Deodorant

When you live in a hot country and are a pretty active person the one thing you're going to want is deodorant - unless you're happy smelling like a goat, of course. Unfortunately shop-bought deodorants are packed full of toxic ingredients such as aluminium, parabens, and phthalates, that don't do your body any good at all and many of which have been linked to cancer and hormone disruptions (look them up, they're not pretty!) Do you really want to be putting that onto your skin and, via your skin, into your body? Once I started breastfeeding and found out that milk ducts are not restricted only to the breast but are found in the armpits too, I realised that I really didn't want to be lathering on a cocktail of toxins where it could potentially get into my milk. The only trouble was that since giving birth and having to carry an increasingly heavy baby around strapped to my chest to get my farm chores done, I was sweating more than ever, and my sweat had suddenly taken on an unusually strong odor. While I sincerely admire those brave enough to flaunt their natural aromas in public, I just can't bring myself to do it off the farm. Muddy wellies? Fine! Holes in my clothes? Why not! Hairy armpits? Not a problem! Body odour? Nope. That's where my line gets drawn.

Thus began my quest for an effective, natural, non-toxic homemade deodorant. 

When it comes to deodorant, the key thing to understand is why sweat smells in the first place. 

Sweat itself is made up of 95% water and is actually odourless. What causes the smell is the sweat coming into contact with bacteria that live on our skin, and those bacteria can be found in large numbers in the lovely warm, damp environment of our underarms which is why we apply deodorants there and not to every other part of our bodies. So in theory, if you want to stop your sweat from smelling, you need to get rid of, or at least greatly reduce the numbers of bacteria. 

Most homemade deodorants work by using natural antibacterial ingredients, such as coconut oil, odour eliminators such as sodium bicarbonate, and adding another scent using essential oils. Most of these ingredients could be found in my kitchen, and if not there, in almost any shop or supermarket so there was no reason not to give homemade deodorant a go.

Here are some recipes I've tried and how I've found them:

1 - Coconut oil.

That's it. Just take some coconut oil and rub it under your armpits. It's quick, easy, and effective. I tried it out of desperation in 30+ degrees, dripping with sweat pushing wheel barrow loads of manure around the land, swatting at irritating flies, sometimes with a baby strapped to my chest and the results were great. No smell! I considered this a win especially as I didn't need to put any extra time into measuring and mixing ingredients.

Given how easy and effective coconut oil is, my foray into the world of homemade, natural deodorant might have stopped there, but I decided that while I was at it, I might as well try a few recipes to see how they compared, so next up, I tried this: