I've been wanting to start concocting more things myself, so when my regular, purchased deodorant stopped working so well, I decided it was the perfect time to try my hand at making my own.
I found a ton of different recipes, but I didn't really follow any of them, opting instead for just adding ingredients to a bowl until my mixture reached a decent consistency, then crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Surprisingly, it turned out pretty great! (What didn't turn out so well are the photos of this adventure, so I hope you'll forgive that this post is a little lacking in that department.)
Here's the recipe I came up with:
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
3 1/2 tsp arrowroot powder, corn starch, kaolin clay, or other baking soda buffer
1 tbsp coconut oil
10 drops lime essential oil
4 drops orange essential oil
4 drops eucalyptus essential oil
4 drops spearmint essential oil
What's nice about this recipe is that it doesn't require any heat, so it's super quick to whip up. I just stirred together the dry ingredients, then mixed in the coconut oil and essential oils until everything was well combined. When I first made it, in the winter, it was fine at room temperature, but since it's gotten warmer, the coconut oil stays liquid and I find it too messy to use that way. Instead, I've been storing it in a small jar in the fridge, then just scooping out about a pea-sized amount to apply. As long as you're planning to store it in the fridge, you could also put it in a deodorant tube, since it's stay solid enough to apply that way too. Alternately, you could try adding in a little beeswax, which will help it stay more solid at room temperature.
One last thing that's worth mentioning is to always make sure you're using high quality essential oils. I use Young Living, since a lot of the essential oils you find on shelves are diluted with other junk or extracted using chemicals.
I'm not the smelliest person to begin with, but this has been keeping me totally stink-free throughout this hot, humid summer. What's more, I'll even catch whiffs of the deodorant during the day, which is kind of nice, since I do like how it ended up smelling. It's super simple to make and ends up being cheaper than a lot of natural, store bought deodorants. Also, you can control exactly what goes into it and you play around with the recipe until it's exactly to your liking!
Have you ever tried your hand at making your own deodorant? If so, how did it go?
