DIY: Homemade Deodorant

Perhaps a strange topic for a Saturday morning and certainly not the most sexy, but to be fair (and sexy), who doesn't need a good deodorant? The temperatures have been bikram yoga hot outside (35C+/100F) so tackling that ol' BO has been an essential. As "out-there" (as my husband would say, rolling his eyes), as making your own deodorant sounds, it's actually fairly straight forward and you can substitute certain ingredients if you don't have them on hand/they are hard to find. As someone at work said to me, is this what you do when your husband is working all the time? Well, yes, I feel it is a productive use of my time, smelling good! But, no, this is not what I do all the time. I also do this, this and this.

After testing this out for a week or so I will confirm that:

1. It (the deo) smells good but more importantly:
2. I (still) smell good at the end of the day**
3. It's super easy to make
4. It's completely non-toxic - in fact you could eat it (gross - but you could)
5. You probably won't have to buy deodorant ever again for a long, long time
6. It'll probably/could melt in warmer weather but this can be easily managed with a little more beeswax.
7. Depending on what essential oils/scents you use, you can have an unlimited range of different smelling deodorants
8. It's pretty rad to say that you made your own deodorant.

** I kid you not, two of my colleagues verified this by unsolicited sniffing of my armpits. So there! The proof is in the 'pit!

Here's the "How-to" courtesy of Wellness Mama with a few improvs

Ingredients and rough quantities
- 3T coconut oil
- 3T arrowroot flour (can add more baking soda/powder if don't have arrowroot or use cornflour/maizena)
- 3T baking soda (I actually ran out so I used baking powder.. seemed fine? maybe my deo rose a little more? ;)
- essential oils (I used vanilla essential oil but you could use anything really: rose, peppermint, lavender - whatever tickles your nostrils)

Here's where I got imaginative. The original recipe has the deodorant in liquid form in a small jar that you would apply with a tongue depressor/Popsicle stick (I think I should go into US/SA/UK language translating!) or spoon to ye ol' armpit. Or you have to keep it in the fridge to stop from melting. Translation: what a pain! I had an almost empty deodorant container (which was surprisingly easy to wash out) but the concern was that the consistency needed to be solid for this to work. So I added some beeswax (probably 1/2oz/1T) and a tablespoon of Vitamin E oil to act as a natural preservative. I am not very technical when it comes to baking/cooking/experimenting (I would make a terrible chemist) so I added more arrowroot and baking powder, if I felt the mixture needed thickening, as I went along. I have also read that baking soda/powder and/or coconut oil alone are enough to pipe down those sweat glands so adding more of these two essential ingredients guarantees a sweet-smelling experience.

I don't have a double-boiler per say so I created my own with the top of a mason jar as a little step and a jug (for easy pouring but any glass bowl would do) to create a space between the bottom of the glass and the pot. This method has worked really well in my other experiments recipes and I'm sure you'll see it popping up from time-to-time on this blog.

And there is my homemade deodorant that looks like real deodorant (when the cap is on at least)  - and I am also realising, a very dirty window. I seem to have forgotten about cleaning with all this madness going on ;). Over and out.