The Sensible Mom

Food, DIY, Chicago Mom Blogger

DIY

DIY: Homemade Deodorant

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deodorant

This year my goal is to try more DIY projects than I have in the past.

So far, I’ve made homemade hand soap, which was a huge success. Since we made our first batch in February, we’ve kept using it and continue to make more when we start to run low. We haven’t purchased a single bottle of store bought hand soap since we started using our DIY version, so I definitely consider the hand soap a success.

The homemade hand soap was February’s DIY project. I have yet to post on March’s project, but it was a flop for me. I’m planning on posting about that soon.

April’s project was homemade deodorant (recipe from Green Your Way), and this is what I’m going to talk about today. Our homemade deodorant was…..a smashing success!

The recipe is so simple, yet effective (and you know we need ‘effective’ when it comes to deodorants :-)). I’ve been using the deodorant for about a month now, and I love it. I honestly can see this homemade recipe replacing our store bought deodorants.

Ruben and I have been using Tom’s of Maine deodorant and Crystal for our store bought versions, because both the Tom’s of Maine & Crystal deodorants are aluminum-free, which is important to us for health reasons. Aluminum in deodorant has been linked to cancer. Yikes.

And while we like both the Tom’s of Maine & Crystal deodorants….we are not truly 100% satisfied with either brand.

Enter the homemade version.

I love it.

Plus, it’s so easy to make, a 9yr. old can do it. Breanna, our 9yr. old daughter, made the deodorant for us while I supervised. She likes creating things in the kitchen, whether it’s a yummy new recipe or a DIY project, she’s our girl!

Plus, it counts for her school time. Bonus for her.

Here’s the recipe:

Print
DIY Homemade Deodorant

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup baking soda
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 5 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions

  1. Combine the baking soda and cornstarch in a bowl. Then mix in the coconut oil. Transfer deodorant to an airtight container.
  2. To use, put a little deodorant on finger tips and apply.
https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/10/diy-homemade-deodorant/

Here’s what the finished product looked like for us:

deodorant

The deodorant in the container I ended up storing it in:

deodorant

Have you tried any DIY projects lately?

Side note:

I haven’t any problems storing the deodorant in this Georgia heat….meaning that my deodorant, which is stored on our bathroom counter in our sometimes very HOT upstairs living area, hasn’t liquified (since it’s made out of coconut oil). But if you do find this is a problem for you, just try to store it in a cooler area.

Update: I created a How To Make Homemade Deodorant Video Tutorial for you as well.


DIY: Homemade Air Freshener

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homemade air freshener

I’m sensitive to smells, and I definitely lean toward more mild odors when it comes to anything that we put in the air of our home or even on our bodies.

I…don’t wear perfume, and I don’t buy air fresheners for our home because of the bad-for-you chemicals in them.

So naturally when my husband wanted to find a way to freshener the air in our home, we talked about finding a way to do it without buying the spray air fresheners from the store.

He did some research, and he came to me with the idea of using baking soda, some of our essential oil, and a jar with holes at the top.

It made sense. The baking soda removes odors. The essential oil gives off a lovely fragrance. The jar with holes at the top is a great container as it allows our homemade air freshener to remove the bad odors from our home while replacing them with a lovely lavender smell.

He was able to find a cheese shaker (our jar with holes in it) at the dollar store for $1. Yay! That ended up being the perfect container for our homemade air freshener.

We added 1/2 cup of baking soda + 8 drops of lavender essential oil, gave it a stir, and it works. πŸ™‚

After we tried out one, we ended up making 2 more for a total of 3 of these homemade air fresheners for our home. We also let the kids know what they were, so they wouldn’t be curious. So far so good, as we have a very curious 3 year old son.

Here’s the super simple recipe:

Homemade Air Freshener

Ingredients:

1/2 cup baking soda

8 drops essential oil (we used lavender, but you could also use rose, peppermint, vanilla, or whatever you have on hand)

jar with holes at the top

Directions:

Add the baking soda and essential oil to the jar and stir. Cover with a lid that has holes in it. Place in an area of your home that is out of the way of small children and pets.

Enjoy!

Have you ever made your own homemade air freshener? Do you have a natural method to get rid of odors in your home?


DIY: Homemade Peppermint Sea Salt Foot Scrub

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homemade peppermint sea salt foot scrub

I’ve never used foot scrubs until this year.

What was I thinking? Especially when they are so easy to make at home.

There’s no need to go out and buy expensive foot scrubs when you can create your own fabulous, budget-friendly foot scrubs at home.

Trust me. If you’ve never used a foot scrub before, you must try it.

The heels of my feet, actually, my feet altogether haven’t felt this good in years.

I don’t know if it’s because I constantly wear flip-flops or because I rarely wear socks that my heels have taken a beating, but they were in pretty bad shape.

My poor husband can attest to that. πŸ˜‰

I had some real progress going with my feet until I neglected them again in the midst preparing to attend the blog conferences and then actually attending them . At the conferences, I wore flip flops and another pair of shoes that while comfortable, were not friendly to my feet. Not friendly at all.

By the end of the last conference, my feet needed some serious love.

So I headed into my kitchen last night and prepared a foot scrub that smells lovely and works great. Here’s the recipe:

homemade peppermint sea salt foot scrub

Peppermint Sea Salt Foot Scrub

Ingredients:

    • 3.5 tbs. sea salt (I used fine crystals, because that’s what I hand on hand. Ideally, I would probably use a more coarse sea salt.)
    • 1 tsp. vitamin e oil
    • 1/2 tsp. olive oil (I used cold pressed olive oil.)
    • 5 drops of peppermint essential oil (optional)

Directions:

In a small bowl, stir together the sea salt, vitamin e oil, and olive oil. Then stir in the peppermint essential oil.

To Use:

Massage the  foot scrub all over your feet, and then rinse it off. Be careful stepping out of the shower or bath whenever you’ve just used a foot scrub, because your feet may be a bit slippery.

Enjoy!

In case you were wondering…

  • I get my vitamin e oil from Vitacost (referral link – you can get $10 off your first purchase if you sign up through my link). It’s the Jason brand.
  • The sea salt is inexpensive from Trader Joes. I can’t remember the cost, but I want to say $1?
  • The cold pressed olive oil is from the grocery store, Publix.
  • The peppermint essential oil is from Vitacost (referral link – you can get $10 off your first purchase if you sign up through my link) again. It’s the Aura Cacia brand.

*You could also check Amazon.com for ingredients.

Do you use foot scrubs? Have you ever tried a homemade version?

This post contains my affiliate links.


Homemade Sugar Scrub: Brown Sugar Face Scrub

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sugar scrub

I’m a huge fan of face and body scrubs.

If you’ve never tried them before, let me tell you, they are awesome! After just one application, you can have fresher, healthier looking skin because of the way sugar scrubs exfoliate those dead skin cells.

The best part is that you can easily make homemade sugar scrubs using everyday items in your kitchen pantry. And your homemade scrubs will cost a fraction of what you’d pay at the store. Have you seen the prices of sugar scrubs in stores? Yikes!

Brown Sugar Face Scrub
I’m hoping to start sharing one DIY recipe each week here on The Sensible Mom, and since sugar scrubs are so amazing, I thought I’d start there. You may remember the last scrub recipe I posted for homemade peppermint sea salt foot scrub. Today’s recipe is just as wonderful, except that it’s for your face.

And it involves only two simple ingredients, honey and brown sugar.

face scrub

You combine the honey and brown sugar to make a single application of the face scrub. I don’t use it everyday, so I prefer to make only one application at a time. It’s super easy to make this face scrub, though, so I don’t mind. πŸ™‚

brown sugar scrub

Here’s what the end result looks like.

homemade sugar scrub

To apply, you simply pull back your hair (highly recommended), and then gently rub the brown sugar scrub all over your face. When you’ve finished, rinse your face and feel how much smoother your skin is when you touch it.

When I used this scrub, I noticed that my skin looked cleaner and totally refreshed right after I rinsed. That feeling carried over into the next day.

Here’s the recipe for my homemade Brown Sugar Face Scrub

Print
Brown Sugar Face Scrub

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

Instructions

  1. Stir together the honey and brown sugar in a small dish.
  2. TO APPLY: Pull back hair, and gently rub the facial scrub all over your face. Then rinse and enjoy softer, smoother feeling skin.
https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/09/homemade-sugar-scrub-for-your-face/

Do you use face scrubs? Have you ever tried making your own homemade scrubs?