I've been using one of those salt deodorants for awhile (just a block of salt that you wet and apply). Seems to work great though I've been fortunate to have never really had to deal with bad body odor so it's hard to say if I'm just imagining its effectiveness.
There are many that likely work. The use of lemon juice has been around a long time, at least since the 1800s. It's just been forgotten about, as nobody makes any money selling lemon juice as a deodorant.
It's not toxic, and simple to test on yourself, and you've probably already got a bottle of lemon juice in the refrigerator.
> It's not toxic, and simple to test on yourself, and you've probably already got a bottle of lemon juice in the refrigerator.
Lemon juice contains a vast array of different chemicals, some of which may be phototoxic. It also releases VOCs (e.g. terpenes). I don't know how much compared to your average deodorant, though.
I would think the sugar in lemon juice might be a little sticky (presumably the bacteria in that environment aren't used to having fructose)? Likely to decrease the pH you could use vinegar, among other things.
