DIY Lotion & Deodorant

Deodorant is super important if you want to make friends. In all seriousness though, being labeled “the stinky one” is no way to go about life. But commercial deodorant has a lot of nasty ingredients that I don’t fee safe putting on my skin anymore. And worse, most deodorant comes in plastic that’s not recyclable in most areas. So, even if you’re buying “all natural” deodorant, like Tom’s, you’re still not doing the planet any favors.

Luckily there are several options for making your own deodorant, that compares with the best of the plastic, all natural, grocery store deodorants that are clogging up landfills around the world.

The best part was, by switching up just a few ingredients from the deodorant recipe, I made a pretty solid lotion too. Except it was a little thicker than a lotion, a bit more like a balm. Anyway, it works great on my elbows, knees and feet… you know… the extra dry areas.

So, without further ado, here are the recipes:

Depending on what you can find plastic free, you can use a wide range of oils/butters as your base. My favorite is shea butter, but you can also use:

• Coconut oil
• Mango Butter
• Cocoa butter
• Olive butter
• Pumpkin seed butter

For the lotion:

• 1 tablespoon of  Jojoba, argon, olive oil, or almond oil
• A few drops of your favorite essential oil.

For the deodorant:

• 1/4 cup of baking soda
• a few drops of essential oil
• 2 drops of tea tree oil

 

I stuffed 1/2 cup of Shea butter into a mason jar and placed it in a pot filled with water. Turn the stove to high heat, and allow the water to boil and gently melt the butter.

 

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After several minutes, the butter will melt into a liquid state.

 

 

For Lotion/Balm: pour the liquid into a sealable, heat-proof container (like glass or tin) and add essential oils/fragrances as needed. I like lemon grass, or lavender, or vanilla.

Mix gently until blended.

 

For Deodorant: Remove mason jar from heat and cool for 3 seconds. Stir in tea tree oil or other fragrances/essential oils. I like lemongrass or lavender.

Next, mix in baking soda and stir well. Immediately pour into the containers you wish to use, ideally something resealable.

Mixing baking soda into the solution:

 

Remember: it will continue to harden as it solidifies at room temperature, don’t add too much baking soda or it will get too stiff and be difficult to apply!

 

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Lotion on the left, deodorant on the right, still in liquid state:

 

Ta-da, that’s it. Once they’re cool they are ready to use. Storing them in mini-containers like these make them super easy for travel:

 

 

Or, store some in an old Altoids tin, or something similar, for lotion or deodorant on-the-go!

 

Resources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/climate/perfume-pollution-smog.html