The Great Homemade Deodorant Experiment of 2012, Part 2

So, as I mentioned in Part 1, my first batch of homemade deodorant was effective, but very messy. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion that this stuff actually works BETTER than the commercial deodorant I was using previously. I got the The Man of the House to try it, as well, though he was skeptical that it would work for a guy. I can attest that he’s been smelling great, although he wasn’t thrilled with the messy gloppiness, and wasn’t a big fan of the idea of applying the deodorant with his fingertips. So… I did a little more experimenting, to come up with something that was still effective, but a little more “user friendly.”

I increased the amount of baking soda and added some cocoa butter to the mix. Cocoa butter is not on the Simple Living Shopping List, but I just love the skin-soothing luxury of that stuff, so I couldn't resist. You could leave it out, and just increase the coconut oil, if you don't feel like buying more stuff. Here is the recipe I settled on:

Homemade Deodorant

½ cup baking soda

¼ cup corn starch

¼ cup coconut oil

1 Tbsp cocoa butter

Essential oils of your choice, 15-20 drops

Put the cocoa butter in a bowl and  microwave on 50% until just melted. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Pour into your desired container. In theory, this stuff should firm into a solid. But...

I tried putting this batch into an old, washed out commercial deodorant container (with the leftover just going into a small jar) but it didn’t work out so great.  It was definitely not at all solid, which is what I was going for, but more like a thick cream. As I mentioned in my last post on this subject, I think this is still due to the fact that warm temps this time of year don’t allow the coconut oil to firm up enough. I put it in the fridge, and it was perfect! However… I don’t really want to keep my deodorant in the fridge, as that’s not very convenient. I will be curious to see how this recipe works when the cooler fall weather arrives.

So, to sum up: Current batch still effective, but still messy, unless you refrigerate it. Hmph.

If you try this, let me know how it works out for you! This is still very much an “in progress” experiment, so I welcome any suggestions or insight!