The look on my husbands face was comical! You’d have thought I asked him to “pull my finger!”
You see, we had just spent the day in the sun moving a large pile of rocks (the size of basketballs and larger). It was in the 90’s and we were HOT and sweaty! When I came inside I had to peal my clothes off in order to clean up and it occurred to me that this was the perfect opportunity to test the effectiveness of my DIY deodorant. I’d been making it for over a year and hadn’t had any problems – at least my husband hadn’t complained – but then I don’t usually get really sweaty and I rarely sweat to the point of having to peal off my clothes because they’re sticking to me. So this really was the perfect opportunity.
Cautiously I placed my nose in the vicinity of my armpit and sniffed. I noticed a slight coconut scent. I pulled in further for a good whiff. Coconut and a slight scent of essential oil! That was it! Wooo Hooo! Success!
Of course, I had to share my success with my husband! So I went in the other room and invited him to revel in the scent of coconut with me. Naturally, he was skeptical. But after I did a test sniff to prove it was safe, he cautiously approached and smelled too.
His response? His eyes opened in surprise and he exclaimed, “Hey! It smells like coconut!”
Yep! Definitely a success!
DIY Deodorant Recipe
1/4 cup Redmond clay
1/4 cup Baking Soda
1/4 cup Arrowroot
Coconut Oil
Mix together the clay, baking soda, and arrowroot.
Add enough coconut oil to bring the mixture to the consistency of dry play dough (I start with a little less than 1/4 c and add more if I need to).
Once it’s at the right consistency, add 2-3 drops of essential oil – whichever one you like. This will bring it to the right consistency for deodorant.
Then spoon the mixture into old deodorant containers. This makes enough to almost fill two containers.
I keep one in the refrigerator and the other on my dresser. It doesn’t melt on my dresser as long as we have the central air on – remember coconut oil becomes liquid at about 76 degrees. You want it soft enough to spread but not so soft it pours out. 🙂
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Thanks for sharing this recipe. This is simple and natural but I have no doubt it is very effective too. Have a healthy happy day! Marla
Thanks Marla! I was surprised at how effective it is! I’d tried other recipes but wasn’t quite happy with them. The “secret” was adding the Redmond Clay. I added it to help with perspiration, but it obviously helps with odor too! 🙂
Do you ever have problems with the coconut oil staining your clothes? I’m looking for a new deoderant, but am hesitant to get oil on all my clothes, and put it through the wash where it could contaminate my other clothes. thoughts?
Hi Crystal, 🙂
No, I haven’t had any problem with staining. I do rub it in though – not completely, but mostly – so maybe that’s why. I wear a white, cotton undergarment under my clothes, so if there was going to be any staining, my garments would show it and they don’t, so I don’t think there should be any problems. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your recipe. I have been using Toms of Maine for a while and it works great but is pretty pricey. Is your recipe strictly deodorant or is it antiperspirant also?
Hi Lisa,
I added the clay to help with perspiration absorption. It does seem to help, but I’m not sure I’d call it an antiperspirant since we’re supposed to sweat. Obviously, moving rocks in 90 degree weather – you’re going to perspire, but I think it works really well under normal circumstances. 🙂
Yay Kathy! Great post. Congrats on being chosen as a featured post on this week’s Wildcrafting Wednesdays! this recipe really does work keeping those stinky pits at bay, however I seem to have a sensitivity to the baking soda and it tears my armpits up. still haven’t found a recipe that works as well as this though.
Thanks Kristin! 🙂
So you’ve used this recipe before? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but none of the recipes I found used the clay and I was looking for something that would help absorb perspiration so I thought I would add it and see how it worked. And it worked really well! 🙂 Have you tried using the recipe without the baking soda? One recipe I did find called for arrowroot OR baking soda, so if I had a problem with the baking soda I would just leave it out and see how that works for you.