While body odor is attrib­uted to a not-so-healthy diet, it can also hap­pen when you’re stressed or anx­ious. Many health prac­ti­tion­ers will tell you that your sweat should not stink, but it’s always nice to have a lit­tle insur­ance just in case. Before I get into the oh-so-easy deodor­ant recipes, here is a really brief list of foods that will cause and inhibit body odor.

Foods Attrib­uted to Body Odor
Junk/fast food, processed meats, con­ven­tional meats. Processed snack foods high in sugar and refined grains. Onions and gar­lic can also cause an odor – the amount that causes an odor varies on an indi­vid­ual basis, and may just end up smelling like gar­lic, not body odor.

Foods that Pre­vent Body Odor
All leafy greens! Kale, spinach, baby greens, romaine, pars­ley, cilantro, etc. Cucum­ber, cel­ery, mint, and lemon. Sprouts. Sup­ple­men­tal chlorophyll.

I like to make my own deodor­ant, and some­times I buy it (my favorite is Ele­gant Rose Bou­tique on Etsy). Below are my two recipes for all nat­ural, super effec­tive deodor­ant (works on men and women).

Recipe #1
Actu­ally not a recipe at all. If I’m lazy, I just swipe my under­arms with some aluminum-free bak­ing soda. If I use too much or the reg­u­lar (not aluminim-free) bak­ing soda, I get an itchy rash that goes away in a day or two. I have sim­ply learned to only use the good stuff.

Recipe #2
This one is so nice and mois­tur­iz­ing, and allows for some cre­ativ­ity in the func­tion and fra­grance of essen­tial oils. How much you sweat, fra­grance pref­er­ences, and skin sen­si­tiv­ity is a very indi­vid­ual thing, so alter this recipe as you see fit.

Note: Bak­ing soda absorbs odor but tends to alka­lize pH. Our skin likes to be on the acid side, so that is where the cit­ric acid or ascor­bic acid and essen­tial oils come in – to help keep the for­mula more acidic so as not to irri­tate your skin. If the recipe cause irri­ta­tion, decrease the bak­ing soda to 1/8 cup and check that you are not sen­si­tive to the essen­tial oil you added (also make sure the essen­tial oil is prop­erly made, with­out hexane).

Ingre­di­ents

  1. 1/4 cup aluminum-free bak­ing soda (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
  2. 1/4 cup arrow­root pow­der (if you are a heavy sweater, use non-GMO corn­starch instead)
  3. 1/8 cup cit­ric acid (if you have ascor­bic acid a.k.a. vit­a­min C pow­der or cap­sules around, you can use that instead)
  4. High-quality coconut oil (if you’re aller­gic to coconut oil, use shea but­ter or cocoa but­ter instead – just melt it down first)
  5. A few drops of essen­tial oil (try lemon, tea tree, or laven­der for extra antibacterial/anti-stink prop­er­ties and maybe jas­mine, vanilla, or sage for addi­tional fragrance)
  6. Dark glass jar

Instruc­tions

Mix together the three dry ingre­di­ents, then add in your oil. Add the oil slowly and make sure it’s enough to make it a nice paste with­out being too liq­uid. Add a few drops of essen­tial oils of your choice and you’re done! Store it in a glass jar in your bath­room and sim­ply use clean index fin­gers (don’t re-dip the same fin­ger after you apply it to one armpit) to apply to each under­arm. You can also get a deodor­ant con­tainer and pour the mix­ture in and store it in the fridge so it remains solid (coconut oil is liq­uid at room tem­per­a­ture). And remem­ber, don’t glob it on! A lit­tle goes a long way.

I hope you enjoy the recipe! It’s fun and easy to make, and frees you up from hav­ing to spend $5–10 on a tiny stick of nat­ural deodor­ant.
~Steph  x

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