Deodorant with Sodium Stearate - Experiment and collab with Cosmeticsyourways

This video is a collaboration with Zachariah Kovac of Cosmeticsyourways.  Zach is in education to achieve his BS in chemistry with a double concentration in biochemistry and environmental science.  He has an interest in cosmetic science and has also studied with the Institute of personal care science.  I am a self-taught cosmetic formulator with 20+ years in the hair and beauty industry, and I am self-studying with the IPCS.  Please go and check out Zachs channel and blog which I’ll link below.

https://www.cosmeticyourways.com/
http://youtube.com/@cosmeticsyourways

Patreon doesn't do a great job or formatting, so see the downloadable PDF for an easier read.

PLEASE NOTE:  I don't show pH adjustments in videos much anymore as it's the same thing over and over... remember to do this with your products, but to see my video on pH, please refer to my YouTube channel.  Sodium Stearate is essentially a soap with a high ph.  Taking this too low can cause stability issues.

We wanted to find a way to successfully create a deodorant product using Sodium Stearate.

Sodium Stearate is the sodium salt of stearic acid.  Essentially making this product a soap.

Because of this, formulating with it has given us challenges.

You need to consider pH, charge, heat tolerance and many other things when formulating a deodorant.  This video will go into the challenges I came across and the final results I got trying a few different formulas.  Make sure you check out Zachariah’s video and blog for more on the science and some more experimentation and deodorant formulations.

So, my first formulation went like this… see the formula below with percentages, reasoning, results and troubleshooting.

TEST #1

Phase Percent Ingredient Reasoning

A 75% Propylene Glycol Dilutant

A 12.5% Distilled Water Dilutant

B 7% Sodium Stearate Hardener

C 3% Deo Concentrate Personal Care Deodoriser comprised (INCI: Zinc ricinoleate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, tetrahydroxypropyl ethylenediamine)

C 1.5% Saligard PCG Preservative

C 1% Sweet Orange Essential Oil Scent

Notes:   Watch the video for my method, as it failed.  The sodium stearate dissolved like a dream when added in tiny amounts at a time at between 70 and 80 degrees C and stirring until dissolved.  The higher the amount of humectant, the easier it seems to be (I’ve tried with water before and it was difficult).  Adding too much in one go will result in it chunking up.

I then took it off the heat to add my cool down phase.  I think this was issue #1.  The shock of the cooler phase C ingredients caused near instant hardening, combine this with the fact that I used a citrus essential oil (rooky mistake), as this was obviously acidic and being a soap product, this caused the sodium stearate to fail as the pH was lowered too much.  Least that is one theory.  If I had the time and infinite ingredients I would isolate it and test again.   Another thing of note was the scent of the sweet orange essential oil changed to a very sharp lemon/grapefruit type scent… interesting.

I don’t know if the preservative affected it, but having looked at brand-name products using sodium stearate, Phenoxyethanol ehg appears to be a popular choice, so I decided to switch for the next test.

Test #2

Going into this one, I intend to start by making a control product… just a hard deodorant stick with a little fragrance oil.  This is a combination of ingredients circulating on chemistry forums and supplier websites, so seemed a good place to start.  Percentages are up to you, but I went with similar to my original try.  This time I intend to keep it on the heat, cooling slowly whilst I add my fragrance, then pouring at 60C.  This is high for a fragrance oil and some may evaporate off, but temperature I feel is key here.  But PLEASE check your fragrance oil flash points before hand!

Phase Percent Ingredient Reasoning

A 80.5% Propylene Glycol Dilutant

A 12% Distilled Water Dilutant

B 7% Sodium Stearate Hardener

C 0.5% Fragrance Oil Scent

Method:  Add Phase A to a beaker, weigh and note weight and bring to 70-80C in a water bath.  Hold temp whilst slowly sprinkling Sodium stearate with continuous stirring.  Add more after each addition is dissolved.  Quickly weigh and replace any water lost to evaporation.  Turn off heat, but keep beaker in water bath to cool slowly.  Add fragrance below flash point and stir, aiming to pour deodorant around 57-60C  I added a single drop of water soluble dye to phase A so that I could tell my tests apart.  It worked well though, so do that if you wish.

Notes:  This worked well as a hard scented bar, and is what many people make, but it is not a deodorant, as it contains no deodorizing ingredients.  This is what we’ll build upon in our next experiment.  Also, it sweated a little, so I think maybe we need to decrease the propylene glycol a little in proportion to the water.  Perfectly acceptable bar though.

Test #3

So here we are, trying again, but this time with constant heat and some deodorizing additions.

Phase Percent Ingredient Reasoning

A 74.5% Propylene Glycol Dilutant

A 7% Distilled Water Dilutant

A 5% Witch Hazel Kills bacterial, eliminates odour

A 3% Deo Concentrate Personnal Care Deodoriser comprised INCI: Zinc ricinoleate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, tetrahydroxypropyl ethylenediamine

A 2% Kaolin Clay Sweat absorbing, odor control, texturizer for drier feel.

B 7% Sodium Stearate Hardener

C 1% Phenoxyethanol EHD Broad Spectrum Preservative soluble in glycols

C 0.5% Fragrance oil Scent

Method:  Mix all of phase A in a heat proof beaker.  Weigh and note weight and bring to 70-80C (note the Deoconcentrate has a 93C flashpoint so keep well below this) in a water bath.  Hold temp whilst slowly sprinkling Sodium stearate with continuous stirring.  Add more after each addition is dissolved.  Quickly weigh and replace any water lost to evaporation.  Turn off heat, but keep beaker in water bath to cool slowly.  Add phase C below flash points and stir, aiming to pour deodorant around 57-60C   added a single drop of water soluble dye to phase A so that I could tell my tests apart.  It worked well though, so do that if you wish.

Notes: This worked well.  No sweating, even mixing, no lumps.  It’s very smooth and it applies nicely with no drag and doesn’t feel greasy.  Scent comes through well at the low percentage too.

This tells me that the key here is to keep it on the heat throughout, keeping constant tabs on the temperature and when it comes to cool down, accept that some fragrance will evaporate off due to being added at a higher temp than normal, but so long as your phase C ingredients are stable at a certain temp, you can add them higher than 40 C.    You need to turn off your hot plate an cool the product really slowly in the water bath with stirring.  Then pour straight from there at around 57-60C.  Remember to wipe the bottom of the glass so no unwater water drips into your deodorant container.

Test #4

Let’s have a look at this with an emulsifier.  This is one consistent ingredient I see in deodorant formulas with sodium stearate.  I believe it is required to emulsify in some deodorizing ingredients.  See Zachs experiments.  However, since I am using Deoconcentrate which already contains one, it seems I likely don’t need this addition, but I wanted to see how it would perform and how the consistency and application of the final product would change by adding one.

Phase Percent Ingredient Reasoning

A 67% Propylene Glycol Dilutant

A 10% Distilled Water Dilutant

A 5% Witch Hazel Kills bacterial, eliminates odour

A 3% Deo Concentrate Personnal Care Deodoriser comprised INCI: Zinc ricinoleate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, tetrahydroxypropyl ethylenediamine

A 2% Kaolin Clay Sweat absorbing, odor control, texturizer for drier feel.

A 4% Emuslifying Wax NF Emulsifier, potential texture enhancer

B 7.5% Sodium Stearate Hardener

C 1% Phenoxyethanol EHD Broad Spectrum Preservative soluble in glycols

C 0.5% Fragrance oil Scent

Method: Mix all of phase A in a heat proof beaker.  Weigh and note weight and bring to 50C and add in your emulsifying wax and stir until melted, continue to bring up to 70-80C (note the Deoconcentrate has a 93C flashpoint so keep well below this) in a water bath.  Hold temp whilst slowly sprinkling Sodium stearate with continuous stirring.  Add more after each addition is dissolved.  Quickly weigh and replace any water lost to evaporation.  Turn off heat, but keep beaker in water bath to cool slowly.  Add phase C below flash points and stir, aiming to pour deodorant around 57-60C  I added a single drop of water soluble dye to phase A so that I could tell my tests apart.  It worked well though, so do that if you wish.

Notes:  When choosing an emulsifier for this formula, please note the charge.  This is an anionic formulation, so the addition of something cationic would be incompatible and would ruin the product.

I upped the water and sodium stearate and decreased the Propylene Glycol here.  I’m note sure what difference it made really.  This formula did sweat a little, but this again is likely from the Propylene Glycol which is hygroscopic, this means it draws moisture from the air and its surroundings.  This may have been increased due to the fact there is a lot of moisture in the air of my lab already from running a water bath for these experiments.

This was interesting because as soon as I added the emulsifying wax and it melted, the kaolin fell out of the emulsion to the bottom of the beaker as a powdery residue and wouldn’t mix back in.  The moment I added my first sprinkling of sodium stearate and stirred that in, the kaolin was combined again.  This was interesting and I would love to know why that happened.

This glides on nicely, but since test 3 was less sweaty, I think I’m opting for that since it emulsified fine without this addition.

The scent throw is still really good at this low percentage, but I guess will depend on your fragrance oil choice.

For those interested, I used Rose Gold Sprinkles from Craftiful, which really lends itself to a deodorant and I feel it quite gender neutral in scent.

Overall thoughts:

I’m going to go with test 3 and build upon that with some extracts and additional ingredient and possibly upping the kaolin, adding some magnesium Hydroxide for added texture and deodorizing, and to ensure it’s both moisturizing and not greasy.  We also don’t want white marks on clothes.  These formulas don’t leave marks. So that’s a win.

I don’t know how they perform as a deodorizer as yet, as that will require some testing, but I think I have a solid starting point here.

This has been a frustrating, but really fun collaboration.  It’s very beneficial to chat through formulations with someone else and work the problems together, so this has been a lot of fun and I hope our failures and successes with this help some of you out.

Now, please leave a comment below and let me know what you thought and go and watch Zachs video for more formulas and experiments.

Test #3 is my favourite and as a deodorant that I've been testing for a week, it works well.  I'm pleased.  If I were to make it again I would increase water and reduce the Propylene Glycol to reduce sweating.  I would also increase the powder content to offer a dryer experience.  There are a few other things I'd like to try so I may revisit for patrons at a later date.

Disclaimer: These formulas and recipes are experiments created for the purpose of sharing on Patreon and YouTube. Revega does not make any claims as to their qualifications or the efficacy of the formulations which are listed here for entertainment purposes and accepts no responsibility for how you use these. We are self-taught and offer these videos from our years of knowledge and experience in making our own cosmetic products.

Remember that if you intend to use one of these formulations for your own product range, do your own research, experiments, adjustments and tests before using, gifting or selling.