Make Your Own Deodorant

Along with my recently acquired weird green thinking comes the worry that my antiperspirant may increase my risk of Alzheimers or Breast Cancer. If you read on the label of your antiperspirant you will see that the active ingredient is aluminum (insert really long word here). Which blocks your pores from doing their normal job of allowing you to perspire.

Now, I do not know why the good Lord gave us armpits but he did, so they must serve some vital function. I would think that stopping them from doing their job might not be a great idea anyway, but stopping them with Aluminum just does not sound good at all.

The common consensus is that Aluminum can be a cause of Alzheimers. Since they think that eating out of Aluminum cookware may be one of the causes of this disease, what about rubbing it under your armpits everyday? With my family history of Alzheimers, seeing it up close and personal, I do not want to get this disease.

So how do I eliminate antiperspirant from my life now that I have eliminated shampoo (see previous post)?

I could just use deodorant instead of antiperspirant. Deodorants just mask or kill the bacteria that cause odors while allowing you to sweat. But then I read where something in deodorants can cause breast cancer.

I am not being paranoid here, but this line of thinking makes me wonder if I could just make my own and save some money as well as my life. So it is off to Google I go. I found some recipes, tried one and found that it didn't last until evening. So I tried another recipe and it seems to be working for me.

Here is the recipe:
Equal parts of Baking Soda and Cornstarch.

A few drops of an essential oil of your choice.
(Tea Tree Oil is best but do not use Tea Tree Oil or Lavender Oil if you are a man or a man will be using it.)

If you don't have essential oils lying around the house, you can also add a little bath powder for scent or you don't need any scent at all.

Mix in as much Coconut Oil as it takes for the powders to dissolve but for the mixture to be firm and spreadable. Coconut Oil for those who do not use it, is a dietary supplement that can be found at Wal-Mart and is a sweet smelling lard like substance.

You can pack this mixture into an empty stick deodorant container but leave the lid off, so that it will continue to harden. You will have to apply gently and carefully because it will not be as firm as regular deodorants. I haven't tried this yet, I have just been applying it out of a bowl with my fingers tips. You do have to be careful to apply only a thin layer because it will cake up and fall off it you apply it too heavily.

I have not tested this deodorant in a hot summer hayfield yet, but will let you know how it holds up under these extreme farm conditions as soon as hay season begins.

Goat Milk Lotion

Yes, I know that I didn't blog yesterday but I had already started this one when the storms came through and I had to shut off my computer. Then we lost our electricity, so I never finished it or got it posted. The following is yesterday's blog.

I have a lot of goat's milk in my freezer that I need to get rid of before my goats come fresh again. So I have decided to make lotion, cleanser and soap. I started my new adventure today.

I purchased most of the ingredients that I needed from that great Chinese distributor, Walmart, except for the Beeswax and Goat's Milk. I bought a Stick Blender that was made in China, they only had one choice available, so it got pitched in the old cart pretty quickly without much thought. They had Coconut Oil that is a dietary supplement that was actually manufactured in Florida. They had Spring Valley Vitamin E Oil for the skin that was manufactured in California. They also had some Aloe Vera Gel that wasn't exactly what my recipe called for because it wasn't 100% Aloe Vera, it was an Aloe Vera Gel for sunburn, but I didn't think it would hurt anything because it is for the skin and it was manufactured in Florida.

Here is the recipe:

1/8 tsp. borax
1/4 cup cold goat's milk
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 Tbsp. beeswax
1/2 cup Aloe Vera gel
1 tsp. Vitamin E oil

Heat borax and milk in microwave to boiling. Melt coconut oil and beeswax together in microwave but remove when oil gets hot and beeswax is not completely melted, the hot oil will melt the beeswax with a little time and stirring. Slowly add this to the borax/milk mixture using a stick blender. Add Vitamin E oil and cool to room temperature. Next add Aloe Vera to the cooled lotion and blend one final time.

I had to buy the beeswax on eBay.

We found this recipe to be way too greasy, but it may be because I used the wrong type of Aloe Vera Gel. This would make a great massage oil though.

I plan to order some pure Aloe Vera and try this recipe again because it is so easy. The hardest part was shaving the beeswax