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

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.

DIY Diary: Back To The Drawing Board With Paste Deodorant

A few months ago, I wrote about my first experiment with homemade deodorant. After using it with great success for about three months, I started noticing my underarm skin was feeling sensitive. It was nothing visible, but I quit using the deodorant for a couple weeks to let my skin go au naturale. My boyfriend didn't have any problems with it until we traveled to Miami for a hot, Christmas holiday with my family. The deodorant melted in transport, but he continued to use it unaware that it had probably gone bad by this point. It started irritating his skin too, so finally it went in the trash. We both took breaks from deodorants for a few days.

In the mean time, I went back to the drawing board. Since I felt irritation first, I figured the deodorant must have been going bad before the Great Melt. I reviewed the recipe, which included only three things that I haven't used before for skin care: bentonite clay, juniper berry essential oil and cypress essential oil. I switched out the bentonite clay for white clay, added some oatmeal flour, and reduced the concentration of essential oils. I also added rosemary essential oil to help better preserve the deodorant paste.

The initial results are promising. The color is more reminiscent of commercial deodorants. The texture is nicer with the addition of the oatmeal, a little less oily with a little more firmness. The scent is nice and light. The first batch was good, but it ended up being a little too fragrant for my taste.

One drawback to our testing is that we are using a jar container and scooping up the paste with our fingers. I haven't found a good online vendor for deodorant tubes yet, so for now I will take advantage of our application method to test the deodorant's shelf life.

We've used it for two days with regular pit checks to test for effectiveness. So far so good...