Self Esteem Thursday

Welcome to another installment of "Self Esteem Thursday"!!

Yes, it's true. At the bottom of this post is the recipe for Lavender Cupcake scented deodorant that my rad friend Desiree and I invented by accident last week while experimenting with deodorant recipes. And it is awesome. It works great. It's a miracle. But if you are going to try your own baking soda-based deodorant and you currently use antiperspirant, it is very important that you read about my detoxing experience.

If you are using antiperspirant right now and then make this deodorant and come complaining to me when you develop a burning, red rash, the first thing I am going to ask is "Did you read my entire blog post?" It's why I put the recipe AT THE END and not at the beginning where everyone wishes it was.

I know I take too damn long to get to the point.  I've been speaking the same way I write my entire life, I know the look on your face. So just read it.  Get it over with, I'll try and make it entertaining.

*ahem*

I read about antiperspirant detox about a hundred times while researching natural deodorants that could stand up to my 1/2 marathon training regimen.  As I read each person's encounter with a horrible, burning rash while using baking soda-based deodorant, I seriously thought it was all a crock.  Obviously, these abounding personal accounts of searing hives comes from a skin sensitivity not a "detox" and all those people are stupid and I have a Bachelor of Science, so I am smarter than pretty much everyone.

But then I went to Houston in August, and I remembered that regardless of my ability to draw Bowen's Reaction Series from memory,  I'm quite often pretty flipping stupid.  And often humbled.  Ha! 

As previously reported in an early post, I decided on Schmidt’s as my first experience with natural deodorant even though I read about a thousand accounts of  "pit detox." I slathered it on my underarms one morning and waited for a burning sensation, but there wasn't one.  It was hot and I had a nerve-wracking Toastmasters meeting, so I sweated up a storm, then I came home and jogged.  When I got back to the house, I made Scott smell my armpits (he didn’t want to, I had to promise to never ask him to “smell my pits” again) but to both of our surprise, there wasn’t a hint of body odor.  So, no smell, no weird detox rash.  I was shocked and elated.  I thought “Wow, this was too easy, I am awesome.”

Three days later I had to travel to Houston on business. I can sum up Houston in August in one word: Wet.  Not rain wet.  That would be easy to avoid using coats and umbrellas.  It's really, really humid. It is inescapable drenching.  It’s unavoidable full body saturation that can only be minimized by arctic level air conditioning blowing on you constantly. I used to live in it and I just don’t know how. That horrible dripping I feel down my back under my business attire when I'm not even moving around, it’s not just sweat.  It is humidity building up on my dry, brittle, flaky skin. I often hear people say things like “soak up the humidity.” Screw that. I’m pretty sure that after being exposed to dry Rocky Mountain air for so long my skin has developed an anti-absorbing shield that causes humidity to simply bead off like water on my windshield after a carwash.  My skin probably thought I was drowning. So gross. 

Maybe it was just that it took a few days to actually get rid of the antiperspirant chemicals, or maybe living in a sauna disguised as a city sped up a “detox” process, either way, on the third day of the conference, I got out of the shower and put on the Schmidt’s, as I had done the past few days with NO problem.  But this time one of my armpits immediately broke out in a painful, swollen, bright red rash.  I was already running late and a simple washcloth wipe wasn’t making it better!! I had to jump back in the shower and wash the deodorant off my skin.  The burning stopped right away.  The rash, however, remained. Luckily, I had a backup deodorant. Sometimes I'm dumb but not that dumb. The night before I left town my friend gave me a new tube of his favorite natural deodorant, Arm and Hammer, to try and I just tossed it in my suitcase just in case.

The Arm and Hammer did not irritate my skin, but I did need to reapply it a few times a day while I was in Houston.  It could have been that I was just so wet and the deodorant kept getting rinsed off by the humidity.  It could have been that I actually started detoxing and it was going to be a smelly process.  I don’t know which, because when I got back to my sweet, arid Colorado climate, the Arm and Hammer worked pretty well. My only complaint was that it kind of dried out my skin.  

Sooooo I bought Nourish. It is full of moisturizing ingredients and uses cornstarch as its absorbing agent.  This was actually perfect for getting through the "detox" phase.  The skin under my arms never felt so spoiled. It was like I was putting fancy lotion on an area that rarely got any love.  Actually, it wasn't LIKE that, it just was putting fancy lotion on an area that rarely got any love. I mean, it's coconut oil and shea butter.  I still use it when my underarms feel dehydrated and if I had to do this whole thing again, I'd just use Nourish for a month and then switch to something baking soda-based if I felt I needed something stronger.

About a month went by before I tried Schmidt's again because the whole burning rash thing scarred me emotionally.  So, I don't have a timeframe for how long the detox process takes but I READ it only takes about a week, if you want to believe things you read.  

But since I made my own deodorant last week, I haven't used the Schmidt's.  Why? Because as much as I love smelling like Bergamot and Lime, I LOOOOOVE smelling like a lavender cupcake.

Desiree and I made two different recipes to try. We used ingredients we ALREADY HAD at home.  Look, essential oils are nice but not necessary.  You don't NEED vitamin e oil for this to work.  Use what you got, try it out.  Find a friend that hoards essential oils and team up.  (I am going to make a batch with Aveda's Beautifying Oil soon.....you Aveda girls reading this...) We got two jars out of each recipe, so we got a LOT of deodorant basically for free.  We based the recipe amounts off of instructions we read online. One recipe has more baking soda than the other. More about that at the bottom. 

Lemon Lavender Deodorant

* 1/4 cup arrowroot powder (or just cornstarch.  I happened to have a bag of arrowroot laying around that I hadn't touched in like 6 months because I like to pretend I bake things.)

* 1/4 cup baking soda (I used arm and hammer, which was next to the arrowroot on the super high up baking shelf that I don't look at)

* 4 Tablespoons coconut oil (We used unrefined extra virgin because that's what we had- and to be honest, probably adds to the "cupcake" aroma. But again, just use what you have or what's on sale) 

(side note: these top three ingredients are the most important. the rest is just fluff and you can customize it however you want)

* 10 drops lavender essential oil

* 10 drops lemon essential oil

* a splash of vitamin E oil (probably a teaspoon)

* splash of jojoba (probably 1 teaspoon)

Directions: Soften up coconut oil- not to a liquid, just so you can mix it up. Stir all ingredients together. Put in container. It will stiffen up overnight. That's it.  Desiree and I were sooo stoked to spend the afternoon making deodorant and it took about ten minutes to make both.  Ha!

To apply: take a pea-to-coco-puff sized amount in your hand and rub it around to soften.  Then slather on underarm area.  Or just take some from the jar and rub directly on the pit.  I do it either way. 

Wild Orange and Peppermint (again, these are the oils we had on hand)

* 1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup baking soda

* 1/4 cup arrowroot powder

* 4 Tablespoons coconut oil (looking back, I feel we added a little more for consistency, maybe another tablespoon)

* two teaspoons of jojoba oil (however, I recommend one, see below)

* 10 drops wild orange

* 6 drops peppermint

Same directions as above.

    serving size example and my cute new nail polish

Desiree and I both tried out the Lavender recipe the day after we made it.  I was telling Scott how great it was when I received a glowing rave via text message from Des.  The day after that I ran 6 miles wearing the Lavender mix again.  It worked great, no smell complaints.  

I was hesitant to try the Wild Orange and Peppermint mix because I was worried that the extra baking soda was going to be an overkill and actually irritate my skin.  Having said that, the smell is amazing so I just had to try it and I gotta say, it is currently my favorite of the two.

Just so you know, next time I'll mix the lavender lemon scent with the higher baking soda recipe, but I will cut back the jojoba. The Wild Orange Peppermint is a LITTLE greasy. I gotta wait a bit for everything to absorb before I put a shirt on.  

The lesson I took away from this experience is that I will probably never buy store deodorant again.  It's just too easy for me to make a good quality deodorant at home.  

If you are addicted to your pointless antiperspirant, that's fine. I will still be your friend.  I have never, ever asked someone what they daub on their underarms each morning in normal conversation and I don't plan on starting.   

But it's really, really fun to make your own!!! (do it.)

Desiree's handwriting is beautiful.