DIY help! Deodorant Conundrum

For the past few months, I've been working on a homemade deodorant recipe. Sadly, my chemistry skills leave something to be desired. I know the formula works, and it works really well. Anytime I use it, I'm stink free all day. My boyfriend is also a good guinea pig for the effectiveness as he works out often and comes home still smelling fresh.

HOWEVER (yes in all caps), we have had random reactions and sensitivities to the deodorant and need to take a break from using it every now and then. I've also asked my friends to help me test it. Some have had a reaction, while others have used it successfully. I've gone back a few times and re-researched all the ingredients, reading blogs, searching the cosmetic safety databases and consulting my reference books. Everything I read says that these ingredients should be safe and effective. If it is not the individual ingredients that are causing a reaction, then it must be how I'm mixing them, right?

Formula 3: solid, hard consistency

Then there is the issue of texture and consistency. The recipes have come out ranging from a hard solid to a runny cream. I've experimented with different blending techniques and quantities of ingredients. I melted the oils first and the blended them with the dry ingredients. The last time, I combined all the ingredients first, then set the mixture over a double boiler to soften the oils and butters as I mixed it by hand. I've also tried changing the ratios of dry to wet ingredients, but this just produces either an oily or gritty formula. Nothing seems to be working.

Here's what I figured out today...

I'm not too proud to ask for help. I could use some constructive criticism and suggestions to help identify things that I might be doing wrong. I'm frustrated with the process. My brain just doesn't work well with numbers. And I cringe at the waste of good ingredients. Maybe the same bloggers that I've been using for inspiration are up to helping me with this challenge?

Floraesthetics Deodorant - Formula 4

Formula 4: creamy, runny consistency

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Baking Soda
• 1/4 cup Corn Starch
• 1 tsp White Clay
• 1 tsp Oat Flour
  
  

Wet Ingredients:

• 3 tsp Coconut Oil
• 3 tsp Cocoa Butter
• 2 tsp Shea Butter
• 1 tsp Sweet Almond Oil
• 1 tsp Vegetable Glycerin
• 1/2 tsp Emu Oil
• 6 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil
• 6 drops Lavender Essential Oil
• 3 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil
• 3 drops Rosemary Essential Oil
• 3 drops Vitamin E
  
• 3 drops Grapefruit Seed Extract
  
  

Directions: Sift dry ingredients into a heat-proof bowl. Then add all the wet ingredients and set bowl over a sauce pan with hot water (not boiling) on the stove. Mix until ingredients are soft and totally incorporated. Remove from heat and pour into small glass jar. Let it cool before using.

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If you have ideas, please leave a comment with suggestions, send me an email rocio@floraesthetics.com, or write on my Facebook wall facebookcom/floraesthetics. Any insight into this deodorant conundrum will be much appreciated!

Previous posts on my homemade deodorant attempts:

• Scare tactics or not, I'm giving homemade deodorant a try - October 29, 2011
• Three days and still feeling fresh - November 01, 2011
• DIY Diary: Back to the drawing board with paste deodorant - January 09, 2012
• Homemade deodorant in twist up tubes - March 22, 2012

Easy, DIY Clarifying Shampoo Recipe

When I started making my own skin and body care products, I had three or four different shampoo and conditioner bottles in my shower, not counting my boyfriend's products!

I alternated daily between brands so that my hair wouldn't get used to one product. I wanted that "it's working" feeling. Now I don't know if there is any science to alternating shampoo and conditioner formulas, but even with this strategy I was never happy with my hair.

Recently, I've stopped using almost all hair products in exchange for an apple cider vinegar rinse every day. I mix 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water in a spray bottle and keep it in the shower. When I wet my hair, I spray on the mixture and let it sit while I shower. Caution: vinegar may run off onto your face but it's good for your skin too.

I also shampoo about one a week. Right now I'm using either Monica's Cococastile Soap or L'Oreal Sulfate-Free Cleansing Conditioner. These both do the trick without stripping my hair. I follow the shampoo with the vinegar rinse.

This routine has given my hair a chance to breathe and my scalp feels healthy too. The apple cider vinegar (specifically unfiltered) has so many wonderful benefits, but it works on the hair by balancing the PH and closing the hair cuticles for smoother, shinier hair.

In my quest to go totally natural, I am going to try making my own shampoo. I got an easy recipe at the Florida Herbal Conference's natural beauty workshop.

Homemade Clarifying Shampoo:
-1/4 cup distilled water
-1/4 cup liquid Castile soap
-1 tablespoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon jojoba or grapeseed oil

Mix ingredients in a flip top bottle and shake well.

The baking soda in this recipe will clean hair thoroughly, but it can be a little harsh for daily use. Make sure to use this shampoo less frequently, maybe once a week, and then rinse with apple cider vinegar to balance your PH levels.

If you want to wash your hair more often, just take the baking soda out of the recipe for a milder shampoo.

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to sharing the results with you. Let me know if you have any great shampoo recipes I can experiment with!

Homemade Deodorant In Twist Up Tubes

I have been slacking lately. I haven't worked on my deodorant formula in a while, since we still have some from my last batch. However I did have a friend try it out, and he gave me some good feedback. 

Today, I went back to the drawing board (again) and made a couple of modifications. I removed the cypress and juniper essential oils and added lavender essential oil to soften the scent. I also reduced the amount of cocoa butter to make it more spreadable. I might regret that as it gets hotter outside this summer. Finally, I packaged the formula in traditional deodorant twist up tubes for the first time. I bought .5 oz tubes and am shrink wrapping them to make them look official. My recipe made 7 travel-size deodorants!

Here are a couple pictures of my DIY Adventures today:

Update: This attempt was, sadly, unsuccessful. The consistency was far too soft for actual application using a tube. I applied it with my fingers, and the recipe is still effective. But the application part of it needs work... back to the drawing board.

How Natural Beauty Loving Hippies Vacation

After working at Clinique for a few years, my mom decided to get her esthetician license. This happened while I was in high school, working at Lancome. That Christmas, I bought my mom Janice Cox's Natural Beauty at Home book.

Needless to say, natural beauty was not as trendy back then. It was more for us to play with ingredients in the kitchen than for actual application on her clients. When I moved to college, all things beauty were put on hold. My mom would give me awesome facials when I went home to visit, but that was about it.

Then a couple years ago, I found a giant aloe leaf in my sister's bathroom. She always struggled with her skin, even with an esthetician for a mom. My heart goes out to people with trouble skin because it is not easy. My sister was using aloe gel straight from the plant for a moisturizer. While I knew aloe was healing, I thought she should be using some kind of oil to help moisturize her dry skin too.

Source www.janicecox.com

Enter Ms. Janice Cox. That winter I pulled her book out and started researching recipe ideas to help my sister. That one conversation got my beauty juices going again, and now two years later I'm attending the first Florida Herbal Conference this weekend in Ocala.

My second beauty book was Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal Recipes, and I'm so excited that I will get to hear her speak at the conference. I'm also looking forward to the nature walks through the Ocala National Forest to learn about native plants and herbs. There is going to be lots of yoga, which is so healing for my hyperactive mind. I will also be first in line for the natural beauty and healthy cooking workshops. The best part of all, no offense to anyone, is that there are a bunch of earth-friendly, natural beauty loving hippies gathering in one place. It sounds fun and relaxing all at once!

Here are the workshops I plan on attending:

• Growing Herbs in Florida Climate
• Healing Belly Dance 
• Walking Over Medicine: Edible & Medicinal Weeds of North Florida 
• Natural Beauty and Body Care (of course!)
• Ethnobotany Walk
• Food as Medicine, Medicine as Food 
   

If you are interested in learning more about the conference, follow @HerbConference. If I have reception, I'll tweet periodic updates after the workshops @floraesthetics, hashtag #HerbConference.

DIY Adventures: Aloe Vera Face Mask

I follow a bunch of great beauty blogs and my favorite posts are usually about DIY recipes for homemade skin care. I've spent the past two years learning how to make homemade beauty products, and it is not easy. When I find DIY recipes that require only a few ingredients and are easy to make, I get excited.

Today, I tried an Aloe Vera Face Mask recipe from Revitalise Your Health.

The ingredients were simple and made total sense:

• 1 tablespoon of powdered seaweed (kelp)
• ½ tablespoon of Aloe Vera gel
• ½ tablespoon of raw honey
• 1 capsule of vitamin E
• A few drops of essential oils (I used 3 drops of lavender)

The instructions were quick and easy too:
Combine all ingredients together and mix well, squeeze out contents of vitamin E capsule and add to mixture. Apply mixture to face, throat, and neck. Leave on for approximately 20-30 minutes. Rinse using warm water.

And the the verdict:

This recipe gets an A+ for simplicity of ingredients and preparation. It literally took me less than 10 minutes to gather the ingredients, make the recipe and apply it to my face.

However, I have to take some points off for application. It was so messy! The mask clumped together and did not spread evenly on the skin. It was actually a challenge to get this much of it on (see picture on right). And I recommend applying the mask before you clean your bathroom because it was all over my sink. I can overlook all of this because making homemade beauty products is a messy business overall.

The removal part of the process was a little better. It took a while to come off, but it was less messy than the application part. Caveat: You will have kelp pieces all over your hair if you apply it near your hair line.

As for the results, my skin definitely felt as if it had a mask treatment. It was softer and smoother, but it was also very red. I don't have overly sensitive skin, but if a product causes a reaction, it is very visible. The skin around my nose and cheeks was definitely red, but it didn't feel irritated at all. Weird!

Instead of applying moisturizer right away, I waited a few minutes to see how my skin felt after it dried. The texture of my skin still felt good as did the level of moisture. I didn't have that dry, tightness that I usually feel after using most face masks.

After about 10 minutes, I checked again for redness. It had reduced significantly to only a few red blotches, so I applied a light layer of emu oil, known for reducing inflammation. My skin soaked it up.

Overall, the Aloe Vera Fask Mask was a great little DIY project. It was easy to use and left my skin feeling smooth and pampered. Beware, however, if you have sensitive skin.