Coconut Oil Deodorant Recipe

Try this homemade coconut oil deodorant recipe at home, very simple to make, natural and alcohol-free. Besides coconut oil, it uses beeswax and kaolin clay as ingredients. It doesn’t feel “oily” and it does keep you dry and odorless during the day.

A natural deodorant was the last product I’ve added to my natural hygiene line of products. I now use 100% homemade products for my daily hygiene. This recipe was actually an “accident”, which sometimes happens with natural products, when they don’t exactly turn as you expected. Read below to find out more.

How Do You Make 3 Ingredient Deodorant?

This is a very mild and simple coconut oil deodorant recipe. It uses coconut oil (obviously), beeswax and kaolin clay only, as well as a few drops of essential oil for scent. You simply need to melt the coconut oil

The recipe was originally made for a hair product. It was taken from the book “Botanical Skincare Recipe Book” from Herbal Academy, a very good book for herbal skincare products. I was trying their homemade hair products, namely the Hair Pomade. The result was a very thick product, hard to spread and almost impossible to use on your hair. The recipe does advise to adjust beeswax to make the product less “hard”.

Anyway, I had already investigated before about natural deodorants and wasn’t very excited about them. Most recipes uses coconut oil, baking soda, starch, clays, beeswax, and I felt that I was putting something similar to a cake under my armpits than an actual deodorant…

But this hair pomade had some of those products, smelled good, and had a similar consistency of many solid deodorants. So… I gave it a try, completely unconvinced it would work.

But I was wrong! Fact is, at the end of the day, the hair pomade worked like a charm as a deodorant! It’s not as strong as supermarket deodorants, but it keeps you odorless, or with the same odor as the essential oils used for most of the day! At least, this is how my body responded to it. And I am telling you, I wans’t expecting it to work.

Can Coconut Oil Be Used As A Deodorant?

Coconut oil has mild anti-inflammatory, antisseptic and skin protection properties, also being hydrating and nourishing. It’s good for irritated or inflamed skin, so it’s adequate for the sensitive skin under your armpits, especially after delipation.

One of my worries to use coconut oil as a deodorant ingredient was that it would “feel oily or greasy”. I was afraid to feel a sort of “lubricant” under my armspits… However, with the addition of beeswax and kaolin clay, the product is very dry and you wouldn’t guess it has an oil in its list of ingredients.

Beeswax

Beeswax is a great ingredient that I have used before in balms and salves. You can find a description of beeswax properties in Homemade Healing Salve Recipe. It is a very stable product, with endless life-shelf, and has anti-bacterial, skin protection, skin soothing and moisturizing properties.

It hardens the product and, once spread on your skin, it leaves a layer of protection that also moisturizes your skin, strenghtening the coconut oil properties.

Kaolin Clay

Kaolin clay is a very mild clay, good for more sensitive skin. This ingredient acts as the absorbing agent: it absorbs perspiration, excess of sebum and, consequently, odors. It also helps to keep both the product and your skin with a “dry” feeling.

According to this article from Healthline, it offers mild anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and healing benefits. It helps with rashes and skin irritation, making it again a good ingredient to use under your armpits after depilation, when skin is sensitive and prone to redness and itching.

Essential Oils

Essential oils add scent to your deodorant, making it much more appealing. You can keep this product unscented and skip the essential oils, especially of you’re afraid to react to the allergenic components of essential oils, like geraniol, limonene, etc. However, essential oils, especially mild ones, are less aggressive than the perfumes commercial deodorants use.

I advise lavender essential oil since it’s one of the mildest, adequate for sensitive skin. Frankincense is another option: I have used this essential oil under my eyes on an eye serum, also a very sensitive area, and never had issues.

In my own deodorant, I’ve used a blend of lavender with peppermint and neroli essential oils. My neroli is not pure neroli, it’s a mix of essential oil and fragrance, that is why I used it frequently, although it’s a very expensive essential oil on itself.

Recipe Variants

The recipe and the quantities shown result in a hard, thick and dry product, that acts as an efficient deodorant on my skin. Again, we are all different and what results for me might not work for you. But you can try to change this coconut oil deodorant recipe to better fit your needs.

Since I am using this deodorant, I have not tried any variants so far, but I speak from experience of using all these ingredients in other recipes.

Changing Wax and Hard Oils

If you want this product to be softer, and spread out easier, you can reduce the quantity of beeswax. Reduce 5g and see how to final product works for you. It will feel slightly more pasty, like a balm. Actually this product is essencially a balm with kaolin clay. You may even remove beeswax and replace it with hard oils, but I am afraid it will become too “greasy”.

Coconut oil might be switched by any solid oil, like shea butter, which is also a odorless oil. Shea butter is more nourishing and moisturizing, but it’s more prone to rancidity as well. It would be good to add a few drops of vitamin E oil of you are using another solid oil.

Changing Essential Oils

Regarding essential oils, if you wish to change it, bear in mind that some essential oils might cause rashes and skin reaction, and the skin under your armpit is sensitive. On the other hand, some essential oils, like tea tree, peppermint. lemon or May-Chang can be more effective at hiding and controlling odors, since they are stronger, astringent and antisseptic.

My advice about essential oils is to test how they react with your skin. Use a carrier oil for testing with a 3% dilution: 97 parts of oil for 3 parts of essential oil. Then, choose the ones with the scent you mostly like. Bear also in mind that an essential oil on itself smells different than when applied on your skin.

This deodorant is cheaper than many natural deodorants, and you are in full control of the ingredients. The recipe cost presented below takes into account the deodorant container. Therefore, if you recycle one, this deodorant becomes very, very cheap. Make sure you clean the recycled container completely free of the old product and desinfect it.

Try this very simple homemade coconut oil deodorant recipe!! Have fun!

Find Where To Buy Homemade Deodorant

So, you’re not really into DIY, and making your own natural beauty products at home. I understand. But you do want to use a homemade natural deodorant, avoiding the harsh chemicals from the commercial ones and enjoying a homemade product. Here are some links to find out homemade natural deodorants:

• 24Hour Natural Homemade Deodorant (Etsy)
• Wildflower Natural Handmade Deodorant (Etsy)
• Other Natural Deodorants (Etsy)24Hour Natural Homemade Deodorant (Etsy)

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• Vegetable Oils: Natural Oils For Your Skin
• Essential Oils: Essential Oils for Skin Care Products

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