Simple Homemade Deodorant
We have been on a quest of late to make more of the things we use on a daily basis from scratch. Today I decided to tackle deodorant. I have used various natural deodorants in the past and haven’t found them particularly effective (they’re also unattractively pricey for the most part).
After a bit of Googling I found several recipes for homemade deodorants. Based on these, I opted to make my own version with ingredients I had floating around and guestimated amounts that I thought could work.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup of grated beeswax (in this case I’d run out of ours so used some from Malfroy’s Gold)
- 1/2 cup organic cold-extracted unrefined coconut oil
- 1/4 cup of organic cornflour
- 2 tablespoons bicarb soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of vitamin E oil
- 100% pure essential oils: jasmine, sweet orange and lemongrass (I chose these from the ones I have because all are said to have antibacterial properties, and there is some research to back this up, although I have no idea if they’ll be effective on BO bacteria so at worst they’ll add a nice smell to the deodorant)
The ingredients I had floating around The Humpy
Method
- Melt coconut oil and beeswax gently in a double boiler.
- Remove the melted coconut oil and beeswax from the heat and add all the remaining ingredients
- Stir as it starts to cool to mix everything together
- Before the mixture has set, pour it into a container or a clean stick deodorant tube
- Apply as needed! I just rubbed some on with my fingers since I just poured it into a plastic container.
Melt coconut oil and beeswax in a double boiler
Once the coconut oil and beeswax have melted, remove from heat and add in all other ingredients, stirring the mixture.
Before the mixture sets pour it into a container or clean stick deodorant tube
The Test
I will be running a kettlebell workshop all day tomorrow and this means getting up very early to drive the 2 hours to Melbourne, a LOT of coffee, expending a great deal of energy having to be “on” all day and being constantly active in warm room: this will be the perfect test for my homemade deodorant (I will provide updates and Rohan will be subjected to sniff tests at the end of the day to provide an objective assessment of its efficacy).
*********UPDATE: So the deodorant passed the test. I’ve been up since 4am and have only just stopped to sit down at 7:30pm and I don’t stink to high heaven and Rohan has confirmed that I still smell ok – pretty happy with that after such a long day. Definitely an improvement on any of the store-bought deodorants (natural or otherwise) that I’ve tried.**************
awesome post. Most commercial deodorants cause me irritation. I would love to try it. Thanks.
Thank-you! If you have sensitive skin the bicarb soda may be a bit irritating for you too, so possibly halve the amount (or you can try a Google search for homemade deodorants without bicarb). Good luck!