Putting up personal care products (with recipes!)

I just spent the last 3 hours making the personal care products I do make - namely coffee-infused scalp oil, chebe butter, and deodorant.

And my phone was on the charger and not taking photos or video 😅😅 That’s okay, I’ll give you recipes instead, probably more useful!

Why do I make these three products, specifically? Cost and ingredient control, mostly.

Wild Growth Hair & Scalp Oil is what got me on the scalp oil train to begin with, it’s a wonderful product… but $10 for 4oz is pretty pricey when I can make about 5x that of the recipe I use now for the same price.

Chebe butter was pure ingredient control, it’s really hard to find natural hair products that don’t use nut oils.

And deodorant is pure cost efficiency - I can pay $10 for a stick of natural deodorant, or 50 cents to make twice as much at home.

Today was pretty chaotic, because it was “use up the bottom of the bottle” for most of my ingredients, so there wasn’t a ton of exact measuring. But, here’s how I did it:

Large Batch Coffee-Infused Scalp Oil

• 2 cups olive oil

• 1/2 cup papaya seed oil

• 1/2 cup avocado oil

• 1/4 cup whole bean coffee

• 2 tablespoons rosemary oil

• 1 teaspoon clove oil

• 1 teaspoon vitamin e oil

In a double boiler (or glass mixing bowl in a saucepan like I do), combine the oils. Grind the coffee very coarsely, and add to the oil mixture. Allow the mixture to infuse over the boiling water for a half-hour. Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Strain out the coffee grounds (cheesecloth is best for this) and bottle before adding the rosemary and clove essential oils and the vitamin e oil. Shake well and let sit overnight before using.

Alternatively, instead of using essential oils, you can use the same amount of dried herbs for both, add them when you add the coffee, and strain them when you add the oil to your bottle.

To use: apply directly to your freshly cleansed scalp, and get your fingers up underneath your hair to massage the oil evenly over your scalp.

Chebe Butter for High Porosity Hair

• 1/4 cup Shea or Cocoa butter

• 1/4 cup coconut oil

• 1/4 cup avocado oil

• 2 tablespoons Chebe powder

• 1/4 teaspoon fragrance oil (optional)

In a double boiler (like above), add your butter and oils and melt them down together. Add the chebe powder, stir it in well, and let the mixture infuse over the boiling water for 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat, and add your fragrance oil, if using (Chebe powder smells a lot like church incense, but the smell disappears in the butters. The end result is unscented unless you scent it). Cool to room temperature before transferring to your storage jar.

To use: apply over your favorite leave-in conditioner on wet hair, concentrating especially on the ends on the hair. This works best if you wear a steam bonnet for a half-hour or so after applying, to melt the butter into the hair.

So, your hair is low porosity? Try using aloe butter for your butter, and grape seed oil instead of avocado oil.

Homemade Natural Deodorant Paste

• 1/4 cup cornstarch, arrowroot, or tapioca starch

• 1/4 cup baking soda

• 1/2 cup raw coconut oil (it cannot be refined to work)

• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon essential or fragrance oils of choice (optional)

Add the starch, baking soda, and coconut oil to a mixing bowl, and use a hand mixer or whisk combine into a paste. Add your essential or fragrance oils if using, mix into the paste thoroughly, and jar or bottle your deodorant paste. Allow to sit overnight before using.

Since it’s Christmas and stuff, I used clove, nutmeg, ginger, black spruce, and lemon. PLEASE NOTE: lemon essential oil makes you sunburn very easily. I expect this batch to be long gone before my armpits see the sun again. No citrus oils go in my summer deodorant blends.