Turning Lotion Bars Into Deodorant and a Question About Shea Butter

[Nate5700]

Being as I like to experiment, I came up with an idea. I found this recipe for lotion bars: https://www.mommypotamus.com/lotion-bar-recipe/

My thought is to scale the recipe back some and add about an ounce of magnesium hydroxide powder to turn this into deodorant. I've been spraying my underarms with milk of magnesia and it actually works as a deodorant and doesn't irritate my skin the way other deodorants do. So the idea here is to put that in stick form.

However, I would like to use shea butter instead of cocoa butter, so that it doesn't make me smell like a chocolate bar. I read something a while back though, it said you have to be careful about how you cool shea butter after melting, or crystals can form in it. Anybody know anything about this? How should I go about it?

 

[amd]

Interesting that you haven't gotten a response yet. Have you Googled "how to temper shea butter"? Or have you considered using deodorized cocoa butter?

 

[earlene]

Here are instructions: https://bettersheabutter.com/grainy-shea-butter-heres-fix/


Also Kelsey answers a question here. Scroll down to the answer she gives to Kayla in Feb. 2015.

 

[Nate5700]

@amd I did some Googling after I posted this thread since I didn't get any response. What I found is that you have to cool it fast, like put it in the freezer after you pour. I still haven't got around to trying it.

@earlene you posted right when I was typing my response. I'll check out the links, thanks!

 

[earlene]

Nate, have you checked out the 'de-funk de pits' thread? It's long, but very informative on deo.

 

[Nate5700]

No, I hadn't seen that thread. I'll take a look!

 

[earlene]

I think you'll find it fascinating.

 

[Nate5700]

I just read through the first page, I'll check it out more when I get home (I really need to try and get some work done today). Interesting though to see what different people are trying as natural solutions for deodorant.

I don't know if magnesium hydroxide is an ingredient that many would consider to be natural. Per the Wikipedia it appears in nature as the mineral brucite. I suspect though that what I've been putting on my armpits is artificially manufactured. Not that the chemicals themselves would know the difference.

What I can say is that it's been effective, as long as you're OK with applying at least twice a day as it wears off after a few hours (I'm actually kind of wondering if it will last longer in stick form, my hypothesis is the beeswax will give it a little more "stickiness"). I don't know if it has any antimicrobial properties but it seems to keep me dry somehow. And I don't get any irritation or rash from it. I used regular deodorant before (not antiperspirant) and while it was effective I can say that my skin did not like it very much.

 

[IrishLass]

Hi Nate- If you read further into that 'de-funk the pits' thread you'll see it evolve into a larger discussion about magnesium hydroxide powder based deodorants. Wonderful stuff, magnesium hydroxide powder. I make a cream type deodorant out of it along with babassu oil. You can also use the magnesium hydroxide as a dusting powder for the pits. One day recently, I ran out of my cream concoction. Being in a hurry because I had somewhere to go and didn't want to be late, I dusted my pits with the magnesium hydroxide powder and then used a natural, storebought roll on deodorant on top of it that was always kinda 'iffy' for me in it's efficacy, but was still in my cabinet. That was the best that that roll-on deodorant ever worked for me! lol Lasted all day and night and even into the next day (I was still smelling pretty when I woke up the next morning)!

For what it's worth, in case you decide to make a stick deodorant out of it with butters, some butters, and also certain oils will stain your shirts with oil slicks in the pit area. Babassu oil is one of the oils that won't stain your shirts.


IrishLass

 

[lenarenee]

Okay, I have to finally ask the question I've denied myself for years.

How do you pronounce babassu?

 

[Nate5700]

You can also use the magnesium hydroxide as a dusting powder for the pits. One day recently, I ran out of my cream concoction. Being in a hurry because I had somewhere to go and didn't want to be late, I dusted my pits with the magnesium hydroxide powder and then used a natural, storebought roll on deodorant on top of it that was always kinda 'iffy' for me in it's efficacy, but was still in my cabinet.

Good to know. I don't remember the exact size but I got a pretty big bag of powder on Amazon, I expect it will last quite a while. And the liquid stuff (milk of magnesia) works great too, I put a little bit in a 2 oz spray bottle and just spray it on in the morning. The bottle fits in the pocket so I can carry it around to refresh as necessary.

For what it's worth, in case you decide to make a stick deodorant out of it with butters, some butters, and also certain oils will stain your shirts with oil slicks in the pit area. Babassu oil is one of the oils that won't stain your shirts.

Also good to know. I mostly wear black or dark gray undershirts so I'm not terribly worried about stains. Actually the magnesium hydroxide will leave a white residue on my black undershirts (it washes out) but you can't see it under my main shirt so it doesn't bother me.

 

[cmzaha]

Coconut Oil can cause yellow stains on clothing so stay away from it in Deo bars. Just in case you give some of them to someone else.

 

[Nate5700]

What would make a good substitute for the coconut? I'm just going to make a small batch for myself at first and I have the coconut oil on-hand, I was wanting to try this tonight. Like I said I'm not too worried about it because I don't often wear white, or really any light colors for that matter.

 

[IrishLass]

What would make a good substitute for the coconut?

Definitely Babassu. It is very much like coconut oil in many ways, but it doesn't stain.


IrishLass

 

[earlene]

Okay, I have to finally ask the question I've denied myself for years.

How do you pronounce babassu?

 

[Nate5700]

Well I made some with the coconut oil and they're in the freezer now. I scaled the recipe to make (3) 2.2 fl oz bars (those were the size of the twist tubes I got). I was going to do 0.5 oz magnesium hydroxide but when I got to looking at how much oil there was that seemed like way too much, so I cut it to 0.25 oz.

I'll look into the babassu, if this works OK. It looked like what I was afraid of was starting to happen, that is that the magnesium hydroxide was settling out of the oil. I whisked really well until the oil was cloudy with the magnesium and poured immediately. Hopefully they'll get hard fast enough that I won't end up with a lotion bar sitting on top of a cake of magnesium hydroxide.

 

[earlene]

Coconut oil will stain your clothes. Even if you wait for it to soak into your skin before you get dressed, you will see stains forming along the underarms of your shirts. Babassu leaves no stains. I use it all the time and no stains. I used CO in the past; major stains.

 

[Nate5700]

I'll likely make it with babassu next time, if I can figure out where to buy it. I figure it's more expensive than coconut oil. I wanted to get these made to try them out before I do the babassu, and I already had the coconut oil. Like I said I'm not terribly worried about stains on my black undershirts.

But it seems like a success so far. I got them in the freezer right after pouring and there's no graininess from the shea butter. I did an experiment last night to try to judge their effectiveness, I rinsed off my underarms to get rid of any residual deodorant and towel dried. Then I put it on before bed, about 9:15 PM. Woke up this morning and didn't stink, and I could feel that it was still there. Put a little more on about 7:15 AM, so it lasts at least 10 hours which is better than spraying on milk of magnesia. I brought a bar to work just in case I need to touch up but I don't anticipate that I will.

The bars I'm not actively using are going to live in the fridge for now as it can get pretty warm in my house in the spring and summer. Right before bed I looked at the thermostat and it was 77 degrees in my house, so I had to turn on the air.

So an update: I got to about 2:15 PM today and noticed some moisture starting to break through. Sniff test came up BO positive, not enough to be terribly noticeable (it was partially covered by the scent of the EO/FO blend I put in the bars) but enough that I wanted to touch up my deodorant to keep it from getting worse.

So I got 7 hours out of this application, comparable to the milk of magnesia spray. I think it lasted longer overnight because I wasn't actually moving around or engaged in activity. Still, I think I prefer the stick format to the spray. It doesn't seem as messy and it's easier to apply. I'll be interested to see how long one of these sticks lasts, that will go a long way in determining how much value this has over the spray.

I looked into buying babassu oil and...it's expensive. Best I could find was $30 for a 32 oz bottle on Amazon. And yes, it comes in a bottle even though it's solid at room temperature, there were several complaints about the packaging in the reviews, it got more expensive to buy it in reasonable packaging. I can get 54 oz of coconut oil at Walmart for $15. Considering how I typically dress, the only way I could see myself using the babassu would be if I made this for someone else. On the rare occasions where I wear light clothing and have to worry about stains I can just use the spray.

 

[IrishLass]

You can get it for a whole lot cheaper from Soaper's Choice/Columbus Foods: https://soaperschoice.com/babassubabassu

That's where I often buy mine unless someone else is having a great sale.


IrishLass

 

[Nate5700]

You can get it for a whole lot cheaper from Soaper's Choice/Columbus Foods: https://soaperschoice.com/babassubabassu

That's where I often buy mine unless someone else is having a great sale.

Thanks for the info! That's basically the same price on a per ounce basis as the Walmart coconut oil. Maybe I can use the babassu after all. 7 pounds of it would give me enough to make deodorant until the apocalypse probably.