18 February, 2012

Homemade Deodorant

Back in November, I decided to switch from using commercial deodorant to homemade deodorant, and I have to tell you - the difference was amazing. I had never considered it before, but had searched out deodorants without aluminum tetrachlorohydrex gly as a teenager with my mom after she was diagnosed with Lymphoma. To our great surprise, some studies showed that aluminum tetrachlorohydrex gly was linked to cancer, and we just decided to figure out an alternative. At the time,  the alternative was to just use non antiperspirants... but as the years wore on, I didn't necessarily enjoy sweating all the time (especially when my Alaskan self lived in hot and humid Ohio), and I switched back to regular antiperspirant.




Lately, I've been on a "better safe than sorry" kick, and decided to nix the aluminum tetrachlorohydrex gly altogether. I haven't ever really been a fan of antiperspirants anyway. I find that though I don't sweat, I still kiiiiinda stink after a few hours, even if I'm not doing much physical activity.
School. Weddings. Jobs. Visiting friends. Weddings. Shopping. WEDDINGS! I am a wedding photographer, people. This whole "being smelly" thing is not good!

My first attempt at homemade deodorant was very awesome. I used Sayward's deodorant recipe, with the exception of adding a bit of water as one of the commenters suggested, to thicken it up. Water to thicken it. Go figure! But it worked, and that's what mattered. We photographed a wedding during the test phase (and brought along commercial deodorant, just in case) - and at the end of what ended up being a 12 hour, sweaty day, we didn't stink! I call that a success.

Sayward's deodorant works great! My only complaint is that the baking soda made my armpits itchy at first until I got used to it. Also, in January, I noticed that the deodorant had reached a turning point in it's shelf life. There were little blobs of black here and there, few and far between, so I just picked them out and continued using the deodorant, but I know that it's mildew from the water in the recipe. Now I know better for next time. No water.

I tried to develop my own deodorant recipe in a stick form, but it still needs some work. I will be fiddling with it for a while, I think, before it's just right. In the mean time, I've made some tweaks to Sayward's recipe to create something new and quite delicious smelling!


Vanilla Lavender Homemade Deodorant
(adapted from Sayward's recipe on BonzaiAphrodite.com)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of corn starch
1/4 cup of arrowroot powder
1/8 cup of baking soda
3 Tbs coconut oil
2 Tbs vitamin E oil
1 Tbs good vanilla extract
10-15 drops lavender essential oil

Directions:

Add all ingredients except vanilla and lavender essential oil to a glass bowl and mix until everything gets smooth and forms a thick paste. Add vanilla extract and lavender essential oil, mix well and put into a wide mouthed, shallow jar. Let mixture sit overnight to set up, and apply deodorant to underarms with fingertips. Casually sniffing armpits all day - optional.

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