My Natural Deodorant Journey

So this post is going to be a little different, in a sense that it isn’t about travel per say, but it is crucial to my every day work life because.. well, sweat. No one likes to sweat because then you start to stink and believe me when I say I can smell you guys on the plane. (recycled air=not much ventilation). Also, your seat mates would appreciate the lack of body odor coming from you.

Why natural deodorant?

As of last year, 2018, I decided to make some changes within my life, from eating habits to using more “natural” products. My reasoning for this isn’t because I wanted to live a “hippy” life or anything (and yes, I still shave my armpits), it’s because of my hormonal imbalance problem. If you guys haven’t read my last post about skincare, then you can find it here Skincare in the Air but it basically mentions how I used to suffer from hormonal cystic acne and all the steps I took to combat it. My skin is a lot better now, but I decided to focus and dive in even deeper into my hormonal health.

I started doing some research on deodorants and found some claims about their links to breast cancer and other life threatening illnesses. I’m not one to easily believe everything I read online, but then I read that some antiperspirants contain parabens that act as hormone disruptors. (Not to mention all the artificial colors/bleaches that can irritate the skin). Obviously, we’re surrounded by harmful toxins/chemicals every day, so we can’t avoid them all completely, but what if you could be proactive and take care of your well being, even by just changing to a natural deodorant? You can read more about these health statements on the Piedmont Healthcare site here or here’s also another excerpt I found on the US National Library of Medicine talking about the links between Aluminum, Antiperspirants and Breast Cancer

So what’s the first thing I did? I went shopping, of course! I decided to try out some natural/organic deodorants that were on the market and test them firsthand to see if they actually worked. It started off as a hopeful first attempt to buy just one deodorant, praying that it would work and then eventually turned into a collection of deodorants in my bathroom drawer. Before I decided to toss the failures, I thought, why not let people know about each deodorant that I tried so that they could avoid them for themselves? Let me save you guys the dollars and sweaty misery of the ones I did try and let me tell you about the ONE natural deodorant I tried that actually worked and might’ve saved my sweaty life.

Below I’ll list each deodorant in order of worst to least worst, along with my experiences and reviews of each one of them.

First deodorant I bought was the infamous Tom’s of Maine. Tom’s is a 24 hr protectant women’s deodorant that is free of aluminum, parabens, artificial fragrance and propylene glycol. I bought the “beautiful earth” scent thinking that I would smell like a beautiful earthy woman. Now, although, I do admire the company itself for not testing on animals and making 41% of their products out of recycled content, I was, sadly, extremely disappointed. I mean, I tried many times to make this deodorant work, but even after gliding it on after a fresh shower, I would still get this stench of a body odor 30 minutes later. No physical exercise required. When I did put myself through some strenuous work out at the gym and had this deodorant on, I was embarrassed to even lift my arms up because the entire gym could smell me. The texture was oily and almost like a smooth wax as I glided it onto my underarms. I kept using it for over a month to see if maybe my body needed to get used to it, but nope. Never worked.

Second deodorant, or victim, was CRYSTAL. This is mineral deodorant stick that looks like a cool roll on crystal. It contains no aluminum, chlorohydrate and is also paraben free. I tried the unscented, 24 hour protection one. The directions state to moisten the top of the stone cyrstal-looking-thing and apply generously to clean skin. I thought this part to be the messiest because I found myself dripping water all over my naked body (naked because I had just taken a shower) as I was trying to apply this onto my pits. I will say that this did work for an hour or two, but then I found myself sweating later throughout the day, even without any physical exercise. I did notice that on the label, they stated they were endorsed by Cancer Treatment centers, but I don’t see why they would need to be endorsed by them, unless their competitors were plausible causes to cancer. Just a little food for thought there. Going back to my experience, it still made me smelly. Maybe I wasn’t being “generous” enough with my roll, but it was also difficult to tell how much I was even putting on in the first place. I tried this for a few weeks, no more than a month until I finally retired it to my collection of failed deodorants drawer.

Last deodorant I tried and am currently still using is Schmidt’s Lavender and Sage natural deodorant. Schmidt’s is scented with essential oils, so it does not have any artificial fragrances. It’s also free of aluminum, propylene glycol, parabens and phthalates. This has been the only natural deodorant thus far to actually work for me. I put it on after a shower and it has successfully kept me sweat and smell free throughout the day. As for post work out, I no longer have to worry about keeping my arms down around people. The only complaint I have about this deodorant is the texture. The texture is pretty rough and almost scrapes my underarms when I apply it on. I willingly continue to use it though because it actually works. I’m even motivated to test out other scents from this brand, just to see if their consistency is any different from this one.

There you have it folks. My trial and error journey with natural deodorants. I haven’t tried any more after these three because I’ve had success with Schmidt’s, but if you guys have any recommendations I would be more than happy to hear, so leave a comment below or send me a direct message through Instagram, @MrsSunBunz

Happy (sweat free) travels!

xoxo,

Stew