Well Ain't This Sweet?

I used this recipe, which is well-promoted. I made half the recipe and I still could have assembled another of the large deodorant sticks given the amount I threw away.

I don't know if this is going to work, but I will say that the clean up is nasty. If I do this again, I'm buying a throw-away pot (that I can clean in a half-assed way and use only for deodorant-making).

The finished product is very firm, just like the store bought stuff, given that I used 2 oz of beeswax. I mean, this shit is basically a candle. I'm not going to lie - I'm skeptical about how it's going to wear because it has half a cup of oil in it! Furthermore, I realized after making the batch, that I used cornstarch in place of arrowroot. I don't own any arrowroot after having lived through a sink-clogging incident of massive proportions many years ago. For some reason, I blame this on the substance rather than the actual cause (that would be me, putting arrowroot down the drain). Note: I sense that this won't be an issue. In cooking, arrowroot and cornstarch are often used interchangeably.

At any rate, if it does work, this is yet another product I will NEVER buy in the store again. I currently use an all-natural spray that costs 10 bucks every 3 weeks (the way my kid douses herself in it). BTW, I don't feel it works well enough to warrant that price but I don't want to use drug-store stuff, given the evil shit it's made with. This handmade version costs 2 bucks and takes 15 minutes.

I urge everyone to consider making skin and body care - at least to give it a try. We spend an absolute fortune on this stuff - well, I do - especially for quality product. And, seriously peeps, you can make pretty well everything in your kitchen for a fraction of the cost. And it looks just as good. Actually, it can look better if you put some effort in. Not to mention that it isn't carcinogenic. I realize that we all have busy lives and we don't have time to pee, much less make artisanal body oil, but if you find this sort of thing enjoyable (and I really do!), then it's a perfect melding of need and output.

At this point, I've bought a bunch of silicones to reproduce my hair product (Moroccan Oil) and, once I figure that one out, I'm going to be saving ALL the bucks. Ahem, spending them on new bras.

Update: So, this morning I realized why the deodorant was impossible to clean up - and why it's rather challenging to apply: I halved everything in the recipe EXCEPT for the beeswax. So yeah, effectively this deodorant is a candle. Oh well, rookies be makin' rookie mistakes. Happily I was able to salvage the containers (pretty easy to pop candles out of plastic pieces) and I'll give it another go.

Other Update: So I put some of this on this morning (before removing it from the containers) as did my husband and we are shocked by how awesomely it works. Seriously shocked. He's actually going to keep the now stick-free deodorant in ziploc bag because he likes it so much. So natural for the win, I guess.