Homemade Summertime Deodorant Recipe
Have you ever tried making your own deodorant? This homemade summer deodorant recipe is easy, and incredibly effective whether it’s your first time or the thousandth.
Several years ago, after doing some research on what happens when you consistently rub aluminum – the critical ingredient in antiperspirants – into sensitive areas of your skin, I decided to wean myself off of antiperspirants.
At first, I’ll admit it wasn’t fun, but as crazy as it sounds, you can train your body to produce less underarm sweat.
Actually, that’s not really what happens. See, when you spend years – decades even – clogging up your lymph drainage system with toxic junk, your body starts over-producing in an effort to do it’s job – drain the lymph system – despite your efforts to stop it.
so when you stop wearing that antiperspirant deodorant every day, your body is still in overdrive, working madly to clean out the junk you’ve put in it on top of doing its normal job.
After a while, it gets a handle on things and slows down. Way down.
I can attest to this, because while yes, I sweat like a normal human being, I don’t sweat the way did when I first stopped using conventional antiperspirant deodorant.
I also, and I’m sorry if this is TMI language here, but I don’t stink like I once did either.
At first, I found myself applying natural or homemade deodorant as much as three times a day, but now, I just do it after a shower.
So if you’re new to homemade deodorant, or have tried it and decided it doesn’t work for you, please do me a favor and give it a couple weeks. You’ll be surprised! And I say this as someone who runs 3-4 times a week, and goes to the gym on my off days (in other words, I sweat a lot!).
Most of the homemade deodorant recipes you’ll find on the internet are baking soda based. Baking soda does a great job of eliminating stink, and it makes a great deodorant if you can tolerate it.
However, for some of us, after a while, its abrasiveness starts to irritate that aforementioned sensitive skin on our underarms and believe me when I say it’s not the greatest thing ever.
So I’ve moved to more of an essential oil-based deodorant.
Obviously, the main ingredient isn’t essential oils, but the main anti-bacterial, the anti-microbial component is either tea tree oil, or lavender oil.
The other ingredients play a supporting roll, like
-
- Aztec clay, which actually helps prevent skin irritation,
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- Coconut oil, which is also anti-microbial,
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- Shea butter, which is anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory,
- A bit of baking soda, which is technically optional if you just can’t stand it.
Plus of course, the beeswax which keeps it from melting in my 85º bathroom (no joke). I don’t know about you, but I for one, can’t remember to get my deodorant out of the fridge before I head to the bathroom for my shower, so beeswax it is for my deodorant.
I love this deodorant, but at the same time, I know that not everybody has Aztec clay in their pantry (you can get it in two days with Amazon Prime though!), so if you can tolerate baking soda, I highly recommend trying this recipe, which you probably already have ingredients for!
Homemade Summertime Deodorant Recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 T. coconut oil
- 1 Tablespoon beeswax pellets
- 1 Tablespoon shea butter
- 2 Tablespoons Aztec Healing Clay
- 1 Tablespoon baking soda (eliminate if you’re super sensitive to it)
- 15 drops of tea tree, or lavender essential oil
- 1 empty deodorant container (buy it here), or 4 oz. jar.
Instructions:
- Melt coconut oil, wax, and shea butter together in a small pan using either low heat, or a double boiler set up.
- Stir in clay, and baking soda.
- Add essential oils and mix well.
- Pour into container and let cool.
- Use as you would any other deodorant!
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Have you tried using arrowroot instead of baking soda? This recipe sounds great! I actually just started using the Aztec clay as a weekly pit mask to get rid of the gunk in my pits. I didn’t think to actually put it in my deoderant!. It’s also helped cool the semi irritation I get from my Native deodorant (contains tiny bit of BS) …
Arrowroot doesn’t have the same antibacterial qualities of baking soda, but you can omit the baking soda in this recipe, just make sure you don’t skip the essential oils!
Have you had any problems with staining?
Tea tree oil is anti bacterial…
I haven’t, but I don’t wear white, so I’m not gonna say a hard “No”.
Arrowroot actually does have antibacterial and antimicrobial properties. You can read about it here:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15355532/
The deodorant recipe sounds good but i have read that baking soda can raise blood pressure, and also that anything in a white powder form could cause cancer. Wondering if there is an alternative
.
Hi Elaine, you could try just eliminating the baking soda, and maybe add more essential oils.
As for the white powder issue, there are an awful lot of food-based white powders out there. As for baking soda, it being high alkaline, should make the body less ideal for growing cancer.
Ould bentonite clay he ok to use in the place of the Aztec clay? Also, could I add arrowroot powder and vitamin E?
Yes to all. 🙂
Can you substitute activated charcoal for the Aztec clay? I recently bought a natural deodorant but need something a little more. I am going to try this one soon.
Do you know of a substitute for the beeswax? I’d like to make it vegan, but I still want it to go into an applicator because I’m using crazy amounts of soap washing my hands after applying my jar deodorant.
I haven’t personally used vegan waxes, so take this for what it’s worth, but I’ve been told candelilla wax is a very good substitute, and that you’d use about half the quantity needed for beeswax recipes.
I’m new to natural deodorants and for years I’ve been stinking up a storm. I only apply when my relatives comment but after seeing my pa having to go get his underarms drained I’m reluctant to wear deodorant. What are the affects natural deodorants have on the body?
The negatives affects from commercial deodorants come from the antiperspirant components (usually aluminum). On the flip side, natural deodorant doesn’t inhibit sweat, clogging up your lymph nodes, it simply kills the bad smell.
You use T and then Tablespoon. Same thing?
2 T. coconut oil
1 Tablespoon beeswax pellets
Yes, that was a mistake. Sorry!
hi there, how much does this make? in grams? thank you
Do you think Bentonite Clay.could be substituted for the Aztec Clayy?
Yes, I believe so.
Forget my comment about Bentonite Clay., I see it was already asked and answered. However, 9ne more question… Have you updated this recipe since 2017 or are you still Unitas it is?
I still make this recipe. I like that it has less baking soda than most homemade deodorants, but is still effective.
I need to make this and try out it.
I have a bar of beeswax I was just going to shave down but I imagine it wouldn’t be equal to the pellets. Do you know how much a Tablespoon of beeswax pellets weighs?