…your guide to making natural soap and other bath & body products!
Natural cream deodorant that really works – the recipe!
Yesterday, I introduced the Zinc Oxide and its action in 100% natural cream deodorant. And here is the recipe!
I hope you will enjoy it as much as me and my hubby – we have been using it every day since I made my very first batch, which means already for more than 3 months!
About ingredients
Feel free to tweak the ingredients, but keep in mind:
1) Do not alter the zinc oxide – it is the active ingredient! – and although you can play with the quantity – the percentage I add works for me. I guess more will make it difficult to incorporate in the cream and less will make it probably inefficient.
2) If you change the emulsifier, please change its percentage so that it DOES NOT produce a thick cream. The cream without zinc oxide should be rather thin (but not liquidy), so that the zinc oxide can be incorporated. If the cream is too thick, adding zinc oxide will resolve in too thick and powdery structure, difficult to use comfortably.
3) Water or hydrolat can be substituted for aloe vera JUICE, however aloe vera GEL is too thick to be a substitute – see point 1)
4) For the same reason, the coconut oil should NOT be substituted for a more thick butter like shea butter, murumuru, illipe, cocoa butter….etc. A liquid oil as a substitute is OK.
The recipe
for cca 1.69 oz (50g) of deodorant. The recipe is in ounces (weight)
| % of the cream base (weight) | oz | g | ingredient | note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22.5 % | 0.38 | 11 | Coconut oil | |
| 70.5 % | 1.19 | 34.5 | Aloe vera juice | Not the aloe vera gel – otherwise the cream will be too thick and after adding ZnO it will be too thick and powdery to be used comfortably |
| 1 % | 0.017 | 0.5 | Optiphen | or other preservative of your choice – used in amount recommended by the producer |
| 6 % | 0.1 | 3 | Emulsifier Olivem 1000 | or emulsifying wax – but this one I did not try – however – I believe it should work well. Important is not to get very thick cream – see aloe vera juice comment above. |
| After the cream base is made add | ||||
| 0.32 | 9 | Zinc oxide – ZnO | Try to choose micronized ZnO but not of nano-particle size which are by many studies linked to toxic effects | |
| 10 drops | White Tea fragrance | Just a suggestion because I love this fragrance – no need for special antibacterial essential oils |
Tip: Try to reuse the containers from the old creams you have at home. Do not forget to wash and disinfect them!
Instructions
0) Sterilize all tools – either 15 minutes in boiling water, or 5 minutes in water with chlorine tablets (those used for the disinfection of baby bottles), or in 70% alcohol. Dry everything with clean towel – no need for alcohol treatment, which evaporates. If you use boiling water – attention to heat, this works only for heatproof containers/tools.
1) Put a mask – zinc oxide is a very fine powder, and you want to prevent breathing it!
2) Heat the aloe vera juice to 70°C (~ 158 °F) – preferably in a double boiler, not direct heat, just to be sure you won’t overheat. You can add zinc oxide directly in it and heat together. This is better than adding it at the end of recipe, as it might be tricky to dissolve it in the cream. However, I found that some emulsifiers do not like its presence in the water phase and it can get tricky to mix it in.
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| Zinc oxide with aloe vera juice – heated in water bath (hidden under the bowl) |
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| Olivem 1000 and coconut oil – slow melt down. |
3) Melt your emulsifier (Olivem 1000) and coconut oil together, preferably not more than 70-80°C (158-176°F)
4) When both phases (aloe vera with zinc oxide and olivem+coconut oil) are heated to 70°C (158 °F), slowly pour the oil phase to the water phase, while stirring continuously. When emulsion takes place, transfer the bowl into cold water and stir while cooling. You can use blender – I do not as I make relatively small quantities.
5) Finally add your preservative (Optiphen in my case) and fragrance of choice (White tea in my case)
 |
| The final cream deodorant! |
6) Transfer the deodorant cream into recipients. I selected a bottle with a pump – it is very practical – you pump only the amount that should be applied (the pump distributes small quantities) and you prevent bacterias getting in and prolong thus its shelf life.
Apply daily in the morning!
PS: Do you like my recipe? Did you already try something similar? What is your experience with natural deodorants? Feel free to answer in a comment below, I will be happy to read it!
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References
[1] Huang, Y, Wu, C and Aronstam, RS (2010) Toxicity of Transition Metal Oxide Nanoparticles: Recent Insights from in vitro Studies. Materials 2010, 3, 4842-4859
[2] Hanley, C; Thurber, A; Hanna, C; Punnoose, A; Zhang, J; Wingett, DG (2009). “The Influences of Cell Type and ZnO Nanoparticle Size on Immune Cell Cytotoxicity and Cytokine Induction”. Nanoscale Res Lett 4 (12): 1409–20
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I have a local source that guarantees the good particle size (micronized, but not nanoparticles) – in Slovakia – it depends where you are located. I was also ordering at aroma-zone.com, but this is a french site. Normally you should be able to find it in specialized online shops with cosmetic/soap ingredients, for example gracefruit.com, or I know it is selled on amazon.com.
However, before purchasing, inform yourself on the particle size!
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Straight from Johnson and Johnson, their baby powders are (at least now they are, probably not in the past) made from :”The grade of talc used in cosmetics is of high purity, comparable to that used for pharmaceutical applications, and is free from asbestos and asbestiform fibers. JOHNSON’S® baby powder is only mined from select deposits from certified locations, and milled to relatively large, non-respirable particle size.” They also make cornstarch baby powders. I LOVE the smell of the night time one, and I will be trying it in my next batch of home made deodorant! If my deodorant smells like that, it won’t ever have time to expire- I will reapply all day! Love the recipe too, I prefer a bar type, but will try incorporating some of your ingredients so to achieve a better result than my current recipe!
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#4 written by michelle 5 years ago
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#5 written by admin 5 years ago
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#8 written by Tammy 5 years ago
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#9 written by admin 5 years ago
Hi Tammy, well, for the aloe vera juice vs gel question, if you use gel, I suggest to dissolve it it water , otherwise it wilk be too thick. Make 50% solution. For the emulsifying wax, yes, it is necessary, as you are mixing oils with water, which do not mix normally. You need to make an emulsion, cream, with the help of emulsifier.
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#10 written by Angie Ruiz 4 years ago
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#11 written by evik 4 years ago
Hi Angie,
I am actually thinking about how to make it in a stick, but I do not think it is a good idea, as you need 15% of zinc it in the recipe, but it would make the stick too powdery. A stick has to be rubbed quite hard onto the skin to apply it, which can be uncomfortable.
This is also a problem of stick deodorants with baking powder – at least for me.
Cornstarch or baking soda won’t do the same job, as zinc oxide is the most important ingredient. As a matter of fact, you can use it simply as a powder and it will work. It is much more efficient than baking soda. Cornstarch works only as absorber of the sweat, but does not eliminate that much the odor.
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#12 written by Silvia 4 years ago
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#14 written by Emme 4 years ago
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#16 written by mary 4 years ago
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#19 written by mary 4 years ago
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#20 written by evik 4 years ago
Hi Mary, well, first, the zinc deodorant is going to help it whiten because it is slightly whitening (in the sense of covering the skin and reflecting light, not in the sense of chemically modifying your skin melanin etc). Then, I believe – if you do not want to use any harsh chemicals – you have to leave it some time, your skin will come back to its normal once the darkened cells are naturally changed with new, non-darkened cells. I would use peelings to help the process – either gentle mechanical (any peeling – sugar, salt… based), or more aggressive “chemical” – like acids (lemon juice, salicylic acid). Be careful with the latter, do not use too high concentrations (I believe 5-10% should be enough, but am not an expert on this subject). Hope this helps a bit…
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#22 written by Megan 4 years ago
Hi Evik,
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and for such detailed instructions. I made it today, and had a beautiful emulsion going…until I added the Optiphen Plus. My lotion at that point kind of curdled. I ended up adding a little too much EO I guess because then my lotion sort of separated. At that point I added a teaspoon of Dry Flo (modified tapioca starch) and another teaspoon of zinc oxide. I hope I didn’t ruin it, especially its effectiveness! It’s pretty thick now, but I’m okay with that, I’d prefer that over the kind of sloppy weird mess I had on my hands before adding the extra additions.
Would the Optiphen Plus behave differently than Opitiphen, do you think? Or did I do something wrong? I added it when the lotion got below 50 degrees C.
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#27 written by Cristina 4 years ago
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#30 written by JC 4 years ago
Hi Evik,
Thanks so much for sharing. I’ve been making my own deodorant for a little while now and its fine for me but my husband is super sensitive to the baking soda. I also make a sun block with Zinc oxide as the sun blocking agent so now I’m going to try replacing the baking soda with ZnO for my husband and see if that works. I’m excited to be able to make a deodorant that will work for the guys as well as the gals.
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#32 written by Amber 4 years ago
Hi Evik, I just made this deodorant! It smells amazing, although I think I did something wrong in the end stages of making it…
After following all the steps and placing my final bowl into cold water, whisking (with a fork) the mixture inside, it thickened into a beautiful fluffy, silken texture of double cream.
However, after I stirred my citrus essential oils into the thick, cooling cream, the mixture didn’t seem to combine properly – the texture, although still very thick, became less aerated and fluffy-looking – think of the texture of condensed soup that you get in a can!
After adding those essential oils, there is also some obvious separation that occurred between the thick cream and some of the liquid components of the mixture (there is some liquid kind of sitting around the cream, which won’t whisk back in. Also, I can tell it’s not just the essential oil component, as it doesn’t have that strong a scent)…Do you know what might have happened / how I can fix it next time so that it combines better? I did double up the quantities of everything, and I also added 3 extra drops of essential oil to the 20 I used.
Also, any tips on what I can do to get a thinner, lotion-type consistency next time? At the moment I have it in one of the pump bottles you recommended, but I’d quite like to be able to put some in a roller bottle as a gift to my sister (she only ever uses roll-on deodorants, and i think the stuff I made would be too thick for a roller bottle).
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#33 written by Amber 4 years ago
So I wore this yesterday, just around the house -minimal activity- and didn’t smell. Today however, the deodorant failed me midway through the day at work. I applied more, but the essential oils kinda just masked some of the BO rather than the formula killing it. My underarms also felt clammy, which wasn’t nice (although I am used to antiperspirants, and I realise this is a deodorant not an antiperspirant, so I guess I can’t really complain on that front!)
Such a shame, I really hoped and thought this would work for me!
Do you know of any ways that I could tweak the recipe to make it extra effective? How would witch hazel work for example, instead of aloe vera for the water phase?
Thanks in advance!-
#34 written by evik 2 years ago
Hi Amber,
I answer 2 years later, what a shame, my sincere apologies. I guess you already figured out what to do with your deo so that it works for you, but I reply anyway.
I would definitely add more zinc oxide, up to 30% of the recipe. Also, if you want,you can only use zinc oxide powder as deodorant, that should also draw the extra moisture from under your arms.
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Citrus oils can thin emulsions — it depends on how much you added and possibly when. I do use them, but err on the side of not too much.
There is a product called deodorant additive that is sold by Bramble Berry — it will actually work to prevent the smells associated with BO (it’s a yeast that eats up the bacteria as I understand it.) Might be worth adding to this. I love the zinc idea, but I want a bar type rather than lotion type.
Thanks for the ideas!!!
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#36 written by KLewis Strater 3 years ago
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#38 written by jen 3 years ago
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#39 written by evik 2 years ago
Hi Jen,
I never heard of it, but searching online, I found it has this composition:
Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil & Hydrogenated Castor Oil & Copernica Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax, Zinc Oxide, Potato Starch (modified), Talc (pharma), Triethyl Citrate, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Extract, Glycine Soya, Calendula Officinalis Flower Extract, Arnica Montana Flower Extract, Tocopherol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Lactose, Milk Protein, Bifida Ferment Lysate, Fragrance, O-Cymen-5-Ol.
The active ingredients apart zinc oxide are potato starch and talc and, most interestingly, Triethyl Citrate. All these could be added, I would have to think about the percentages, though.
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#40 written by Natalia 2 years ago
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#41 written by evik 2 years ago
Hi natalia,
actually, the recipe has only 15.5% of ZnO in it, sorry for the confusion, I just checked the recipe. Corrected it. The cream base is not 100% – the percentages are used only for ingredients to make it, I might have included ZnO in the percentage count, I believe it is confusing. will correct, thanks for the feedback!
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#42 written by Ann Wojczuk 1 year ago
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#44 written by Peri 2 months ago
I use this cream a lot, but also make a magnesium hydroxide deodorant stick (took some fiddling to get a stick that stayed soft enough). Was wondering about two experiments: making a zinc oxide deo stick using the wax base I like, and making this cream with a mix of magnesium hydroxide and kaolin clay instead of the zinc oxide. Any thoughts?
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This looks really interesting, especially since it works also for men. May I ask you where do you buy your Zinc Oxide?