Natural hair care, homemade moisturizers, and chemical-free household cleaners are all things that we are making in order to clear the toxins from our homes!
But aluminum-free deodorant — one that actually works — can be difficult to replace.
Especially for the men in our lives!
After formulating two very effective, family-friendly homemade deodorant recipes:
…I set out to meet the more specific needs of a man.
After trialing a few different recipe combinations, this one’s a winner!
And it certainly stood the test with by far the best odor and wetness control.
Deodorant for Men — The Recipe
Ingredients
*Use organic ingredients when possible.
-1 tablespoon cocoa butter
-1 tablespoon coconut oil
-1 tablespoon shea butter
-1 tablespoon beeswax
-2 tablespoons arrowroot powder
-1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1 1/2 teaspoon bentonite clay
-1 capsule probiotic powder
-1/4 tsp. vitamin E oil
-15 drops essential oils, see “Notes” section below for list of eo’s suitable for men
Method
1. In a double boiler, or small pot, melt cocoa butter, coconut oil, shea butter, and beeswax over low heat.
2. Remove pot from heat — allow mixture to cool slightly – then add arrowroot powder, baking soda, and bentonite clay.
3. Mix with wire whisk or chopsticks until all powders are dissolved and well combined.
4. Add vitamin E oil and essential oils.
5. Allow mixture to cool in pan. Once it is cooled and the consistency of pudding, open the capsule of probiotics and add powder to mixture. Stir quickly to combine.
6. Add mixture to clean, used deodorant container. Place in refrigerator to cool and harden. After this, product may be stored on counter. This recipe will fill container and last for 3-4 months. Remember…a little goes a long way!
Notes
-When choosing a probiotic supplement for this deodorant it is important to find one that is shelf stable. It should also contain highly resistant beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus and bifidobacteria. Check these out:
- Bio-Kult Probiotic
- Ultimate 15 Strain Probiotic with FOS
- Premier Probiotic Complex by Premier Research Labs
-Use good, manly smelling essential oils, any scent or combination of scents will do. So pick your favorite and have fun with it! My favotites are:
- Vetiver, Black Pepper, and Bergamot
- Bay, Coriander, Black Pepper, Ginger, and Nutmeg
- Patchouli, Clary Sage, and Cedarwood
- Bay, Cedarwood, Coriander, Eucalypus, and Juniper
Where Can I Get This Stuff?
-Mountain Rose Herbs…they have everything you’ll need for this project! It’s your one-stop-shop!
-The Bulk Herb Store also carries many of these ingredients if you’d like to price check.
-Find beeswax locally through this link or purchase online here…
I do have these deodorants available for purchase
in my Etsy Shop.
See the listings by clicking this link.
Be sure not to miss a post, click this link to receive my free eBook and Frugally Sustainable tips by email.
Thanks for the recipe! As a vegan, I do not use beeswax. Do you have any suggestions for substitutes or changing the ratio of the other ingredients to compensate for not using it? I’d love to be able to try this! Thanks!
Great question Aimee! For vegans I recommend Carnauba Wax (can be purchased through Mountain Rose Herbs) or GMO-free Soy Wax. I’m not confident enough to speak truthfully regarding the ratios. I do believe that Carnauba Wax is a bit harder…requiring less in the recipe…but I haven’t worked with it much. I’d really like to though:) I wonder if anyone else can help educate us!?!
I use candelilla wax, which I ordered on Amazon. You only need half as much candelilla as beeswax. I just made it today with that ratio & it worked out great! Thanks so much for the post, love to follow your blog & share your recipes with my little community.
This is wonderful I have two questions however.
1. Is there a substitute for coconut oil since we are allergic in this house.
2. Do you make deodorants without coconut oil?
there is a recipe on my pinteresting facebook page made without coconut oil… how are you with cocoa butter?
My problem with natural deodorants is wetness. What do you do about wetness?
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
Great recipe! I love homemade deodorants that include clay. They absorb really well. At least for this sweaty girl
The manly scents are my favorite. If you can’t be in the forest, at least smell like one!
Good point Sustain, Create and Flow….manly scents are the greatest-earthy, and I both live in the forest and smell like one too, there’s no other way…jean
I have everything but the vit. E oil! Can this be made without?!
Hi Andrea,
I would love to make my husband deodorant but when I made the probiotic deodorant version for myself, it didn’t harden that well. It’s somewhat firm but when I start to use it really smears. Also the Shea butter I bought is very yellow and make every recipe I use it in smell strongly of Shea butter and yellow.
So my three questions are 1. Is the man deodorant recipe firm? 2. Do you know what went wrong with my deodorant? 3. Why does my Shea butter look the way it does?
Thanks so much for your help Andrea!!
I will have to bookmark this and try it…for myself. I am the one in our house with a real problem finding deodorant that really works.
Thanks for sharing!
This looks like it would be a really effective product for me and my family. Being lazy, I might order it from you on Etsy.com before making the effort to produce it myself!
This is a post in reference to several questions: 1. to make it harder increase your percentage of wax; 2. Candelilia wax can be substituted for beeswax at 1/2 the amount, it is much harder than beeswax; 3.you could skip the coconut oil and increase the amount of either cocoa butter or shea butter so that you still have the same amount of oils/butters. Another thought I just had is avocado butter it is softer than coconut oil, but so good for your skin. 4. For wetness, increase arrowroot powder and/or baking soda. anyway these are just my thoughts on these matters hope this helps and is a success for you.
I wouldn’t decrease the coconut oil, as it is one of the active ingredients. Many people use just coconut oil by itself as a deodorant.
An earlier post was asking about leaving it out because they were allergic… Coconut oil is one of the active ingredients because of its antibacterial properties, but allergies are allergies…
Where can you find those roll up container for the deodorant? Thank you!
You can clean and re-use containers from deodorants that you have already purchased and used up.
You can also buy new deodorant dispensers on Amazon.
Thanks for the great recipe! Where do you get your deordorant containers? I’d love to try this but need something to put it in!
You can always clean and re-use containers from deodorants that you have already purchased and used up.
I would like to try this for myself because at the monent all I use is lime juice, which works really well but doesn’t smell as nice as I imagine this might. Thanks for sharing!
I use a salt block, my mama makes her own, and I am really glad to see this “man’s” recipe! Please consider sharing it with us at Eco-Kids Tuesday! http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2013/02/bunnys-bento-box-eco-kids-tuesday.html
Hi,
You’re website is everything I’ve been looking for. It is so nice to know there are others out there who want to be more self-sustained. Thank you for sharing all your info. It’s so nice to have everything in one place. Keep it up!
Cindy
What a fantastic idea, I can’t wait to try and make this as I’d love to be able use a decent aluminum-free deodorant for me and all the family. What fragrances would you use to make it a woman’s deodorant?
Is there something that is as effective for odors as baking soda that you can use in place of it? I used to make our deodorant until I started breaking out in terrible rashes. Turns out my skin hates baking soda! It doesn’t matter how little I would use I would still break out but if I left the soda completely out the deodorant hardly did anything at all for odors. It was such a let down! We don’t like the crystals.
Hi, and thanks for the recipe(s) – I’ve made my own before from a different recipe, but saw this and thought I’d try this one.
I see you have your own that you sell as well – very cool. Where do you get the dispensers? I hate using used ones from around the house and would like to get 4 or 5 of those new ones.
Many thanks!!!
Seamus
As far as odors are concerned: I too am allergic to baking soda under my arms. Just use the whole amount in Arrowroot powder. It works great! I’ve tried many recipes and this is by far the best one. The probiotics make a huge difference. Also, for a woman, I love peppermint, spearmint or any citrus. Smells great!
Hey, I was wondering if there was any way you could think of to incorporate water kefir into this recipe for the probiotics. If you increased the powder or decreased the oils, perhaps? Or would it seperate? I can buy some probiotic capsules if I need to, I was just thinking it would be nice to use something with more strains that I already have access to. Thanks so much!!
I tried out my first batch today, and I was amazed! My husband sweats…a lot. We haven’t found a good commercial brand that holds well all day for him. I made this up and had him try it out, and he refuses to finish off his old bar of deodorant! Thank you!