B.O.

Hmmm..

B.O. - the Presidents Dog?
B.O. - back order
B.O. - back office
B.O. - body odor
B.O. - box office

What are we talking about today?!

How to get rid of body odor! Yahoo! Maybe you're blessed enough not to have to battle with bad odors. Maybe you don't smell as much as you sweat. Maybe you're happy with what you have right now and don't care to change. That's cool. Thanks for joining me today as I talk about my armpit journey regardless of where you are in yours =)

I still remember that life changing day in middle school... It was during lunch and we were doing whatever middle schoolers were doing and someone shattered my world by pointing at my wet pits. I was mortified. I didn't stink but I was certainly sporting a multi-colored shirt and it was embarrassing.

I played a lot of sports in school so I wasn't unfamiliar with sweat but I sure wasn't expecting it to be noticeable during a regular day. And I had no idea there was a solution for it for a few more years (or a suggested solution that was actually really unhealthy for me). Monitoring my armpits because an obsession. If I went to the bathroom I always carried something with me to fan my pits with. I walked around with my arms up when no one was around hoping my shirt would dry out or strategically keeping my arms as close to my rib cage as possible. I even second guessed clothing choices because some colors and fabrics hide sweat better. I have absolutely no recollection of when I started using anti-persperants. But I do vividly remember spending a pretty penny on an anti-persperant cream to rub on for a wedding (this was '04) because I was terrified of sweating during the ceremony. Unfortunately it made the situation worse; I still remember feeling beadlets rolling down my arms and dripping off my elbows.

It wasn't until recently that I thought there was another way to approach this situation. I had been talking with my cousin about making my own deodorant because I had been reading articles about antiperspirants possibly being connected to breast cancer along with other issues. Well of course this article debunks those theories but in my mind the correlation is sound. AND let's just be honest here - the FDA has some crazy "practices" and "rules" (for reals - you can put sugar in my milk and not report it on the label but it's illegal for me to buy fresh milk? are ya'll crazy?). So my cousin mentioned that she noticed she was sweating LESS when she stopped using antiperspirants (she's the one who enlightened me to the color and fabric choices). So I decided I would give it a try!

Sometimes I feel like I should have a Pinterest Board dedicated to deodorant. But I'm not quite that obsessive, yet. I am on my 3rd "recipe" now though and I know there is at least 1 more that I would like to try.

Over Christmas my sister-in-law and I tried our first recipe, found here. It was a probiotic deodorant. It was a mess to clean up and it totally stained our pits - as in our shirts - our whites were a very ugly yellowy/brown after using it. It was suggested that using white beeswax would eliminate that issue. This sounded great until my mom shared that to get white beeswax, the yellow has to be bleached. WAY counter productive. Recipe #1 fail. (I do have to say that I liked the product otherwise).

Then the friend who introduced me to doTERRA said she was using coconut oil and Purify, only, for her deodorant. I started using it too. Both coconut oil and the oils in the blend Purify are very anti-bacterial (which is what causes us to stink). Turns out this wasn't quite strong enough for me though - at least not at vendor events where my adrenaline is constantly pumping or Hawaii where the temperature is 20 degrees higher than I'm used to. (fyi - the natural products are not necessarily once and done - they don't always last 12 hour and you may need to reapply during the day)
Well, in a panic I bought an over-priced all natural stick in Hawaii and was incredibly unhappy with that also. Thus continued my hunt for something natural that helped eliminate some B.O.

Today I want to share with you the recipe that I have found and fallen in love with! And in closing I'll share one other recipe that I totally want to try =)

About a month ago a friend told me there was a gal teaching a class on Citrus Oils and being the sucker I am (read "addict") for essential oils I decided to drive the hour Northwest to go to her class. Janine did not disappoint. (Can I just say that I love being able to participate and learn from others.) Janine has an amazing blog that I hope you will read, you can find her over at My Lamp is Full. I hope you'll enjoy her as much as I do!
So anyway - after Janine talked about oils, she made us some sugar scrub, deodorant, and she'd passed out a few different desserts for us that she made using some essential oils. AMAZING!

Here is Janine's deodorant post. And the pictures of my adventure;

Tropical Traditions has a VERY powerful smell - I only smell that, not my Purify - just so you're warned. AND I peeled off that label and reused the deodorant bottle after I tossed the poor product (not to say other's don't like the product, it just didn't work for me). 

Hey, if you have the arm-power by all means, mix away. I, on the other hand, don't enjoy that much work and heated it (double broiler recommend instead of the microwave)

This is after the deodorant has sat for a bit and cooled. Can you see that it's starting to "stiffen"

I peeled the label off that "natural" stuff that I didn't like and scooped the thickening product into the empty deodorant container (I would wait until it's more solid than liquid AND make sure you twist your container all the way down!) I had enough extra deodorant to make two sample containers (sorry, no photo of that).

I can't smell the Purify in my product because of the strong coconut oil fragrance. I also am not sure how it will do once my house starts warming up with the summer. Right now it starts looking a little runny after I apply it because of the temperature. I may have to keep it in the fridge. 

Another one of my favorite bloggers is Rebecca over at Camp Wander. This is her deodorant recipe that I really want to try out.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like some samples to try something out!

delitefularomas@yahoo.com

Happy Oiling!