I don’t like throwing away another plastic tube every few weeks. I also don’t like fragrances and big price mark-ups. And while I’ve seen eco-friendly packaging for simple deodorants I don’t like soggy armpits or stained clothes, and prefer anti-perspirants.
So how hard or wise would it be to mix up a batch of anti-perspirant and fill some small jars? I could apply it with my finger tips or a tissue.
I haven’t done any googling on this yet — SDMB can more balanced and fun. It seems I’d need some type of aluminum and some types of carriers. A consistency like Vaseline or hand lotion would be nice.
The empty tube I’m looking at mentions water, cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone, dipropylene glycol, glycerine, PEG-12…
Disclosure: I used to work at a personal-care products company, and I specifically worked on anti-perspirant brands for several years.
You’d need an actual recipe (with the proportions of the ingredients), and details on how to produce it (i.e., any particular techniques, temperatures, etc.) – it’s likely not just “put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir.”
My understanding, from back in the day, is that there are basic formulas for various sorts of personal care products that are in the public domain, but I’m not sure how one would go about finding them as a layman.
Making a deodorant on your own seems to be fairly straightforward (based on what I find when I google, there’s a ton of “natural” recipes out there), but you are specifically looking for an anti-perspirant, and that may be a different beast, production-wise.
Also, it’s not just “some type of aluminum” - there are specific types of aluminum salts (typically aluminum zirconium salts) which are approved by the U.S. FDA for use as the active ingredient in anti-perspirants (and, just FYI, the FDA considers an anti-perspirant to be an over-the-counter drug). I do not, offhand, know how easy or difficult it is to buy those in small quantities.
I, too, don’t like all the plastic waste associated with anti-perspirants, but I’ve found Ban roll-on to work very well in small quantities, so it lasts months. I sweat a lot, exercise a lot, and live in Phoenix, Arizona.
I can’t imagine how you’re using a tube every few weeks. Maybe the difference is that as a female I shave my armpits, but even my ex-husband who went to the gym every day and didn’t shave his pits got a lot longer than you do out of a stick of antiperspirant.
I have no idea if an alum “rock” would work; you can find various “deodorant rocks” for sale, but they don’t provide antt-perspirancy.
The FDA hasn’t approved other forms of aluminum for use in anti-perspirants, true, but again, I’m not sure if other forms would actually work for this purpose. (I’m a market researcher, not a chemist.)
Aluminum zirconium salts are the active ingredients in a anti-perspirant product, but yes, they are one ingredient in what may be a complex formula.
If anyone is interested in reading Wikipedia’s article on deodorants and anti-perspirants, but not interested enough to type in the search words: Here it is!
It covers history, basic chemistry, health issues, etc. I learned that in the late 1940s, Helen Barnett Diserens developed an underarm applicator based on the newly invented ball-point pen. And that alum stones contain a type of anti-bacterial aluminum, but, unlike some aluminum salts, does not block perspiration.
