga class (in an 85 degree room), a wedding where I wore a formal dress, and walking the dog in 75 degree weather. I can’t say I’ve noticed abnormal amounts of perspiration, but it’s hard to tell since it hasn’t been crazy hot yet. And it hasn’t stained my clothes either. I’m pretty curious to see how it will fare once the summer hits. I guess I’ll just have to see! And in the meantime, hopefully my body will adjust to using the homemade deodorant and will naturally produce less odors. I do know, though, that come summer, I will need to store this in the fridge so it doesn’t melt.
Has anyone else tried to make their own deodorant? How well has it worked for you?
And just a disclaimer: a lot of the reviewers on the Wellness Mama post talk about how their armpits broke out in a rash from using the deodorant (supposedly from the baking soda being irritating to the skin). I was scared I’d be one of those who would break out, but so far my skin has just been normal).
Natural Deodorant
recipe from Wellness Mama
Makes approximately 1/2 cup deodorant
Ingredients
• 6 T coconut oil
• 1/4 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• essential oils (I used 20+ drops of Jasmine oil)
Steps
Mix baking soda and cornstarch together in a medium sized bowl.
Mash in coconut oil with a fork until well mixed. (**I microwaved mine for 10 seconds at a time until it melted, and then mixed the oil with the baking soda, cornstarch and oil).
Add oils if desired.
Store in small glass jar or old deodorant container for easy use.
