Guts and Gold: Scented Body Powder

Why make a body powder? Well for me it's because I've been trying out a new mineral spray deodorant (which has been working to de-stinkify really well!) but I miss the powdery smooth feel of my last deodorant. The mineral spray combined with a dusting of this super silky scented powder... pampering with a capital P.

I don't find this powder gets all over my shirt when I get dressed and it keeps its nice delicate smell all day too! The only downside... because this is so silky and light it goes airborne. My vanity is covered in a dusting of this every time I give myself a dusting. While this is a definite draw back, the powder itself is so nice that it hasn't deterred me from using it. Since I made this for a co-deodorant powder I used certain ingredients like clay and arrowroot to help control some moisture. I'm not a big sweater and this is enough for me as a supplemental deo, but wouldn't be enough solo. I'm kind of interested in it's dry shampoo properties, but haven't used it that way yet. If you make this and find new uses, do tell!

This formulation is by weight in grams. I wrote it this way instead of percentages because 100g -the normal test amount- would make a TON of this powder. The amount below makes a modest 4 ounces by volume. If you want to make a ton, the arrowroot is 40%, corn starch 30%, clay, silica and modified tapioca are 10% and the fragrance is a full 5%.

Modified Tapioca starch is different than regular tapioca starch. It can hold a crazy amount of oils or fragrance oils and stay puffy and light! I've seen it under the brand name Natrasorb Bath as well, but I got mine from Wholesale Supplies Plus under their Crafter's Choice brand. You could easily omit the clay and add more arrowroot or corn starch. My corn starch just comes from the grocery store. The silica microspheres add softness and were found at TKB Trading.

Since I'm a total vanilla junkie I used vanilla as one of my smells. I also used this white amber fragrance. I bought this in a tiny bottle at Whole Foods many years ago and when I entered the soaping world realized I could buy it way cheaper in bulk and scent anything I wanted. Woot.

Mix everything together EXCEPT the fragrance and modified tapioca starch. You'll see how fluid and "non-clumping" this is when you stir it together.

In a separate container weigh out the modified tapioca starch.

Then add the fragrance oil. If your fragrance oils are very thick, maybe sub out some of the 5% to dilute your fragrance oil with. This will prevent chunks of fragrance powder from forming.

Blended! Like it never even happened.

I used a metal tin because this would be no where near water. These tins rust in water so they are best suited for anhydrous balms or powders that won't be by the sink.