Nearly Natural Nicole: deodorant

I've been very reluctant to make my own deodorant. I found it much easier to give up shampoo and put honey in my hair. Switching to an all natural deodorant has been the last frontier of crunchiness for me. It took a while for the ickyness of traditional deodorant to out weigh my fear of being sweaty.

Well, thankfully my sweatyness level is pretty much the same with my homemade stuff. I'm still sweating a bit but it's similar to how I did with typical deodorant. Making my own deodorant is now a way of life & I'm not going back to the store bought stuff. (And no, I don't stink.)

So my main reason for making deodorant for myself? Traditional deodorant is BAD. The main ingredient in store bought deodorant is aluminum which is linked to breast cancer and Alzheimer's. Aluminum mimics estrogen which can mess up your hormone levels. I have a family history of Alzheimer's so I've been aware of the link to aluminum for many years but only as I've gotten older have I started looking for ways to cut down my own aluminum exposure.

I've made a couple of different homemade recipes. This one from the Purposed Heart worked pretty well but had complicated ingredients & irritated one of my pits. The other was fine so I guess I have weird pits.

I've researched a lot of recipes and ingredients and today I'm sharing the most simple & frugal I've found. I use arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch as it's much less irritating to my pits. If you don't have it on hand you can go ahead and try the recipe with cornstarch but just be warned.

Simple Deodorant

1/4 c. baking soda

1/4 c. arrowroot powder or cornstarch

5 Tbsp. coconut oil

Essential oils (optional – I used 2 drops tea tree as it's antibacterial and 3 drops lavender for a nice scent) *Don't use citrus oils as they can promote hair growth which you probably don't want to encourage in your pits.

Mix it all together in a small container. You may need to warm the coconut oil if it's not soft at room temperature. Pour the mix into a small plastic bowl and place it in the refrigerator to harden. After it hardens it will pop out of the bowl for easy use. I leave it in my fridge all the time since I prefer to keep it cool. I just pop it out to rub on my pits in the morning. The coolness feels refreshingly good during the summer. If you leave it at room temperature it will be soft and you can scoop it onto your fingers and sensually rub it into your pits.
In the winter I may experiment with pouring the deodorant mix into a cleaned out deodorant container. The weather has to remain cooler for the coconut oil to remain solid like a traditional deodorant.