HOMEMADE LAVENDER DEODORANT

Is anyone else up at 5am watching Snow White with a sick kid? Just me? Well, since I’m up and already sipping coffee, I thought I might as well pull open my laptop and say hello. Gigi started off the week with a bad fever as a reaction to some immunizations, and now has a yucky cold. Rather than let her cough and sniffle away the wee hours in bed I brought her out to the couch to get cozy and watch one of the movies she picked out at the library. Poor kid sounds like Sleepy, Sneezy, Dopey, and Grumpy right now.

It looks like we will be spending our Friday cozied up, watching movies, making cookies, doing puzzles, and reading books. The ladies of our neighborhood have started a little wine, I mean book, club and we’re all settling in to read The Goldfinch. What are you all reading right now? After a couple of years of not reading as much as I’d like to I’m finding that I want to devour every book in sight and I’d love some suggestions!

I do have a recipe for you this morning but this “recipe” isn’t really a recipe at all, although all of the ingredients are edible. For the past year I’ve been making my own deodorant at home. I used to use, and have tried dozens of, natural store-bought brands but they didn’t seem to work for me at all. Some better than others, but I never felt totally fresh. Occasionally I would get frustrated and buy a conventional antiperspirant, but I hated using that toxic stuff on my body. With a little research, and some tests, I came up with a formula for natural, homemade deodorant that works wonderfully for me.

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This kind of deodorant can take a little getting used to as the baking soda can feel a little grainy, and it can take your skin a bit to adjust to the ph of it, but it works great for me. The first recipe I made, and other recipes I researched didn’t call for almond oil, but I added it to soften the deodorant and make it feel smoother and more lotion. It worked and didn’t change the effectiveness at all. There are some other notes added in with the recipe directions. You should be able to find all of these ingredients at the grocery store, some in the bulk section or natural foods section.

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HOMEMADE LAVENDER DEODORANT

Ingredients.
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
1/4 cup arrowroot powder (use cornstarch if you can’t find arrowroot powder)
1/4 cup baking soda
1 1/2 tablespoons almond oil
1/4 teaspoon (about 8 drops) lavender oil

Directions.
Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over very low heat. Thoroughly whisk in the arrowroot powder and baking soda until they are completely dissolved in the coconut oil. Turn off the heat and stir in the almond oil and lavender oil. Allow the liquid to cool and harden, stirring occasionally until it’s completely cooled.

Once it’s cooled completely it will be a thick paste. Stir it well before transferring it to a glass container with a tight fitting lid.

To use it, simply scoop a small amount (about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon) out with your fingertips and rub into your underarms as you would lotion.
Over time, especially in hot summer days, the deodorant may “fall apart”. You can reform it by warming it up slightly and repeating the cooling/stirring part of the recipe.

*If you’ve been using tradition antiperspirant you will notice that you will sweat when you wear deodorant. Antiperspirant doesn’t allow you to perspire, deodorant does. Also, it may take your skin a week or so to adjust to the ph of this deodorant and your underarms might itch a little (I didn’t experience this but apparently some people do).

Yield: about 1/2 cup of deodorant

PRINTABLE RECIPE.
HOMEMADE LAVENDER DEODORANT