That's Impossible!!! A Toxin Free Deodorant that Actually Works!

My husband is a good sport.  I have made difficult situations, like remodeling after a flood, more challenging because I checked all materials for toxins and pressed for healthier options.  This slowed down the process considerably and he loves to cross items off his "to do" list quickly.  He has been, in his own words, a "late adopter" of many of my green ideas. He is now, however, my biggest supporter in our journey to make our house healthy and safe for our family.  But sometimes he still thinks I am a bit crazy...

The following example of one of my weird ideas is shared with his full permission:)

A long time ago a friend told me about the dangers of regular deodorant/antiperspirant.  I shrugged it off and thought it might be true but I wasn't willing to stink.  I felt this way for many years.

As we started to clean up our home for the kids, I became careful about what soaps and shampoos we used for them.  I started thinking about the deodorant thing and thought I'd better figure this out now so we'd be ready when the kids needed deodorant.  I probably bought ten different health food store "natural" deodorants.  I would go on iherb and read all the reviews, pick the most popular ones, and try them out myself.  Nothing worked!!!  The Crystal worked for a while and then stopped.  I gave up and went back to my trusty "Secret". 

My husband is the most consistent exerciser I have ever known.  He goes to the gym numerous times, every week, as long as I've known him.  He runs in the morning before work.  He also regularly goes on very challenging mountain bike rides lasting hours, with friends, for "fun".  He has always showered twice a day because he stinks after workouts.  He sweats A LOT which is great for detoxifying.  But he needed to buy those REALLY toxic, clinical deodorants to keep from stinking--and even those didn't work so well.  His exercise shirts were hard to launder so they'd smell fresh.  I tried adding vinegar and baking soda to the load.  I'd rewash his shirts a few times.  I was bummed because I couldn't get the sweat smell out of his shirts--ever.

So back to my deodorant quest...I found a make your own recipe that people said worked well.  It was coconut oil based so it was liquid most of the year (coconut oil melts as the weather gets warm) but I would apply it to my underarm with my finger and I was surprised to find it WORKED!  My husband delighted in trying to catch me "stinking" but the new deodorant always worked.  He wouldn't try it, however, because he didn't think it would work for him and all the hard core exercising he does.

One day we were on vacation and he realized he had forgotten his deodorant.  He was going to have to use my homemade deodorant and we were at a theme park all day in the heat.  He was worried!  I was excited!!!  I was hoping it would work and we could throw out the toxic, expensive deodorant he was using that wasn't even working well. 

You can probably guess it worked amazingly well for him!!  No odor after a two hour bike ride in the summer!!  No more stains on his white undershirts.  No more odors on any shirts.  No smell at all--ever!  This deodorant is so amazing that he wants us to sell it:)  Because it really doesn't make sense that there are all these companies making deodorant that doesn't work well, is full of chemicals, and costs lots of money.  And this one works perfectly and is super cheap and easy to make!

Since his conversion, I now am using an even better recipe that works just as well but has some beeswax in it so it stays solid in all temperatures.  I just mix it, cook it, and pour it in an old deodorant bottle---I have tons of them from my days of trying out all the natural ones.

This recipe is adapted from Keeper of the Home and found here.  I omitted the Castor oil in her recipe because I like the texture better without.  I don't use lavender or tea tree oil in mine because of this study showing a link between both and the growth of breasts in boys.  Further study showed the two essential oils mimic the actions of estrogen in the body.  I think it is best to leave them out if there may be a problem with the oils, especially when they are placed so close to the breast tissue.

Here is the recipe with a picture of the ingredients:

I added the following to a saucepan, stirred to combine, and "cooked" over low heat:

5 Tablespoons of coconut oil, 1/4 cup of arrowroot powder, 1/4 cup of aluminum free baking soda, 2 heaping Tablespoons of beeswax pellets--(shown below), and 16 drops of an essential oil to scent (if desired)  Check this list for essential oils to avoid due to their ability to exaggerate hormonal issues.

Heat until the beeswax pellets melt, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.  Pour into two empty, clean deodorant containers like the one pictured below.  I twisted it so the base was all the way at the bottom and ready to receive the liquid deodorant.  This starts to harden right away so you have to work quickly.

Cools completely within a few hours and is ready to use.  Makes 2 containers of deodorant.

Some additional tips...

1.  At the beginning, I needed to wipe this off at night with water so my body could take a break from the abrasiveness of the baking soda in the recipe.  I just put coconut oil on the area over night to soothe.

2.  Some people have a week or so "adjustment period" when starting this.  This is supposed to be your body adjusting to being without the chemicals in the deodorant you used before.  My husband and I did not and were "stink free" right away.

3. You don't need to use much at all.  I place the container to my underarm, twisted up to reveal just a bit of the deodorant, and let it soften a second from my body temperature.  Then I lightly cover the area, without tugging or rubbing as baking soda is abrasive.


Let me know if you try this and how it works for you!!  I hope it ends up being a great improvement over your present situation:)
Moneysaver:  I purchased the arrowroot powder inexpensively on Amazon, the beeswax and baking soda from iherb, and the coconut oil from Trader Joe's.  There is a bit of an investment upfront if you don't have the items already, but the deodorant ends up costing just a few cents to make each time.  If you live near me, I'll happily make you some if you give me an empty container.  Then you can try it first, without purchasing the ingredients.

Green Cleaning For the Home...More Effective Than Chemicals!

I remember clearly an interaction I had with a lady, in line at the grocery store, even though it happened over six years ago.  I can still see the entire scene in my mind--it was that upsetting to me at the time.

It was late for me to be out shopping, maybe 7:30 in the evening, and Tim was watching the kids.  I was absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed, as I usually was at this stage in our lives, but we needed baby food so I went out.  I decided to buy in bulk because I wanted to avoid another night time shopping trip, and this particular store gave a 10% discount when you bought a whole flat of something.  I had a ton of organic baby jars on the counter, all single ingredient versions due to my daughter's extensive allergies.  The lady behind me started studying my purchases.  Then she couldn't help herself:..

"You know you can make your own baby food at home?"  she asked. 

I told her I did know that with a smile.

"It is super easy and so much healthier!" she continued. 

Now I gave her a nod and tried not to start crying in front of her.  I paid for my food and cried my way to the car.  Then I cried the whole way home. 

My kids, and their intense, unique needs due to illness, meant that I could not make one more thing from scratch.  Regardless of how easy it was or how healthy it was.  At this point, I had a twice monthly cleaning service and my mom helped me by making some of the more time intensive items we needed like wild duck, bone broth, and buffalo casserole.  I purchased my green cleaning supplies online and bought baby food in jars.  We used Seventh Generation disposable diapers and wipes.  I, myself, was eating far too much fast food as I drove the kids from doctor appt. to doctor appt. while devoting my energy toward my children's diets instead.  We were doing what we could do, based on what we knew, what we could afford, and what we had the time and energy to accomplish. 

But I still let myself feel guilty when I had interactions like the one above.  I wish I would have let it roll off my back.  Jarred, organic baby food was fine!  We were in a very intensive, exhausting season and we didn't have the ability to do everything "right".  So we just did the best we could at the time.

I write all that to say if you don't want to make your cleaners from scratch that is fine!  I am just offering what we have found to work at our house, is safe for the littles in the house, and saves us money.  There are, however, plenty of of non toxic, green cleaners that you can purchase easily at Walmart or Target.  Making your own cleaners might not make sense for you right now.

But if you want to...

Here is what we use:

Windows

My husband is very excited about this window cleaner recipe we found online.  I'm sorry I can't remember where it is from.  The key to the recipe is the corn starch which I've read it used by professional window washers.  You do have to rub it in a bit but the result is better than Windex!

You start with warm water, vinegar, corn starch, rubbing alcohol, and a spray bottle.  I use my old cleaner bottles, well washed, instead of buying new spray bottles.

Add one Tablespoon of corn starch to two cups of very warm water.  (I doubled the recipe in the pictures so that is why the measurements are different).

Stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.  This is the most important step!

Add 1/4 cup of vinegar.

Add 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol.  I may try cheap vodka next time instead.

Stir and pour into a spray bottle.


All Purpose Cleaner 

I use this on counter tops, sinks, and any surfaces I need to clean.  This recipe was given to me by my friend, Melissa.  It was originally called a floor cleaner (the recipe was on a bottle she bought from Crate and Barrel) but we have both had success using it all over the house!

The ingredients to gather are dishwashing liquid, borax, and vinegar.

Add 1/2 tsp. of borax to two cups of very warm water.  Stir it until it is completely dissolved.  This is the most important step.

Add a splash of vinegar.

Add 1/2 tsp. of dishwashing liquid and stir.

Pour into a spray bottle.  So easy a child could make it:)

Floors

We have no carpet in our house.  Just a few wool area rugs and a few areas with Flor carpet tiles.  The rest of our house is tile or hardwood.  When people call the house and speak with me they often ask if I am in the bathroom or comment on how loud the kids are due to the echoing from lack of carpet.  I guess this should be embarrassing?  Anyway, our favorite method to clean our floors is to use the Shark Steam Mop.

First Tim vacuums the floors and then he uses the steam mop.  My lovely husband does our floors every week and it takes a couple of hours.  He is a BLESSING!!!  With only water, the floors feel soft and clean and are sanitized as well!  We love this mop!  We purchased it at Costco.

Toilets

This is very easy!  Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda and 1/2 cup of vinegar into the toilet bowl.  Let it soak as long as you can and then scrub.  My friend, Melissa, has added fresh lemon juice to treat stubborn stains with success too.

I spray the rest of the toilet with the All Purpose Cleaner above and wipe down with a rag.  For a smelly bathroom (boy bathroom) I spray vinegar on the toilet's surface and the floor below to take care of any urine smell.  For a really bad toilet, I'd use a paste of baking soda and lemon juice along the caulking (the meeting place of the toilet base and the flooring).  This area seems to absorb smells and this will neutralize the smells.  I found this idea here.

Scrubbing Paste

The stain cleaner/ scrubbing paste my husband made here is great!  It needs to be made on the spot, however, as there is power in the reaction between the baking soda and vinegar.  When we've used it later, after it was stored, it is not as effective.

Another scrubbing paste I keep under the sink, is the following:

Add 1/2 cup of liquid laundry soap to a mixing bowl (I use whatever "green" soap is available at Costco.

Add 1/2 cups of baking soda (I used 1 1/2 cups) and mix until you get a frosting consistency as shown above.

Add 10 drops of Tea Tree Oil.  This serves as a natural disinfectant.  Mix again!

Pour into sealable tub and use when needed.  I found this recipe here at Keeper of the Home.  She has wonderful, natural living posts about food, gardening, and health care.


Disinfecting

Virginia Polytech. Institute found in their study that spraying from a  bottle of vinegar (white or apple cider) followed by spraying from a bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide killed virtually all Salmonella, Shigella, or E.coli bacteria on heavily contaminated food and surfaces.  This made it more effective than bleach!
Remember to keep the peroxide in the dark bottle to protect the peroxide--just add a nozzle to the top.


Wow, that was a long post!!  I am going to start experimenting with a stain fighter for clothes and will post about that if it is as effective as the Zout I continue to use.  I haven't found anything more effective than Zout yet and will continue to look until I do.  That is what is next for me regarding cleaners.

Next up for the blog is my husband's absolute favorite green thing I've made to date.  He keeps wanting me to sell it but I am going to give you the recipe and directions here...soon!


Moneysaver:  Use old spray bottles from store bought cleaners (well washed) to fill with your homemade ones.  I buy vinegar, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide at Costco. 

A Healthy Bed--Finally!

We love our bed!  It doesn't matter where we are sleeping and how nice the bed is, Tim and I always miss our bed.  It is comfortable, but what I love about it goes way beyond the comfort factor--it is a non toxic bed that improves our health as we sleep! 

Have you ever heard of Earthing?  As simple as walking barefoot in the soil, Earthing (also called Grounding), can calm and and help the body heal.  Here is an excellent article about what grounding can do for you!

We sleep with a grounding sheet and an electric field shield on our bed.  Both were suggested to us by our Building Biologist, Larry Gust.  The electric field shield helps protect the body from the stress of electric shields in the environment.  Here is more information from Larry's website:   http://gustenviro.com/electrical_sensitivity.html 

The grounding sheet helps the body heal quicker, sleep more deeply, and get better quality sleep.  Many athletes use this product and it was tested on the US Tour de France team with beneficial results.  Both are connected to our bed via a telephone line, leading out to a grounding stake, pounded into the dirt outside our home.  Sounds complicated but it was easy to do.  Now we are getting the benefits of grounding and protection from electric fields while we sleep.

Here is the rest of our bed--from mattress to comforter detailed below:

Mattress:  We have a latex mattress from Custom Comfort.  I had my doctor write a prescription for a mattress without flame retardants so our mattress was made especially for us without these toxins.  The kids have organic matons (half mattress, half futons) from Lifekind and my son has the bed and drawers pictured below also.

Organic Dust Mite Barrier and Bed Bug Barrier Mattress Cover from Lifekind  I have read that a pillow that is two years old is 10% heavier in weight from dead dust mites and their feces.  This keeps the dust mites out.

  

Wool Pillowtop with Organic Cotton Cover from Lifekind  This keeps body temperature regulated, wicks away moisture, and wool is naturally resists dust mites.  The kids do not have this.




Organic Flannel Mattress Pad from Lifekind  This protects the wool pillow top as it can be easily laundered.



Organic Sateen Sheet Set from Lifekind  These are very well made, soft sheets that last and last.




All Season Wool Comforter with Organic Cover from Lifekind  We remove this in the summer because my husband runs really warm but I could comfortably use it all year long.  It is covered in an organic duvet cover from a sheet set we purchased a while back.  The kids have a organic, cotton, basket weave blanket from Lifekind instead.


Wool pillow for me and a customizable wool wrapped natural shredded rubber pillow for Tim.  Both from Lifekind



Organic Dust Mite and Bed Bug Resistant Barrier Pillow Covers from Lifekind


Moneysaver:
We purchased all of the above a little at a time, as Lifekind had sales.  Right now they are running a 25% off everything sale and sometimes you can save much more!  My goal was to have all materials on the beds in my home toxin free but I had to take my time and buy things a few at a time.  The first things I bought were organic pillows, barrier covers, and organic pjs.  I sleep in organic t-shirts and cotton shorts that I purchased at Walmart for $3.00 or $4.00 each.   The kids sleep in organic pjs from Hanna Andersson which I purchased from the Hanna Anderson outlet very inexpensively. I figured what was on the body and under the nose was the most impactful.  Then I purchased the other items as we were able and when there was a really big sale.

Due to allergies and health issues in our family, our doctor wrote a prescription for an organic, toxin free bedroom and the supplies above were tax deductible.  The amount that was tax deductible was the amount over and above what a typical item would cost.

Is Your Bedroom Keeping You Sick?

Did you know that your bedroom, and what is in it, probably causes more harm to your body than what you are exposed to during the day?  Your body needs to rest and heal at night but many bedrooms are filled with things that deplete the body rather than aid in restoration.




Here are a few simple, free, or inexpensive ways you can change your health--while you sleep:

Power Down:  This is the most important thing you can do in my opinion.  Sleeping without the EMFs (Electric and magnetic fields) from outlets, clock radios, televisions, and all kinds of phones is important for restorative sleep.  We have a device that looks like a garage door opener that we hit to power down the kids' rooms and then another to power down our room.  It is called a "Remote Circuit Cutoff Switch".  It also turns off the wi-fi and our televisions and cable boxes throughout the house.  We save $90 a month on our electric bill by just doing this!  Before we had the remote, Tim would just flip the appropriate switches on our fuse box.  We have a battery operated alarm clock but never need it because our kids are up early every morning.  You can read more about how EMFs affect our body in the websites linked below.

Sleep in complete darkness:  This helps your body produce melatonin, the hormone that gets you sleepy and is an important antioxidant.

Turn off your cellphone:  Or at least keep it in another room far, far away from your sleeping area.  Some phones, like the iPhone, are constantly checking reception so they function like a mini cell tower.  You don't want to sleep next to a cell tower--just google cancer and cell towers.  We have a very cheap, corded phone in our room that is safe to keep next to our bed as we sleep.

Make sure your bed faces north:  This optimizes red blood cell production, yields optimal deepness of sleep, and prolongs REM sleep by 7%.

Sleep with your head away from things like computer stations, smart meters, etc.  It doesn't matter if a bedroom wall is separating you from the item--you are still exposed to radiation.

Avoid metal in your bed:  Headboards or bed springs can act as an energy concentrator.

Avoid using chemicals and fragrances in your bedroom:  Clean your bedroom and bed linens with green products.  Use no VOC paints and buy furniture that is either used (and done off gassing) or made of real wood and stained with natural stains.  Cheap furniture often outgasses formaldehyde. 

Avoid carpet and drapes:  This allows you to keep your room relatively dust free, and carpet is a breeding ground for dust mites.  I will talk more about this in my "Healthy Bed" post next week.
            
I learned about almost everything above from Larry Gust http://gustenviro.com/about_us.html  He is a Building Biologist who came to evaluate our home and educate us on what we could do to make our home a healthier place.

Here are some EMF websites if you are interested in learning more:

http://emf.mercola.com/

http://www.electric-fields.bris.ac.uk/
http://www.electromagnetichealth.org/
http://www.emrpolicy.org/

Next week I'll write a post on everything we've done to make our bed the most comfortable and healthiest one we've ever slept on--even better than the Four Seasons!  We don't sleep as well anywhere else!

Image from http://www.freedigitalpictures.net/