Does homemade deodorant work?

Yep. I went there. DIY Deodorant.

Why?

Firstly, I spend a lot of money on clinical strength deodorant. Since having my second child I have a serious issue with body odour. It must be hormonal. The clinical deodorant is expensive and the bottles don't last very long. 

Home made deodorant seemed like an easy thing to try. I had all the ingredients at home required to make a deodorant paste and if it worked what a great win - less plastic and I save money and I don't have all those nasty chemicals being rubbed into me every morning. 

I have seen natural deodorants available on the market, but again, if I could make it myself even better. 

So, it seemed like an easy way to save money and reduce waste all at the same time.

The thing is – and I am sure that you have already spotted this – how likely is it that someone who has a problem with body odour and has been using expensive clinical strength deodorant will get any effective odour control from DIY Deodorant?

Good question.

And I am going to find out.

No Pong natural deodorant - what I use now

In an effort to speed up the process, I started by making two different deodorant pastes – each using a different recipe. I uses Recipe 1 under my left arm and Recipe 2 under my right arm and I took note each day of how they each performed. My plan was to trial them until they were empty and then maybe also trial a DIY spray deodorant against the winner of the battle.

The recipes were:

RECIPE 1:

1 tablespoon tea tree oil

4 table spoons bicarb soda (baking soda)

6 tablespoons melted coconut oil

Mixed together in a glass jar and refrigerated till hardened. I keep it in the bathroom and depending on the temperature it can become a bit more melted than ideal but so far so good. I just take a small amount on my fingers and rub it under my arm until I feel that it is sufficiently coated.

RECIPE 2:

¼ cup melted coconut oil

1/4 cup bicarb soda (baking soda)

¼ cup cornflour (the recipe I took this from actually suggested tapioca pwder but I didn’t have any immediately to hand)

1 tablespoon tea tree oil

Again, just mixed it together in the glass jar and refrigerated until hard and now I keep it in my bathroom. I take a small amount and rub under my right arm until it is all covered to my liking.

My understanding of the ingredients is that the tea tree oil acts as an antibacterial (given it is the bacteria that causes the smell), the bicarb soda assists with dryness and the coconut oil is the binding agent that binds them all together and then binds them to your skin. I ain’t no scientist though.

OUTCOME

Initially - they performed pretty evenly. Recipe 2 was slightly better with odour control but left a lot more white streaks on my clothes because it has a lot more powder. Both did not work as well as my clinical strength deodorant (of course) but they did perform a lot better than I expected.

Unfortunately by about day 5 I was having a bad reaction to the bicarb soda in the recipes, particularly under my right arm. I came out in a really itchy red rash.

So, I gave up the home made deodorant.  

NO PONG

Instead, I purchased a bicarb free natural deodorant called No Pong. So far so good. Again, it doesn't work like my clinical strength deodorant. I still smell a bit by the end of the day but it is nothing that other people would notice. I can also feel wetness in my armpits but again, nothing that worries me. It is bicarb free so I am not having the reaction to it that I did to my home made version. Yeah, it's not super pleasant having to smear the cream under my arms and I am not saving as much money buying it from No Pong but with everything balanced I will be sticking with No Pong for now.