Stank-Buster

Internet, I have a confession. Sometimes, I stink. Lately, those stank-times have been more often than not. Coles stopped carrying my usual deodorant. I switched to my back-up supply, a tea tree scented deodorant that worked not that well against the tropical summer. Then even that started to run low. No worries, I though, I'll go to Woolies. But Woolies stopped carrying my usual deodorant, too. I got angry and frustrated. I looked online - $7-$10 for one single container of vegan deodorant, plus shipping?! You've got to be kidding me. I could have looked in pharmacy, health food and cosmetic shops, yes. But the other day I was sitting on the couch and Andy noticed a bad smell, and realised it was coming from me. So I stopped what I was doing on the internet, and looked up how to make deodorant at home.

Well, my friends, it could not be simpler, nor more effective.

1/2 cup of coconut oil - since this isn't for eating, I used the cosmetic grade stuff I bought in PNG rather than expensive edible ones
1/4 cup of corn flour (corn starch)
1/4 cup of bicarb soda (baking soda)
scented oil, if you roll that way

Mix the three together. Rub some on your pits. Stank no more.

Seriously. I made this straight after the stink-incident above, and rubbed some on straight away, and the bad smell was gone. On the first day I wore this, it erased BO, and held off any new stank despite very hot & humid weather featuring outside work in the garden. The second day I wore it, only one application in the morning made it through a very sunny outing at the beach, plenty of digging and landscaping outside in the hot sun, and then 12kms worth of bike riding - all with no stank! So in terms of deodorising, it was a total success.

Where I went wrong: I tried too hard to be clever. In looking for a jar or container for storing my deodorant, I came upon these two, 50mL pump bottles, which I love because they have a cap so you can travel with them and they don't squirt their contents everywhere. I thought it was perfect, because I could bring one to uni and it could crash around in my shower bag in my office, and I could leave one at home.

All was well until the next morning, when I went to my pump bottle and found oil all over the outside of it. And the pumper all clogged with bicarb and cornflour. Not only did the dry ingredients settle out, but somehow the coconut oil expanded and exploded (a tiny explosion, but no less devastating than a big one). I tried to salvage the pump bottles, but in the end I gave in to reason and transferred (most of) the contents to a bigger jar. So friends, learn from my mistakes. If you try to make your own deodorant (and I really think you should!), put it in a big, wide mouthed jar with plenty of room to breathe. And if you live in a warm place, be prepared to stir up your deodorant before you use it in the mornings. Now I just need to find a smaller jar so I can bring some to work...