DIY Deodorant... 6 Months In

I've been using DIY deodorants for a good long while now and 'natural' deodorants for even longer due to my allergy to aluminum- since high school. It's been a long and frustrating journey I have to say but I'm almost to the end of it in that my latest batch of deodorant was nearly exactly what I wanted. I'm pretty psyched about that fact actually and that means that I'll have a post upcoming on my finalized recipe in the next few weeks if things go as expected. 

On this journey to finding something that works for me I've learned a few things that would have been super helpful to know.

1. Natural deodorants don't have antiperspirant (so you still sweat) for really good reasons but I still miss them and the lack takes some getting used to. 
2. Eating properly changes the need for deodorant (and your natural scent... eww, I know, but true). 
3. There are million DIY deodorant recipes out there it seems... and not all of them will work for every person. That's why there are a million of them. We didn't all like Secret or Dove or what have you deodorant when we used store bought deo and we have ALL said that one brand worked better than another and had someone completely disagree with us. Why would DIY be any different?
4. Similar to the last one... this is a process and everyone is different. I've tried out a different recipe each and every time I made a new tube of deodorant. Some of those recipes were recipes I'd found online, some were based on recipes or combinations of recipes, some were completely mine. Many worked pretty well... some very much so did not. Reviews of recipes stating they were awesome didn't mean they worked for my body (see the next one... that was a painful week).
5. Baking soda can burn. The underarms are sensitive places, enough said right? Ouch. I ended up using a very tiny amount in my latest batch but for those who are even more sensitive than me you may want to sub arrowroot powder for baking soda completely in recipes you find for deodorant online. It doesn't seem to work quite as well as baking soda (for me) but its a close second. I've had to experiment with ratios over the past few months for each batch I created to see what worked best on my body.
6. Texture is very important for me. I wanted a deodorant that I could roll on from a normal deodorant tube but this was often far from the case. Most recipes I've tried have been not quite firm enough for what I am looking for... or too firm and the tube wouldn't rise. This has been the part I've spent the most time working on to be 100% honest. There have been recipes I've churned out that worked great but were simply too soft many times in this process.
7. Ingredient quality is important. This is pretty self-explanatory I think, if I bought the cheapest one of unknown quality then I was more likely to get variable consistency and quality. Do your research on brands you want to use basically.
8. Scent matters... oh so much. Some of the oils I've used to scent my deodorant just did not work well together, or worse, were not a good combo with sweat. This is likely the reason I have had several natural deodorants that didn't make the cut (sorry Tom's) before I tried my hand at DIY.

That's all for now. I'll be posting an update on what I've been working on lately  this week as well (I haven't been slacking, promise, just trying a lot of different things with mixed results). One of those things is my Instagram account... feel free to hop over and check out things I'm working on recipe wise, see some meal ideas and just keep in the loop on what's going on with me (my two pups pop up from time to time as well... love them!).
 
Instagram: @reallifewithheather

DIY Deodorant Update

A while back I did a post about DIY deodorant. I wasn't a big fan of the scent and the consistency needed to be firmed up a bit in my opinion. The original recipe can be found here and is pretty awesome in and of itself so you should go check it out. My tweaks are below.
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 C Coconut Oil
1 Tbsp Beeswax Pellets
1/4 C Baking Soda
1/4 C Cornstarch 
10 Drops Purification Oil
10 Drops Sweet Orange Oil
5 Drops Lemon Oil

OTHER:
Empty Deodorant Tube

PROCEDURE:

1. Melt coconut oil and beeswax pellets slowly over very low heat in a small saucepan.
2. Remove from heat once completely melted.
3. Mix in cornstarch and baking soda until smooth.
4. Add any essential oils you so desire. 
• You can add the ones from the original recipe, the ones I am using or different ones altogether. If you do not have any oils feel free to leave them out, the deodorant will still work. 
5. Pour mixture into an empty deodorant tube or other twist up container. I prefer to let mine sit for a minute and begin to settle then give it a quick mix before I pour it but this isn't necessary.
6. Allow the tube to cool completely.

The tube can be a little difficult to get going but, out of all the variations of beeswax I have tried, this is the easiest while still remaining solid enough to use easily in a roll-on form.  
 

Homemade Deodorant

I am allergic to aluminum... this means traditional, store bought, deodorants are pretty much off the table for me. Now-a-days this doesn't bother me as I've seen quite a bit of research to show that our traditional deodorants with antiperspirant properties are bad for you anyways but for years it was the bane of my monthly shopping expedition. Until you have tried more store-bought options than you can remember you just don't understand the struggle to find a good aluminum free deodorant. Ones I remember off the top of my head:

1. Tom's- It failed... miserably... peaches and sweat is NOT a good combination people! This battle was about half my college career... it was not pretty.
2. Adidas - They stopped making their aluminum free stick deodorant RIGHT after I realized it seemed to work pretty well of course. Still a college student in a small town with only Tom's peaches and sweat option I jumped on this while I had the chance.
3. ClayDry- This seems to work fairly well and was recommended by the owner of the store I purchased my essential oils from while living in California but it smells similar to gin so was far from my favorite option.
4. Lavolin 36 hour- This one works pretty amazing actually but I am distrustful of something that mysteriously lasts through my shower... just saying. I used the roll-on kind which is a little expensive but takes a few months to get through so this was my go to... until now!
5. many many others...

A little less than a year ago now I started cutting out chemicals from my household cleaners and slowly that trickled into my 'beauty aisle' type products such as lotions and shampoo. I had developed some chemical sensitivities in the past few years and I wanted to reverse the adverse effects and become healthier in general... especially if we were going to have children someday which was coming up in conversations. Eventually I got to the point where I wanted to make them at home so that I knew exactly what I was putting on my body and in the air in my home plus save some money. So I began my search for a diy all-natural deodorant. There are a ton of recipes out there but many of them are pastes and I really didn't want a paste that I needed to spread on my underarms... it seemed messy and honestly, I really wanted something that was easy to apply and travel with. One of the recipes I found that seemed like it would work really well is here. So I gave it a try and it was pretty straight forward and easy to create. The recipe made 2 tubes of deodorant just like she said it would and it works!

The ingredients were pretty much things I already had on hand in my house (except corn starch but that was a quick fix at the grocery store and now I have more than enough for my suburban homesteading/diy adventures to come for quite a while): cornstarch, baking soda, coconut oil, beeswax, and essential oils (lemon, frankincense, and lavender).

I simply followed the step by step directions to combine all the ingredients with low heat then add in the essential oils once well combined. It was a quick recipe to follow and ended up giving me two beautiful sticks of deodorant.

One note: it is a little difficult to get them to turn properly with my containers at first but I just used a towel to get a firm grip and kept turning until it began to move and now there are no issues.

I've been using the deodorant for about two weeks now and have had no problems with smelling sweaty and gross in the day to day activities, even in a Texas summer!

Now for the problems...

1. I do NOT like the scent, it smells too masculine for me personally. Luckily when I make my next batch (I'm giving one bar away to a fellow aluminum-allergic POTSie friend so maybe in a month or so) I can change the scent. The scent is growing on me though so perhaps I'll just decrease the amounts of the oils to lighten up the scent. We shall see...
2. The deodorant seems to melt as I am putting it on so the spread-able factor isn't quite right. I will fix this by adding a little more beeswax next time.

That's it... all in all I would review this recipe very favorably. Next batch I make I will give the changes I proposed a go and add an update to this post.

UPDATE: I have tried about a million combinations at this point it feels like. I ended up halving the recipe but upping the beeswax and using Purification oil and Sweet Orange Oil plus a little bit of Lemon Oil to create the deodorant I am using now. I will post an official update post with the measurements in September.

Give it a try... it's easy, healthier than store bought options for your body, and quite inexpensive to boot! 

I will be sharing my lotion/body butter recipe soon (wonderfully rich and silky... and only slightly more complicated than this recipe) so look for that in a few weeks! What would you guys like for me to try and make next? Comment below!

Curious where I get my ingredients? I get my ingredients all over the metroplex, on Amazon and through Young Living as a distributor. Don't want to search out stores to pick them up? I'll make it easy! You can place an order through me for any oils you may need and here are some quick links for the non-perishable ingredients and tools on Amazon should you wish to order online: