Commercial deodorants are usually the culprit of some very dangerous and toxic chemicals called Aluminum compounds which have been linked to a number of cancers, in particular breast cancer as you roll it on so close to...you guessed it...your breasts! Let's take a closer look.

• They block up the sweat ducts and temporarily stop the flow of sweat - that's actually not a good thing as sweating is one of the main ways that our body can detoxify!

• They can also be absorbed by your skin and mimic estrogen, which promotes growth of breast cancer cells.

Convinced to find an easy (and effective) alternative? Good, let's do this! 

You can use an endless combination of essential oils, but I have found that the key oil that needs to be in there is Purification as it's the ultimate weapon against odours! Without this one I started smelling a little sweaty half way during the day.

Purification is a powerful blend that includes Citronella, Rosemary, Lemongrass, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree), Lavandin and Myrtle. It neutralises odours, purifies the skin, and may even help purify and cleanse negative emotions and vibrations. All of this while applying some deodorant...awesome.

The below recipe makes around 200ml, so I like to use a 100ml jar and then I divide the rest into a handful of smaller lip balm sized jars to take with us travelling or in our backpacks! I prefer to do all the preparation, melting and cleanup only once ;-)

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons arrowroot, tapioca or cornstarch

• 3 tablespoons Shea butter (measured when finely chopped up, not melted)

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

• 1 tablespoon bicarb or clay*

• 10 drops of Purification Essential Oil blend

  • Sometimes I add some other oils to the Purification:

    • 4 drops Ylang Ylang (very feminine)

    • 4 drops Northern Lights Black Spruce (so manly!)

    • 2 drops Cedarwood, 4 drops Lime (gender neutral)

    • 2 drops Pine, 2 drops Bergamot (gender neutral)

    • or your favourite oils!

• Wide mouth glass or plastic jar

Directions

1. Add all ingredients, except the essential oils, into a bowl and melt over some boiling water in another bowl and stir. Once everything has melted take it off the boiling water and let it cool, and it should start to thicken up a little. If the mixture still looks very runny then add another tablespoon of arrowroot/tapioca as you don’t want the paste too runny.

2. Add the essential oils in last into the mixture.

3. Transfer into a glass or plastic jar with wide mouth so you can easily get your fingers into it.

4. Let it cool (or pop into fridge to hurry it along!).

5. Put a pea-sized amount under each armpit and rub in well. The shea butter makes it feel like a moisturiser so is lovely to put on!

To find out more about essential oils check out how to use them here.

* A note on bicarb sensitivity

Bicarb, also known as Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda, can cause irritation in some people when used in a deodorant as it throws out the body's pH balance. Instead of using bicarb, other clays may be used instead, including:

• Kaolin clay - draw out impurities from the skin

• Bentonite clay - attract and bind toxins and impurities

• Diatomaceous Earth - dries out harmful toxins

If this happens to you, I would halve the amount of bicarb and add in one of the clays above for the other half, or completely remove it and replace it with a clay.