Finding a natural deodorant that worked was much more challenging/impossible. No offense, but it's usually pretty easy to pick out when people are using natural deodorant. To put it bluntly, they stink.
So when I came across Burt's Bees spray deodorant I was skeptical. It was too manly a scent for me, I thought, but it would work for my husband. To our amazement, it worked! Then I read the label and was floored: it only contained 5 simple ingredients.
"Hmm..." Thought I, "I can do that!!"
And so I did. And now I love it because I could choose my own, more feminine fragrance as well as making the "manly" scent for my husband. I must be entirely honest with you, though. This recipe seems to work for my husband perfectly, but I notice that I start to smell on really hot days within an hour or two. I think there are two reasons for this 1) natural deodorants only go so far for naturally stinky people ;), and 2) I drink coffee. Coffee is full of toxins and makes you sweat, even if you drink it cold. It affects more people than others. And, when my husband is on his detox he doesn't drink coffee, thus after a day or two the body doesn't need to express the toxins and sweat, and thus you don't stink so bad. Unfortunately for me, I am not interested in giving up coffee at this precise moment (I have spurts... when I'm pregnant I don't drink it), so I must resort to unnatural deodorants on triple-digit temperature days (which have been far too often this summer!!).
So, back to the recipe...
Essential oils can be $$$ but if you do like me, just buy a few and use them for everything. You only need a few drops so it will last a long time.
In doing some research I found that some recipes called for pure water and others 100% alcohol (not sure about you, but alcohol is not my favorite scent). Alcohol is nice because of it's sanitary and quick-drying nature, but it not necessary to use 100% in your deodorant. I've heard (but couldn't find a source or study) that it is not safe to use pure rubbing alcohol over long periods of time, but 1) we are diluting the solution and 2) if you want you can buy ethyl alcohol (you can use Everclear or a cheap vodka as well) to use in it's place.
Here are the recipes:
Men's Deodorant (comparable to Burt's Bees)
1oz alcohol
.75 oz. water
10 drops sage essential oil
5 drops lavendin essential oil (lavender is different, but I couldn't find lavendin at the store so I substituted and it still smells great)
5 drops lemon essential oil
Women's Deodorant
1oz alcohol
.75 oz. water
15 drops lavender essential oil
5 drops lemon essential oil
2014/05/21 UPDATE: Since writing this post, I've eliminated coffee from my diet and it has GREATLY improved my ability to get by using a natural deodorant. Even on hot days, I only need to reapply maybe once (which was about the same as the aluminum antiperspirant I used to use). Also, I have started using Vodka for the base of the deodorant and LOVE it, because all you smell is the essential oils and not the overwhelming stench of the rubbing alcohol. Hope that helps!!! :)
