An In-depth Look At Making Your Own Deodorant

In the past I’ve gone into some detail as to how I make certain things like Laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, bread, and pizza. Today we’re going to look at something else you can make, deodorant.

First let’s talk about why you should make your own deodorant. I’m not going to go into why you need deodorant, it masks smells so you don’t send your friends, family, or coworkers running for the hills. But most of you probably use antiperspirants; who wants to be all sweaty, right? Antiperspirants work by forming a gel and plugging up your sweat glands. That doesn’t sound good. Worse, various types of aluminum are used to get this effect. The problem with that is that aluminum is toxic and there are studies that suggest an increase in certain types of cancer, such as breast cancer. Yikes!

Our deodorant is made with just three simple ingredients coconut oil, baking powder, and corn starch:

Just use 2 tablespoons of each. Get one of the plastic containers you have but shouldn’t be using any more and use that to mix everything up. Start with the baking soda and then mix in the corn starch:

Once you have the both mixed up good and there are no clumps:

Throw in the coconut oil (you may need to microwave it a bit to get it to a liquid form):

Mix it all up real good and then store it in the fridge to let it set up:

Here you have two options. You can let it set up in the plastic container:

It looks like a bar of soap. You can use it like a bar to rub under your armpits or you can break off pieces and rub them in like lotion.

Or you can take an old, empty deodorant bottle and pour it in. It will work just like your old sticks. Roll it up when you need more:

There are some down sides. It can get runny depending on how warm your house gets so you may have to leave it in the fridge. At first the coconut oil will seem very expensive (I think we spent $6 or $7 on it). But you can make multiple bars out of it so in the long run it isn’t that expensive.

Another alternative:

Just rub baking soda under your arms. It’s cheap and it works, though it doesn’t make you smell like coconuts.

Cost Per Bar

This is just a rough number but I think the cost breaks done roughly like this:

Baking Soda     $0.35

Corn Starch      $0.24

Coconut Oil      $0.50

Or roughly $1.09/bar