Why on earth would anyone make their own deodorant? In short, it’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s safe. I’ll prove to you below how cheap and easy it is, but making it yourself with natural ingredients removes the question of whether what you’re putting on your body is safe. Aluminum, parabens, Propylene Glycol, and Triclosan are just a few potentially dangerous chemicals found in store-bought deodorant.
Most homemade deodorants out there are so liquidy, you’ve got to use your fingers to apply it. I’ll be honest, I’m kinda not into that. When I’m in a hurry in the mornings, efficiency is the name of the game, and stopping to wash your hands after shoving them in your armpits doesn’t sound like fun to me and it’s held me back from trying this.
But I found a recipe that suggested beeswax. Beeswax, of course! In DIY products like this, beeswax solidifies mixtures. The only recipe I found with beeswax had a few too many ingredients and not enough beeswax. So here’s my version.
You’ll need coconut oil, shea butter, baking soda, arrowroot powder, beeswax, and your favorite essential oil.
Melt together 1 T. coconut oil, 2 T. shea butter, and 2 T. beeswax in microwave-safe bowl.
Whisk in 2 1/2 T. arrowroot powder, 1 T. baking soda, and a few drops of an essential oil of your choice, if you prefer. I used lemon oil and marjoram oil.
After it’s all whisked together, scrape it into a used deodorant container. You can also buy them here.
Bang it on the counter a few times so the air bubbles escape.
Let it cool completely and you’re done! Remember, when the mixture is warm it’s going to be a little more liquidy. Let it set for several hours.
- Coconut oil – .6 oz – .3¢
- Shea Butter – 1 oz. – .6¢
- Beeswax – .7 oz. – .5¢
- Arrowroot powder – .6 oz. – .4¢
- Baking soda – .3 oz. – 1/10 cent!
- Total: .18¢! Wow!
This looks good I am going to have to try it.
I am making and tweeking this recipe to sell on my website! I am thinking of adding cornstarch and less baking soda to get a more smooth constancy, hopefully not so grainy. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
This looks like a great recipe, but the 18 cents/tube seemed too good to be true, so I did the math myself and unless you got your products for SUPER CHEAP your math is WAY off.
The shea butter is 83 cents per ounce. at 10.90/lb the beeswax is 47 cents per .7 oz, Arrowroot powder is 33 cents for the amt used, and the coconut oil is 34 cents per the amt used. Baking soda is super cheap so I’ll ignore the cost of the baking soda and essential oils. The total for one recipe is 83+47+33+34=197 cents -> $1.97 per tube of deodorant. We’ll round up 3 cents to account for the cost of the baking soda and essential oils and call it $2/tube.
All this assuming you’ve done your Tablespoon to ounce conversions correctly (1T = .5 oz not .6 oz)
As a teacher I have to add that .3 cents (three tenths of a penny) is not the same thing as $.03 (3 cents) which is likely where you went wrong with your math. Actually, as I contemplate this (and try to figure out how to make it sound helpful instead of just mean) It looks like you forgot to move your decimal and instead of 18 cents it’s $1.80 at the time you made yours and assuming some price changes in the products over time
I will not argue with you that this is a better alternative with natural ingredients, It is. But please do not mislead people into thinking that this is that much cheaper than buying deodorant.
Hi! I would like to try out your recipe, but I’m wondering if I can use cornstarch in replacement of the arrowroot powder. Have you tried it before? Should the same amount of cornstarch be used as if using arrowroot powder?
Also, if you think cornstarch wouldn’t work as well, what about arrowroot starch/flour (http://www.swansonvitamins.com/bobs-red-mill-all-natural-arrowroot-starch-flour-16-oz-pkg?SourceCode=INTL405&CAWELAID=530002460000035037&mkwid=bPY93keh&pcrid=45563018407&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CNG33t6–7wCFYY7Mgodsi8Alw)?
Thanks for the recipe! Can’t wait to try it! 🙂
Yes, absolutely!
I like this recipe a lot! I just posted about my homemade deodorant here http://www.home-hearted.com/2013/08/diy-lavender-deodorant.html, I absolutely love it, it’s not too liquidity and smells great! But, I’ll have to try a version of yours next, I really like the idea of using beeswax. Thanks so much for sharing!
Madalyn @ HomeHearted