Homemade Deoderant

We are trying to avoid as many chemicals in our house as we can while also trying to save some money.  Homemade deodorant does both of those things!  It is super simple to make and has worked wonderfully well for me and my family.  I think it works better than the traditional store bought variety!  After researching briefly some of the concerns about traditional deodorant/antiperspirant I found several claims that the aluminum found in deodorant may be linked to breast cancer and/or Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.  However, there are just as many claims that report no correlation at all.  So who do you believe?  Then you can look at studies about how effective deodorants are at preventing perspiration.  One German study found that it doesn't work that well, 38% effective at best.   Each family should decide for themselves what theory they want to follow, but for our family we decided it just wasn't worth the risk.  I will tell you that although it does prevent odor, it doesn't prevent sweating.  However, I feel that sweating is one of the ways your body releases toxins, so, I don't really feel a need to prevent it.  I just don't want to smell like a boy's locker room!  And we live where it is HOT.  Really, really HOT!  My first experiment was simply coconut oil, cornstarch and baking soda.  It worked really well, but I found it was difficult to keep it at a good consistency.  When it was warm it melted to a lotion like consistency.  When it was cold, it was so hard I couldn't get it out of the jar.  So I went looking for a way to tweak it a bit.  I found that adding beeswax made it just right!  Here is my recipe:

1/2 Cup Coconut oil
1 1/2 Tbl beeswax pellets
1/2 Cup baking soda
1/2 Cup cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)
10-20 drops of tea tree oil

Here's how you do it!  Mix the coconut oil and beeswax pellets and melt in a double boiler.  I used a glass measuring cup in a pan of water. 

While they are melting, mix the cornstarch and baking soda.  Once the oil and beeswax are melted, add them to the baking soda mix.

Add the essential oil.  I like the tea tree because it also has antibacterial properties.  But you can experiment and find one you like.  Once it is all mixed up, put it in your container.  I use old deodorant containers and it works like a charm.  It will harden up as it sits. 

   

 

And that's all there is to it!  You can adjust the recipe depending on how much you need to make.  You may also need to adjust the ratio of baking soda to cornstarch if you find that it causes irritation.