When I was at our local natural food store a few weeks ago I wandered into the deodorant section and found some Schmidt's natural deodorant. I loved the scents and upon looking at the ingredients I decided I would do some research and try my hand at making my own. I fell in love with the Cedarwood + Juniper scent and the Bergamot and Lime scent. I had just ran out of Cedarwood essential oil, but I had Bergamot, so I decided to try making one that had a similar scent profile to Bergamot and Lime. I didn't have lime so I substituted lemon and grapefruit (though I think lime is such a perfect pair with Bergamot).
If you don't want to use any scents, you can totally omit the essential oils. I really want to make a cedarwood and/or spruce version to emulate the Schmidt's Cedarwood + Juniper scent. I should probably wait until I use up all of my Bergamot batch though! I really don't like any of the scents that women's deodorant comes in, it all smells overly flowery or like baby powder, I don't know. I've always hated women's deodorant, so I love that I can customize my own deodorant to the kind of scents that I prefer. Strong enough for a man, made for a woman? What does that even mean? Deodorant that smells "girly?" So over the gender divide in products. Can we just made deodorant for humans and razor blades for humans and stop assuming that every female of the species likes pink and floral scents?
Before making my own deodorant I was using mens Old Spice, which has a pretty strong smell, and this homemade deodorant has much more subtle aroma. I figured Old Spice was mostly covering odors with the strong scent, so I was curious as to how well the homemade stuff would work. I wore it to both my yoga classes and on the plane, two places I find usually cause more need for deodorant, and was pretty pleased with the results!
You should be able to find the ingredients at health food type stores, but if not I linked to each item on amazon.
(recipe adapted slightly from scratch mommy)
What you'll need
Double Boiler
4oz+ jar or container
1 oz Coconut oil
3/4 oz Shea butter
1/3 oz Oil (I used sweet almond oil, but avocado, jojoba, etc. work well too)
1/3 oz Beeswax
1/2 oz Arrowroot powder
1/2 oz Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade)
5 drops of Vitamin E
25-30 drops of essential oils (I get mine here. I used grapefruit, lemon, and bergamot)
In your double boiler, add the oils, shea butter, and beeswax. I use a glass pyrex measuring cup over a pot of water as a makeshift double boiler and it works just fine. Melt on low heat until everything is melted.
Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool for a few minutes, then add the Arrowroot powder, Diatomaceous Earth, Vitamin E, and Essential Oils and whisk everything until it's completely combined.
Pour into your container and place somewhere safe so it can set up, I just set mine in the fridge for like 15 minutes.
To use, just pull a bit out of the jar and rub between your fingers until it warms up and smooths into a spreadable consistency, then just rub into your underarms! This recipe is solid enough that you could also pour it into a twist-up deodorant container and apply it like you would normal deodorant, if you don't like the idea of rubbing it on with your fingers.
