
Palmarosa + Lime Natural Deodorant Recipe with Aloe Vera Oil
Learn how to make a natural deodorant recipe for your daily skin care routine. This homemade deodorant is formulated for sensitive skin without baking soda. It contains skin soothing aloe vera oil. Arrowroot powder, clay and magnesium hydroxide are also used to help keep skin dry. In addition, this sensitive skin deodorant recipe can also be made using with candelilla wax (vegan) or beeswax, as is your preference.
My palmarosa + lime natural deodorant recipe with aloe vera oil is probably my favorite DIY deodorant to date. While it’s similar to other natural deodorants I’ve created in the past, I changed a few key components within this new natural deodorant recipe.
For this recipe, I omitted both baking soda and coconut oil so it won’t irritate sensitive skin. I also used a fun new unisex, essential oil scent combo that not only smells great, but also helps to fight odors. The addition of aloe vera oil also makes a soothing addition. It is naturally antibacterial like coconut oil and helps to promote skin health.
Additionally, neem oil and palmarosa essential oil also help to naturally fight odor causing bacteria. While lime essential oil is used for it’s fresh, purifying scent! This natural deodorant recipe is also vegan.
Palmarosa + Lime Natural Deodorant Recipe
© Rebecca D. Dillon
Ingredients:
7 oz. arrowroot powder
3 oz. magnesium hydroxide
1 oz. bentonite clay
3 oz. refined + deodorized cocoa butter
.5 oz. neem oil
.25 oz. refined shea butter
1.65 oz. aloe vera oil
1/4 teaspoon candelilla wax
.1 oz. lime essential oil
.05 oz. palmarosa essential oil
How to Make Natural Deodorant with Essential Oils
You’ll need a digital scale to weigh all of the ingredients for my natural deodorant recipe, except for the candelilla wax. You will need a measuring spoon to measure out the wax.
To make my palmarosa + lime natural deodorant recipe, begin by weighing out the shea butter and cocoa butter into a glass Pyrex measuring cup. Measure out the candelilla wax and add it to your container. Melt these ingredients either in the microwave at 40-50% power – higher temps can cause your butters to become grainy – or in a double boiler. (If you have trouble with this recipe crumbling, you can add 1/4 teaspoon of emulsifying wax.)
For winter or cooler climates when you want a lower melting point, replace the candelilla wax with the same amount of shaved beeswax.
Once melted, weigh out the neem oil – you’ll need to use 100% neem oil for this recipe, not one that’s been diluted so it stays in a liquid state at lower temperatures – and the aloe vera oil. (You do need aloe vera OIL not aloe vera gel. They are not the same thing.) Stir these oils into the melted butters and wax. If needed, you can gently heat the deodorant mixture again then mix well to combine. (Yes, neem oil is stinky! But I promise you won’t smell it at all in the final product!)
Allow the mixture to cool slightly then weigh out the essential oils and stir into the liquid ingredients.
Now weigh out the dry ingredients for this natural deodorant recipe – the arrowroot powder, bentonite clay, and magnesium hydroxide. Combine in a glass container and mix well with a non-metal utensil until the dry ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Slowly pour the dry the ingredients into the liquid ingredients mixing as you go. Stir until both are thoroughly combined with one another. completely into one another.
Now carefully pour – or spoon depending on the thickness of the deodorant – into your containers. Tap your deodorant tubes to release any air bubbles once filled, then top with additional product if needed.
My palmarosa + lime natural deodorant recipe will yield five 2.65 oz. deodorant tubes. I used silver deodorant tubes with domed caps as well as white deodorant tubes with flat caps from SKS Bottle & Packaging for this project.
Allow your deodorants to fully set up – 24 to 48 hours – then they’re ready for use!
Tip: As natural ingredients vary and have ranges for melting points, you can tweak this recipe if needed. If you find the deodorant crumbles and is not quite solid enough, you can add 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable based emulsifying wax to the base to remedy the issue. Just remelt in a double boiler, incorporate the new ingredient, then repour.
Simply label your natural deodorants for sensitive skin as desired for personal use. Alternately, if you are making these to sell, be sure to label your containers appropriately to meet state and federal laws. If you’re unsure about the rules and regulations regarding labeling cosmetics, I highly recommend the book, Soap and Cosmetic Labeling: How to Follow the Rules and Regs Explained in Plain English, by Marie Gale.
Prefer to make a cream deodorant in jars? You can find my Natural Lavender Cream Deodorant Recipe with Bentonite Clay here. Alternately if you don’t want to make your own natural deodorant you can shop from among some great sellers on Etsy here.
If you’re looking for more natural homemade beauty and skin care recipes, you may also want to check out the book, All Natural Beauty: Organic & Homemade Beauty Products! Written by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer, this book contains over 40 natural homemade beauty recipes and products to make at home! All of the traditional homemade beauty recipes in this book are free of things like paraffins, synthetic colors, and Triclosan – and they can be made at a fraction of the cost of store-bought products.
Some of the homemade beauty and skin care recipes found within All Natural Beauty include a nourishing lip balm recipe to soften lips, a chickpea and turmeric face mask recipe for glowing skin, a varicose vein body butter recipe as well as natural shampoo, make-up remover, and toner recipes and more. Additionally there are also tips on how to package your products so you can gift the homemade beauty products you create. You can learn more or buy this book here.
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13 Comments
Brittany Feldman
July 24, 2017 at 8:19 pm
Hello I was wonder has this recipe been heat tested? How long does it hold up when you wear it or when your outside at a event?
Rebecca D. Dillon
July 25, 2017 at 9:17 am
This deodorant has a much higher melt point than my other recipes so you don’t have to worry about it melting completely when traveling in high temps and taking it with you. It works great as a deodorant even in heat to keep odors away. You do sweat, you just don’t stink. If you are going to be outside at an event I recommend reapplying as needed. Everyone’s body is different. I have to apply twice a day when I’m out and about but in cooler temps I don’t need to reapply. I tend to apply heavily, let set for a minute, then massage in with my fingers when I feel I need the extra protection before putting on a shirt.
Brittany Feldman
August 4, 2017 at 1:34 pm
Thank you for your response. I will be trying this recipe and I’ll leave a comment after I test it out. Since this recipe is not white does it stain clothes?
Rebecca D. Dillon
August 4, 2017 at 2:17 pm
I’ve never had any issue with it staining clothes and I used this specific recipe for several months up until two or three weeks ago. I recommend applying. Waiting a minute, then massaging in before putting on clothing just for better absorption. If you use too much it can mark clothes like commercial deodorant but it wipes right off with a wet washcloth.
Brittany Feldman
August 4, 2017 at 8:42 pm
Fantastic thank you so much for replying 🙂
Lily
August 12, 2017 at 1:56 pm
Hi Rebecca,
Thank u so much for sharing! I don’t have all the ingredients. What can I substitute the following with:
1.65 oz. aloe vera oil
1/4 teaspoon candelilla wax
.05 oz. palmarosa essential oil? Tia!
Rebecca D. Dillon
August 12, 2017 at 2:03 pm
You can substitute the aloe vera oil with another (liquid at room temp) carrier oil of your choice. Candelilla wax may be substituted with carnauba wax or with HALF the amount of beeswax. And you can use another essential oil that compliments the lime eo of your choosing based on your personal preferences. Hope this helps.
Brittany Feldman
August 21, 2017 at 9:45 am
Hey I’m checking back in with a update. I made this recipe 72 hours ago. Didn’t substitute anything but it’s set about as far as it will go and it’s creamy and wonderful the problem is when you apply it, it crumbles like a creamy deodorant would in a tube. Have you experienced with upping the wax? I thought about freezing it first and seeing if that helps binding but not 100% sure of that would work.
Rebecca D. Dillon
August 21, 2017 at 2:23 pm
This recipe was actually one of my hardest deodorants but I didn’t have any issues with crumbling. It’s possible the arrowroot get hot enough when mixing and therefore may have not thickened properly assuming everything was weighed correctly – arrowroot powder acts as a thickener – and you measured out grated wax. You can empty the tubes and reheat til your deodorant is almost too thick to pour and it should harden up. I’ve had a few others make this recipe without any issues so that would be my best guess. Alternately if it’s crumbling because it’s too hard, it’s because this was designed for higher temps not room A/C so you can take it camping, to festivals etc. It won’t crumble in these conditions. If you won’t be dragging this out with you this summer, you can simple add a bit more oil and remix.
Carla Nesci
September 28, 2017 at 11:58 am
Hi Rebecca,
I too had the same problem as Brittany, my deodorant is crumbly when I apply. I did substitute the magnesium hydroxide for magnesium sulfate ( known as epsom salts, the only thing I could get closer to magnesium hydroxide without spending a ton of money to get it from amazon) after I grinded into a powder. I was wondering what was the purpose of the magnesium hydroxide, I assumed it acts as a drying agent which the epsom salts also do, also you get the benefits of the magnesium through skin absorption. Was that a good substitution?
Thank you,
Carla
Rebecca D. Dillon
September 28, 2017 at 1:23 pm
It really is only crumbly at lower temps. The glide is there at the above room temp temperatures. You can add additional oil to the recipe just before it goes into the containers. Enough so that it pours in easily and it will remedy the issue. This deodorant was specifically designed to not melt in hot weather when camping or at festivals and storage in hot environments. Epsom salts are going to make it very hard as it’s a high % in the recipe. A suitable substitution for the magnesium hydroxide would be zinc oxide (I’ve not tried this) or baking soda. The magnesium hydroxide aids in keeping you dry and allows for absorption of magnesium by your body. If you want a deodorant that melts more readily on skin contact in cooler temperatures or regulated room temperature and don’t want to guess on adding extra oil then you may want to look at my other deodorant recipes. I have quite a few.
Carla Nesci
September 29, 2017 at 11:25 am
Thank you for your reply, I will take a look at your other deodorant recipes.
Rebecca D. Dillon
September 29, 2017 at 12:01 pm
You’re welcome.
Comments are closed.