Today’s recipe is for something you’ll make in your kitchen with ingredients you would normally use for cooking, but that you shouldn’t actually eat. (Or you could, but you’d be missing the point.)

Today’s recipe is for a natural deodorant. I realize personal hygiene isn’t an altogether food-friendly subject, but making your own cosmetics is not so different from making your own dinner, and I am so enthused by this one I thought I’d share.

I’ve long been weary of store-bought deodorants, and although it is easier than ever to find aluminum- and paraben-free deodorants, the list of ingredients remains disconcertingly long, and many of the “natural” deodorants I’ve tried over the years simply don’t work very well.

It is easy, it is cheap, and most important of all, it works!

So when I stumbled upon this formula on Maggie’s blog (while searching for a sewing tutorial, of all things), I was instantly drawn to the idea: you simply mix coconut oil with baking soda and some kind of starch (such as arrowroot powder or cornstarch) to get a creamy lotion that will harden in the fridge (coconut oil solidifies gradually below 24.5°C / 76°F) and form a deodorant “stone” that you can rub on like an ordinary deodorant.

It is easy, it is cheap, and most important of all, it works. Coconut oil is a bit of a Swiss knife product, used in cooking but also to nourish the skin and hair, and for medicinal purposes: the lauric acid it contains is deemed to have antibacterial qualities, which explains its role here.

If you’re worried about the coconut smell, don’t be: although the deodorant itself does smell of coconut, the smell is very faint (and localized!) once you have it on, so it won’t interfere with your usual perfume. It is also relatively trace-free — though you do have to be careful when you put on your shirt, as with most deodorants — and doesn’t leave marks on clothes at the end of the day.

The only downside is that the deodorant stone needs to be kept in the fridge if you want it to keep its rub-on texture, which means that 1- you have to remember to get it from the kitchen before you shower, and 2- it’s not very travel-friendly. However, you could also apply it like a lotion — a little messier, but no less efficient.

UPDATE: I am now using this travel-friendly deodorant formula.

So, are you ready to give this a try? And do you have any other homemade cosmetics recipes you want to share?

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Photography by J. Annie Wang.

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far.

This week’s expression is, “Se vendre comme des petits pains.”

Literally translated as, “selling like small breads,” it means selling like hotcakes, i.e. selling quickly, effortlessly, and in large numbers. It is very commonly used.

Example: “Les exemplaires signés par l’artiste se sont vendus comme des petits pains.” “The copies signed by the artist sold like hotcakes.”

Listen to the idiom and example read aloud:

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This is what dinner looks like when I eat on my own.

I am endlessly curious to know what cooks cook when they cook for one: some can’t see the point if there is no audience, others fall back on no-cook comfort foods, some take it as their opportunity to indulge in the foods they love but their family despises, and others yet take pleasure in treating themselves to the precise meal their appetite calls for.

I’m in the latter camp. Breakfast cereal for dinner was never my thing, and my evenings alone revolve around two all-important decisions: what dish I feel like eating, and what movie I feel like watching.

I relish the closed circuit thought process that solo meal planning involves, my brain taking its cue directly from my stomach, with zero consideration for anything or anyone else.

Granted, the cooking I do then is quite simple, taking no more than thirty minutes of my time, cleanup included, but still, it’s thirty minutes that I invest in my evening with joy. And what those meals have in common, 99.9% of the time, is that 1- they are vegetable-focused, and 2- they can be eaten from a bowl, with just a fork or a spoon. An essential feature if I am to couch-curl while I eat.

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Chef’s medallions

I’ve always had a major thing for stationery. When I was a child, I would spend a large portion of my allowance at the neighborhood stationery shop, which my family refered to as ta papeterie chérie, and to this day I go weak in the knee for smooth-paged notebooks and well-designed greeting cards. And stickers. Oh, stickers.

So when the good people at Felix Doolittle got in touch and offered to send me samples of their personalized labels, I found it hard to resist.

Oval kitchen labels

Felix Doolittle is a small Massachusetts company that specializes in “extraordinary illustrated papers,” whimsically designed by Hong Kong-born artist Felix Fu. They use premium materials and print, cut, and package everything by hand. Indeed, the quality and attention to detail were evident when I opened each of the incredibly neatly packed boxes.

I am quite smitten with my labels, and I thought I’d share them with you in plenty of time before the holidays. It seems to me that these would make a one-of-a-kind gift for the cooks you love, or you could order your own personalized labels to adorn the homemade edible gifts you’ll be giving out this year.

{Keep reading for a promotion code!}

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