Homemade Peppermint Deodorant

Yesterday, I decided to start my home made personal care item voyage with something simple. Why not deodorant? I am in Hawaii on an extended vacation and I don't want to have a ton of stuff to take back home with me. The ingredients are readily available and not overly expensive. Another perk is that is recipe doesn't require any special equipment. Perfect!

I want a scented deodorant and I found a great recipe at Angry Chicken. I modified it a bit to suit my needs.

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons shea butter
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa butter
• 3 Tablespoons baking soda
• 2 Tablespoons corn starch
• 2 vitamin E oil gel caps (I forgot to add these but will next time)
• Peppermint Essential Oil

Instructions

1. Melt shea butter and cocoa butter with baking soda and cornstarch. Stir until smooth.
2. Add vitamin E oil and essential oil. Stir well.
3. Divide mixture into tins and place in a cool place to set. Let rest over night. (You can also place in a pan of ice water to set faster. Be careful not to splash water into the mixture.)
4. Place in freezer for about 1 hour to loosen. 
5. Remove from tins and use.

On another of her posts she recommends making it into little pucks by placing the mixture in muffin tins, freezing and them popping them out. I found some little metal cups at the Salvation Army for 10¢ each. They worked perfectly. As an added bonus, Billy loves stacking and throwing these around because they make nice loud clanging noises =)

The deodorant is a bit tacky. I am not sure if that is just because of the humidity here in Hawaii or because there is to much liquid in the recipe. Maybe I should add some beeswax or more cocoa  butter next time? I will wait til I get back to the desert and see how the little bars fair in the drier climate before I go make another batch. Maybe it won't matter if I put it in a deodorant roll up tube and don't have to touch it. I found some empty, new deodorant containers on Amazon. They were 5 for 6.99. If I find that the deodorant works well, I will get some for future batches.