Did you know you can make your own wonderful deodorant with just a few completely natural ingredients? This recipe is awesome! It is frugal and very effective! Aaron & I have been using it for over a year now, and it has worked wonders. It smells wonderful, but very faint, so the hubby does not mind! We have tried all natural brands without much success, until we tried this! It is especially important for women to take thought to the harmful aluminum materials in deodorant as it has been linked to breast cancer, being that the armpits are so close to the chest.
Ingredients:
5-6 Tbsp Coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch
Combine equal portions of baking soda & arrowroot powder. Then slowly add coconut oil and work it in with a spoon until it maintains the substance you desire. It should be about the same texture as the store bought kind, solid but able to be applied easily. You can either scoop this into your old dispensers or place in a small container with lid and apply with fingers with each use. After applying the product, you can just rub the remains into your hands as a lotion! This recipe lasts about 3 months for two people with regular daily use.
Read here and here for more wonderful uses of coconut oil!
For the best price around on organic quality coconut oil, check out Mountain Rose Herbs. Delicious for so many uses!
Hello. I was wondering if this would work for me. I often get clogged glands in the under arm area, which are very painful. and store bought deodorants male this worse. Also I tend to sweat a lot, and nothing I have tried keeps me dry anyway. This is extremely frustrating, does anyone have any advice for me? PLEASE and Thank You : )
Savannah
I cannot say whether or not this would work for you, but it is important for your body to sweat. This deodorant will only slightly cut back on that, but it will not stick. Give it a try!
Re: all the substitutions for coconut oil. I rarely buy it because in Alaska it’s only 60F most of the summer, so it remains very solid. But I’m wondering whether the other oils folks have used have worked as well, because I assumed much of the effectiveness stems from coconut oil’s antibacterial properties…? Though shea may have the same, I don’t know about jojoba?
Anyhow, I DO have coconut cream on hand (a wonderful deep conditioner/styler for my curly dry hair). I wonder how it would work; it’s a much lighter, fluffier texture than the oil.
Wow! This works great (even after a long car ride in summer heat without air conditioning)! I am recommending this recipe to my family and friends. I whipped up a batch after coming across this page a few days ago. My two year old daughter was watching me and sneaked a lick with her finger when I turned my head. Probably didn’t taste very good, but all the ingredients are totally safe!! Gotta love it!
i am so excited! i am going to finally make your deodorant today! can’t wait to try it.
Will this deodorant leave a white mess on black shirts. In my husbands business, he has to wear black tee shirts and gets sweaty everyday in them (Muay Thai Teacher) everyday. I tried a similar homemade deodorant using baking soda and corn starch and people were asking him, what that white stuff was on his shirt. Thanks for any help
Yoli
Everyone says their coconut oil smells good, but mine doesn’t have a smell…?
I use pure soda. Just dip a moist finger in it and apply to your underarms, as simple as that. And you can forget about any BO for the next 30 or so hours (even after swimming!)
Where can I purchase the essential oils and beeswax? I want to try this!
I recommend Mountain Rose Herbs.
I seem to be allergic to coconut oil in the homemade deoderant – is there something I can use in its place.
You could try palm oil or almond oil.
My sister told me just recently that she has been using apple cider vinegar. You just put a little on a cotton ball, and dab your armpits with it. I tried it a few times this past week, and it really does work.
Hi Joie,
I have made this deodorant, but I use shea butter in place of coconut oil. Just stick it in the microwave to melt it and add the baking soda and corn starch. it will solidify as it cools. It works great and I like the smell of shea.
Lindsay,
I am open to many things, and your recipe is one of them. I am so glad I found it, because my arm pits have been a mess (irritation after shaving, odor before bed, etc.). I cannot wait to try your concoction. However, I do not have any coconut oil at home. I do have walnut oil. Could I use the walnut oil in replace of the coconut oil?
The reason for the need for coconut oil is that is tends to be solid at room temperature, or close to it, and virgin coconut oil smells so nice. Walnut oil is liquid and wouldn’t work well. You could use it, but it wouldn’t smell as nice and your mixture would be more liquidy.
I have tried other homemade deodorants before and they stained my clothes. Will this one?
Melissa, do you mean stain as in a grease stain or white powdery stuff left on you clothes? I had the white powdery stuff left on black t-shirts
Hi, I love this deodorant. My family motto is now going to be ‘We Stink NO More’! I made my husband smell me after my last two Zumba classes because I was so excited. My mother-in-law wants me to give this out as Christmas presents. I am not sure what kind of message that would be sending, though.
I did change the recipe to the 2/3 cornstarch to 1/3 baking soda. I am experimenting with the beeswax to see how much it needs for hardening. My husband has to leave this in his gym bag in the truck (90+ degree weather), so we needed it to solidify. So far, I am at a 1″x1″x.75″ cube and it seems to be working. I had to melt it all down in a pot to blend in the beeswax, and this allowed me to get a better consistency and no clumping.
I love this site!
Amanda: have you figured out how much beeswax works to keep it hard? Also, does it change the feeling of it at all?
I am excited that I found a website that focuses on the natural. I will go to the store and purchase these ingredients. It is true that even store bought natural deodorants eventually stop working.
I have a pretty heavy sweating issue, even in the winter i get huge sweat spots. My natural pharmacist suggested sage deodorant. Apparently sage is a natural PH balancer. But the sage deodorant they gave me doesn’t really work. Does anyone know if i can add sage to this recipe? or without it will it help my imbalance? Thanks for the recipe, I am so excited to find out more, and to try it myself.
Sage reduces sweat production by up to 50%. You should be able to add a sage essential oil (or any other essential oil) to this recipe without any problems. Make sure you use a therapeutic grade essential oil to ensure it doesn’t contain any harmful by-products of the extraction process. An added benefit of using essential oils in this recipe is that most of them are anti-bacterial, and bacteria is what adds to the stank!
In response to the first comment – almond oil or shea butter are both good replacements if you have a coconut allergy. The trick would be to add more cornstarch to make it thicker.
I will try this recipe although I’ve perfect my own concoction using neem, tea tree, and baking soda. It even works for my hubby! I have step by step instruction on my blog. The baking soda and oils are natural antibacterials – which helps to stop the smell while the soda absorbs moisture.
Keep the DIY recipes coming – we all need to know how to get back to the basics!
I’m looking at trying something similar to this but I have a coconut allergy which makes the coconut oil a hard one. Does anyone know of a replacement I could use?
you just need a fat that’s solid @ room temperature, I imagine coco butter would be similar in function
I have been using this deodorant for three weeks now and will never go back to commerical ones again. I even have my family, co-workers and 10 year old daughter using it, and all with successful results. I’m so glad to have found your site!
I am making the deodorant right now. I’m excited to start trying it as I’ve been looking for something natural that actually works.
One question…What do you do about the coconut oil melting when it gets warm? We don’t run our air conditioning every day in the summer, and our upstairs can get pretty warm.
Thanks. I just found your site and it look wonderful! Thanks for ministering to others in this way!
Julie Robbins
In this case, you have to store it in the fridge between uses or add beeswax to help maintain the texture.
Lindsay,
I’ve been using this deodorant (with small alterations) for a few months now, and I LOVE it!!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. When I mix mine, I use about 2/3 cup arrowroot powder, 1/3 cup baking soda and several TBS coconut oil (til it’s the consistency I like). I’ve not had any problems with rashes since I’ve changed to this formulation. LOVE IT!!!
Heather, thanks for sharing your recipe. I thought it was only me that was getting a bad rash under my arms, but I see that you’ve got one too. I’ll be adjusting mine. Thanks for sharing.
I was wondering if you needed to “melt” the coconut first, or use it straight from the jar?
Hi, Lindsay. I wanted to send a quick note about your deodorant. I used your recipe at first but, after a few days I got an itchy rash. I was upset because I LOVE this recipe and it works better than anything I’ve ever tried (homemade or store bought) So, I made some adjustments that have really helped and wanted to share them with you.
3 Tbsp of baking soda (because 1/4 c was just too much for me)
4 Tbsp of coconut oil
4 Tbsp of arrow root powder
1/4 c of cocoa butter (mine happens to have jojoba oil in it. I don’t know if that makes a difference)
2 vitamin E tablets (poke a hole and squeeze vit E out into mixture)
10-15 drops of essential oil(s) of your choice (or to your desired scent)
Mix all together and put in a container. Apply with fingers. I had to melt the cocoa butter to get it to a mixable state, but other than that, I just added all of the ingredients together.
This recipe works great for me. I do still have red under my arms, but it doesn’t itch or burn. One thing I try to do to lessen the redness and keep rash at bay is to wash my underarms every night and apply some coconut oil. That seems to help a lot. And, I’ll occasionally apply some coconut oil before I put my deodorant on. That seems to help to.
I’ve been using this for two weeks and have not had any problems. It keeps odor away, which can sometimes be a challenge for me.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Blessings,
Heather
Wow. All I can say is WOW. I got my entire family converted, Mom, Dad, myself, my hubby and my brother. We all love it and are absolutely amazed to find something so simple that works so great. It is really amazing. How in the world could I have spent so much buying organic deodorants which never worked when all along this cheap home remedy out did even the “poisonous” main stream brands! I read in a book that coconut oil is anti-microbial, maybe that is why the recipe works so great. = )