# Natural Deodorant (No soda - No beeswax)



## Sapwn (Jul 20, 2013)

I see that all natural deodorant recipes in the net contain baking soda or beeswax.

However, none of these two ingredients should be present in a deodorant.
Baking soda is very irritating to the skin and causes light to severe rush in the armpits of most people. If used, it should be 1% at maximum but the recipes I see here have exaggerated percentage of this.

Beeswax cannot be used as well because it is very difficult to clean away. Especially if you are male and therefore have hairy armpits, beeswax is a disaster.

Some recipes that I found with no baking soda at all do not offer protection for more than a couple of hours.

So I am asking if anyone has in mind a recipe that worked for him and doesn’t contain baking soda or beeswax.


Thank you.


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## Ancel (Jul 20, 2013)

It's not exactly no beeswax, but very little, it looks like a nice recipe, and her blog has several deodorant related posts:

http://www.lisaliseblog.com/2013/05/how-to-diy-deodorant-without-baking-soda.html


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## savonierre (Jul 20, 2013)

I have not seen a recipe without baking soda. I haven't seen a recipe with beeswax in it..I agree that would be awful in a man's deodorant.

Some people swear by milk of magnesia as a natural deodorant. I have not tried it.


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## manwithbeers (Jul 20, 2013)

The best deodorant would likely be an antibacterial Essential Oil in a light carrier oil. It may not last as long as commercial products but you can carry a tiny bottle with you pretty easily and reapply regularly.

May I suggest Rosemary, tea tree, clary sage... ? A good book on aromatherapy to give a suggested dose might help but I would stay under a 2% concentration and do a test patch.

I saw a video recently on this....
[ame]http://youtu.be/gdMZeDRwRKc[/ame]

Let us know what you come up with and your results please!


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## manwithbeers (Jul 21, 2013)

Looking through my collection... I found the following in: Aromatherapy A Complete Guide to the Healing Art, second edition, by Kathi Keville and Mindy Green

15 drops ho or sandalwood essential oil
5 drops cypress essential oil
5 drops sage essential oil
5 drops coriander or lavender essential oil
2 ounces aloe vera juice or witch hazel
1 tablespoon alcohol (Vodka)

add to a spray bottle and spray to apply.

I would expect rosemary would also be a substitute for sandalwood and it's a pretty unisex scent too.

Good luck!


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## Sapwn (Jul 21, 2013)

Thank you all for the answers.

Ancel, I tried this recipe without the beeswax.
It doesn't last for more than two hours. Not really a deodorant.


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## lsg (Jul 21, 2013)

You can make your own alum deodorant crystal.  I purchased one and it works, but I have never tried to make one.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5877835_make-own-crystal-deodorant.html


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## mel z (Jul 25, 2013)

Try replacing baking soda with arrow root powder.

Instead of beeswax use a hard butter like cocoa butter or shea butter.


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## Sapwn (Jul 25, 2013)

lsg said:


> You can make your own alum deodorant crystal. I purchased one and it works, but I have never tried to make one.
> 
> http://www.ehow.com/how_5877835_make-own-crystal-deodorant.html


Thank you for the suggestion. I have used an alum block but it irritates my skin. 







mel z said:


> Try replacing baking soda with arrow root powder.
> 
> Instead of beeswax use a hard butter like cocoa butter or shea butter.


 
I replace in every recipe beeswax with cocoa butter and shea butter.

It may sound funny, but i don't know what arrow root is. 
I googled it to find some information and it seems a good idea to try.

Tomorrow I will visit some herb stores in the city center to check if they have this powder. If I am lucky I will try it for sure. :-D

Thank you!


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## lsg (Jul 25, 2013)

Have you tried a powder deodorant that includes bentonite clay, baking soda, zinc oxide and essential oils in the formula? The best way to find what best works for you is to research and experiment. Most of us have done our homework. What works for us may not work for someone else. Body chemistry differs from one individual to the next, no matter what the resident chemists say.


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## Sapwn (Jul 26, 2013)

lsg said:


> Have you tried a powder deodorant that includes bentonite clay, baking soda, zinc oxide and essential oils in the formula?


 
Bentonite clay should not be used in a deodorant. If one wears white shirts they will become green in the armpits area after short time. I prefer the white kaolin clay.

Baking soda should not be used in a deodorant. This is what this thread is all about.

Essential oil alone cannot provide deodorant action for more that 1-2 hours.

I arrive to all these conclusions after a lot of experiments, unfortunately.


I have never used zinc oxide. What kind of properties should it provide in a deodorant? Recommended percentage of use?


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## dagmar88 (Jul 26, 2013)

lsg said:


> The best way to find what best works for you is to research and experiment. Most of us have done our homework.









You're asking for the impossible. What would being 'natural' add?
Skin safe alum isn't natural either.

Deodorants containing baking soda work perfectly fine for a lot of people. That it does not for you, doesn't make it a product that 'shouldn't be used' in general.

Search Etsy to see what works for other people, or visit the swiftcrafymonkey blog and search for deodorant. There's a wealth of information over there.


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2013)

dagmar88 said:


> You're asking for the impossible. What would being 'natural' add?
> Skin safe alum isn't natural either.
> 
> Deodorants containing baking soda work perfectly fine for a lot of people. That it does not for you, doesn't make it a product that 'shouldn't be used' in general.
> ...


I agree with all that, but while the original poster may have been exaggerating to say baking soda "shouldn't be used", it is kind of on the edge of tolerable.  Arm & Hammer had a stick deodorant that advertised its baking soda content, but that was actually a gimmick because there wasn't enough in there for that to be the basis for its effectiveness--in fact it was probably on the acid side overall.

There are many underarm deodorants that rely in part on affecting the skin's pH.  The recipes using baking soda do so to neutralize volatile acids responsible for some of BO, keeping them in a salt form that doesn't get into the air.  However, skin doesn't like to be alkaline.  I suspect that some of the home recipes containing baking soda similarly to the Arm & Hammer products don't have enough of it to be responsible for their deodorant effect.  Other deodorants are acids; the aluminum-based antiperspirants (which are more effective as deodorants than they are as antiperspirants, reducing odor far more than they reduce sweat production) are more effective, but also more irritating, the more acid they are, and as with baking soda, different people's skin will draw the line in different places as to how much they'll tolerate.

However, to some extent any organic acid will be somewhat antimicrobial and help to slow down axillary sweat's spoilage.  This property was taken advantage of in a roll-on and stick product called Fun 'n' Fresh, which was a minimalist underarm deodorant pitched for use on children but at least somewhat effective on adults.  Its active ingredient was triethyl citrate.  This was an oil-soluble ester that would slowly hydrolyze to release citric acid.  The slow release meant there was never enough acidity to be irritating, but the acid production would be maintained for many hours.  I'd like to see another product come out with that principle now that Fun 'n' Fresh is gone.  You can rub your armpits with lemon for its citric and other acids, but it might sting pretty quickly and won't be effective for long.

Various essential oils have long been used in underarm deodorants for their antimicrobial properties and also their scent.  Mum has been a commercial version of such a product going back to the 19th Century.  However, once again people will differ to the degree they'll tolerate what is in effect an antiseptic on their skin.  That's why synthetic antibacterials were developed for such products, not to be more effective (usually they're not) but more tolerable.  The antimicrobial essential oils usually contain phenols, benzyl alcohols, or benzoates; a classic example would be thymol, the phenol which is in the essential oil of thyme.


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## lsg (Jul 26, 2013)

Sapwn said:


> Bentonite clay should not be used in a deodorant. If one wears white shirts they will become green in the armpits area after short time. I prefer the white kaolin clay.
> 
> Baking soda should not be used in a deodorant. This is what this thread is all about.
> 
> ...


You don't have to use exactly what is in a recipe. Find out what each ingredient contributes to the recipe and substitute an ingredient that contributes the same value. This is what I meant about research and experimentation. Instead of baking soda you could substitute arrowroot powder. Do some reading on zinc oxide in deodorants. I feel like you can use the suggestions in this thread along with research and experimentation to come up with a recipe that suits you.


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## Sapwn (Jul 26, 2013)

Robert said:


> Arm & Hammer had a stick deodorant that advertised its baking soda content, but that was actually a gimmick because there wasn't enough in there for that to be the basis for its effectiveness--in fact it was probably on the acid side overall.


 
Exactly. Baking soda can be used in percentage of no more than 1% in order to be tolerable to most people. In this concentration it is not effective as a deodorant.

All "natural" recipes based on baking soda refer to percentage of 25% or higher which is way too high and irritating for most people.


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## mel z (Jul 27, 2013)

Found this while looking up some herbs, quite interesting. Don't know if it works. If allergic to Spruce Trees don't try it.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh7L81LV2M&feature=c4-overview&list=UUQhwtts4Pwt2vx2IOC-AX6Q[/ame]


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## Sapwn (Jul 27, 2013)

Great video Mel.
Thank you for sharing!


Very good idea!


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