How to prevent Body Odour and take Best Care of your Armpits

You know how some people will always smell wonderful? No matter if they had a long day at work, went for a job interview, or did an intense body work-out... they don't sweat and/or their sweat smells like flowers.

My husband is one of those ever nice smelling people. For me, this wasn't the case. Sometimes, even t-shirts coming straight from the washing machine would still carry some body odour. I tried different brands of deodorant, of course. And for the clothing, tried different tips and tricks to have them smell fresh. But because body odour had always been an issue, the one thing I hadn't tried was skipping the commercial deodorants all together and relying instead on more natural and home made products.

Only after first transitioning to other natural and home made products (for example this facial cream that I posted about before and which is still the best thing that has ever happened to my skin), I started to realise that the natural alternatives are not better for your health but work less well - they are actually better for your health and give better results also!! Amazing, right? And then to think how much money they will save you... So, positive experiences with DIY body care products made me think that maybe, for deodorant and preventing body odour and taking best care of my armpits, there would be better solutions than regular commercial deodorants. And I was right!

Attempt #1: DIY deodorant

The first thing I tried was making a recipe from the same book which I got the facial cream recipe for. Just because that recipe is the best thing I ever used to relieve dry and itchy skin. So I had high hopes for the DIY deodorant provided in this book as well.

Ingredients for DIY deodorant

RECIPE

I got together the ingredients (best quality organic products I could find):

• 2 tablespoons beeswax
• 2 tablespoons sheabutter
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 30 drops olavender oil
• 8 drops cyprus oil
• 8 drops lemon oil
• 8 drops tea tree oil
• 8 drops sage oil (don't use when you're pregnant)

Au bain marie: fill a sauce pan with water, then close with a bowl, the bottom should be touching the water. Add ingredients to the bowl and heat on the stove till ingredients have melted

According to the recipe, I melted the beeswax au bain marie, and did same for the sheabutter and coconut oil in a different bowl. The beeswax only liquifies at a much higher temperature, that's why you heat them separately. Then when these three ingredients have melted, put them together, let them cool a bit till they get to a milky substance, then add the essential oils. Stir while you add them, and be ready to pour into a small jar.

EXPERIENCE

The smell of this home-made deodorant is really fresh and wonderful. I was definitely happy with the way the scent turned out. However, I didn't get the results I wanted for less sweating and less body odour - a few hours after applying I'd smell less of the deodorant and more of what I didn't want to smell.

Attempt #2: baking soda

What actually happened next was that a friend suggested using baking soda: mix baking soda with some water till it becomes a paste and apply to the armpits. He said it really helped, and I tried, and he was right! I could hardly believe it, but the mixture of baking soda and water completely took away all body odour and kept me smelling neutral (no extra scent so I wouldn't say 'fresh') all day long! It's not that the sweating completely stopped, but the perspiration was odourless.

Baking soda mixed with water turns out to be my #1 remedy against body odour

SIDE EFFECTS?

Since baking soda is different from beeswax and sheabutter in the respect that it is not a naturally nourishing product but rather chemically created, I wanted to know if using it could have any negative side-effects. From reading around on the internet I understood that not everybody has the same reaction to using baking soda directly on the skin. Some people reported getting a dry, itchy feeling in their armpits or even the skin turning red and irritated. The reason for this is the pH level of baking soda, which is much higher than that of your skin. So if you use the baking soda, you have to take care to use it sparingly, so as not to disrupt the natural mildly acidic climate of your skin.

When I came to this point, being so happy to have found such a simple and effective solution to body odour, I wanted to rather be safe than sorry and use the baking soda a little less. Not that I was experiencing any negative effects from the baking soda - I just didn't want to get to the point where I would have to stop using it all together because I got my skin irritated by overuse. So I tried a third option, suggested online by people who did experience problems with the baking soda approach: coconut oil.

Attempt #3: coconut oil

Coconut oil is naturally anti-bacterial, which means that it addresses the cause of body odour: bacteria. Additionally, it nourishes your skin and contributes to your skin being healthy and soft. I found out that coconut oil actually is very effective against body odour! As with the baking soda, I use only a tiny bit. If you use a lot, there is the possibility of having your armpits smell like coconut oil and your clothing getting stained. Having dark spots below your arms from the oil instead of from perspiration - that would be counter effective, right?

Summing it up

Having a natural and home-made alternative for deodorants which worked exactly as I wanted it to, took some figuring out. But I'm happy with all the attempts I made, because now I have found a very balanced way of taking best care of my armpits, by using a combination of the three.

For me, the baking soda paste definitely does the trick. That started making the biggest difference, and I think it kills the bacteria in such an effective way that I need to use it only very moderately. I'll use it on days where I expect to be sweating more, like when I attend sports training or when I have a very long day and will be meeting a lot of people. Especially when I'm around a lot of people, after applying the baking soda, I'll add a little bit of the DIY deodorant. Because it really smells lovely, and takes great care of my skin - but especially because it smells so lovely ;). Other days, I'll just use a little bit of coconut oil.

I never had any kind of skin irritation from using these products. But of course, every person's skin is different. Between these three options though, I think many people will be able to find a balance that keeps their skin nourished and healthy, and prevents body odour at the same time. Experiment with it, watch the response your skin gives to each of the products closely, and treat your armpits in the best way you can!

It's really nice not to have to worry about smelling bad. Just really, really nice. I've been using these products for more than 4 months now, and already having the issue of body odour seems like I never had it in the first place ;). If you have ever struggled with how to smell fresh all day long, I'm sure you look forward to being free from this issue also, and I sincerely hope this post will help you along!

If you have any other great tips or experiences for smelling amazingly fresh all day long, would be great if you share them below. Who knows who might benefit from your experiences. Wishing you all an ever improving care-free life! Thanks for your support, comments, upvotes and follows!