Ditching Deoderant

I held off on DIY deodorant as long as I could for the usual reasons:

1. I didn't want to be stinky.
2. I heard detox was the worst hell ever.
3. I didn't want to be stinky.

Then, one day, I stopped thinking about it and just did it. I got a recipe from my Aunt Carnivore (who is possibly a bigger hippie than I am), I made it with a few minor tweaks (I added shea butter and vegetable glycerine), and used it. It sucked. I wasn't stinky but within two days my pitts felt like they had been licked by flaming tongues of sandpaper. They were red and angry. I'd show you a pic, but no one wants to see arm pitts - much less angry arm pitts.

The deodorant from hell:
equal parts coconut oil, baking soda, and arrowroot
2 Tbsp shea butter
1 Tbsp vegetable glycerin

In times of hippie trouble I always turn to Google and my friend M. They both seemed to agree that it was the baking soda (and likely a bit of the detox process). So I nixed the first recipe and used Melaleuca (tea tree) and Lavender essential oil while things cooled and healed up. I stopped shaving to help speed the healing process. I used Pangea Organics Canadian Pine with White Sage Bar Soap and exfoliated with a shower brush.  Melaleuca (tea tree) and lavender also kept me from being stinky - I even survived a rigorous yoga class (a miracle in itself) without stinking out the joint - however, my boss kept asking me if I was smoking pot.

About a week later I was ready to start the experiment again, this time without the baking soda and eventually without coconut oil. There are lots of options to make deodorant super smooth and moisturizing, and I really like the idea of using butters rather than coconut oil. Replacing the baking soda is a bit tricky, but with much reading I narrowed down my choices to powdered clay or food grade Diatomaceous Earth. I used bentonite clay because I had it on hand and it was lightest colored of what I had. (DE might show up in a future recipe during the summer.)

You're gonna need:
a scale
a small ramekin for weighing
a bowl for melting and mixing
and a cup with a pour lip to fill your container.
Bonus points if your melting bowl has a pour lip.

Necessary Ingredients:
beeswax
shea butter
cocoa butter
apricot (kernel) oil
bentonite clay
cornstarch
vitamin E oil

Essential Oils of choice:
Mine were doTerra Purify,
Lavender, and Rosemary

Measure beeswax, oils and butters into your melting bowl.

Melt until everything is super smooth.

Measure the clay and arrowroot.

Mix together.

Pierce the vitamin E capsules and squeeze into your mix.
Quickly stir in essential oils.

Pour into tube.
This recipe doesn't fill the entire tube.

Put into the fridge to harden completely, approximately 2 hours. Apply to armpits. Revel in the unstinky unburning super smooth awesomeness that your armpits have become. And then go shave because you haven't done that in a week.

I love the odor control, I love the feel, I love homemade deodorant! Did I really just say that? Yeah. Yeah I did.

So it's not the prettiest color in the tube, but you don't see it when it's applied. I think my next batch I'll try switching the quantities around for the arrowroot and clay to lessen the "ugh" color factor. DE is more white, so maybe that will help the color too. For now, I've left the quantities just as I've used them. I should note that this deodorant failed a test of strenuous dancing, so I do have some tweaks to make to strengthen it up a bit. Also I might have gotten used to the smell or the oils may have settled after a proper cure time, but it doesn't seem as strong scented as I would like. I'm going to recommend doubling the essential oil quantities.

The recipe below does not make a full tube. I got my tubes here.

No Baking Soda No Coconut Oil Totally Works Deoderant

8g beeswax
10g shea butter
6g cocoa butter
16g apricot (kernel) oil
12g bentonite clay
8g arrowroot
2 capsules vitamin E oil
6 drops essential oils of choice

Melt all the beeswax, butters and oil together, then stir in the clay, arrowroot, vitamin E oil, and essential oils. Pour quickly into tube because it starts setting up quickly! If it does set up too much to pour, you can microwave it for approximately 10 seconds and it will loosen right back up.

Ideas for Essential Oils:
I recommend using doTerra Essential Oils. I'm still in the process of updating my stock, but as I use up my old oils, I am replacing them with doTerra.

3 drops Lavender, 2 drops Rosemary & 1 drop doTerra Purify

4 drops Ylang Ylang & 2 drops Frankincense

2 drops Cedarwood, 2 drops Geranium, 1 drop Melaleuca (Tea Tree), & 1 drop Patchouli
4 drops Sandalwood & 2 drops Frankincense
3 drops Lemon, 2 drops Lime, & 1 drop Melaleuca (Tea Tree)