Homemade Deodorant: Holy Crap It works!

About a year ago, I came across the typical recipe for homemade deodorant: 2 parts coconut oil, 1 part baking soda, and 1 part arrowroot powder or cornstarch. Some recipes add a few drops of essential oils in, but some of my patients are very sensitive to scents and smells, so I choose to just keep it neutral. This is the typical and popular recipe floating  around the internet and I have no idea who actually invented it. Whoever you are: you are a genius. 

I was fully skeptical about this since, I will admit, I do not sweat roses. I did not throw away my commercial deodorant/antiperspirant at the time because I was sure I'd come back to it. I wanted to do a post on this today to attest to the challenges I've put this homemade deodorant through and also some surprising findings after a year or so of daily use. 

When I started using it, I was biking to work through congested Toronto air and it was summer. Test passed. 
I did a few large talks in front of audiences, one a corporate event with about a hundred people. Test passed.
I run regularly. Test passed. 
I sometimes work in a high-stress, high-paced environment. Test passed.

That's really all the ultra-sweating I can think of doing: exertion sweat, nervous sweat, stress sweat, not to mention daily sweat. All passed with flying colours. Holy crap, this stuff really works!

It's been a little over a year now of zero anti-perspirant use. Armpit pores are wiiiiide open and definitely working better than they have been. What do I mean by this? Sure, I sweat, but it doesn't smell anymore. You must remember: sweating is normal. In the past month, I realized I've been forgetting to put it on in the morning. Normally, I would slightly panic and probably buy a bar of deodorant because surely I could always use a back-up, right? Nope. Didn't even need it. In fact, I sweat less than I ever have and when I do, it's odourless. This is what normal sweating is supposed to be, not pushing sweat out of purposely-clogged pores, or feeding aluminum to the bacteria hanging out in there. 

I am converted and I hope you will be, too. Your pits will thank you.

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