Eliminate odor from fragrance-free natural deodorant?

Formulating

Eliminate odor from fragrance-free natural deodorant?

Posted by Tukermarin on January 27, 2018 at 4:30 pm

Hi, I’m trying to create a fragrance-free natural stick deodorant. I’m very close but it still has an “earthy, nutty” odor which fades somewhat over time, but is never gone completely. I’d like to eliminate that odor from the start. I’m pretty sure it is coming from the Shea Butter which is 10% of the formulation. I’m using the following ingredients (in order of predominance): Fractionated Coconut Oil, Arrowroot Powder, Stearyl Alcohol, Shea Butter, Diatomaceous Earth (Food Grade), Beeswax, Coconut Oil, Maltodextrin, and Glyceryl Caprylate/Glyceryl Undecylenate. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

OldPerry replied 6 years, 1 month ago 5 Members · 12 Replies
12 Replies

Bobzchemist

Member
January 30, 2018 at 3:31 pm

Use more highly refined Shea Butter?
Tukermarin

Member
February 1, 2018 at 1:58 am

Thanks, Bob. I’m wondering, though, if there’s a way to still use unrefined shea butter and still not have it smell?
OldPerry

Member
February 1, 2018 at 2:35 pm

Ditch the “fragrance free” idea and add a fragrance to cover the odor.

There are some things that are not possible to do. Or at least no one has thought of a way to do it. One of the benefits of refining shea butter is that you remove objectionable odors.
Bobzchemist

Member
February 3, 2018 at 3:09 am

Perry’s right. Unrefined shea smells bad. You can either use refined shea to get rid of the odor, or you can use fragrance to mask the odor, or you can choose to live with the odor, but there aren’t any other choices.
belassi

Member
February 5, 2018 at 2:37 am

Bob is 100% correct.
Unrefined shea: has lots of retinol in it, shows definite skin benefits (fading age spots for instance) BUT can be quite dirty, requires melting, filtering, before use. A pain. And has a strong smell.
Refined shea: I am not convinced it has any retinol at all. It still smells, just not as much. And shea is known to cause breakouts.
Doreen

Member
February 5, 2018 at 8:45 am

@Belassi
Lots of retinol in shea? Links please!
Doreen

Member
February 5, 2018 at 8:55 am

Unrefined shea smells foul and is very hard to mask in my opinion.
The same with unrefined argan oil, pomegranate seed oil, borage oil, sea buckthorn oil etc, these foul smells are a pain to mask with fragrance. Somehow you keep smelling it, even in low %.

If I were you, I’d use at least filtered/deodorized shea. Good luck!
belassi

Member
February 5, 2018 at 11:40 pm

http://sheabutter.com/blog/vitamin-a-in-shea-butter/
https://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/moisturizing/products/is-shea-butter-good-for-face-skin-.htm
Doreen

Member
February 6, 2018 at 5:36 pm

@Belassi
I meant scientifical documents.
Doreen

Member
February 6, 2018 at 6:00 pm

@Belassi
Unfortunately the level is rather low (for topical use at least).
“vitamin A (0.065 ± 0.001 and 0.032 ± 0.001 µg/g)”

Source
Tukermarin

Member
March 23, 2018 at 5:50 pm

Hi All, just want to close the loop on this. Based on your comment, I tried using refined shea butter and it definitely had much less of a smell but still not to where I want it. However, it looks like ultra refined (Grade C) shea butter may do the trick. However, I’m having trouble finding a good supplier…any suggestions? And thanks for all the replies. They really help!
OldPerry

Member
March 23, 2018 at 5:58 pm

Thanks for the update!