Passing The Sniff Test
What I did when my natural deodorant stopped working. In the heat of the summer.
I’ve been a proud natural deodorant user since November 2017. I made the switch and my body took to it. I was thankful because there weren’t alot of options available at that time. I’m not kidding, I used a purple crystal from a NYC Whole Foods for one summer. And if you Googled it, there were horror stories about people finding a deodorant that worked for a few days to a few weeks and then all of a sudden it didn’t, and the body rejected it and they had BO.
Flash to June of 2022. I’m using the very same brand and very same scent (pink grapefruit) and then boom, it stops working. I frantically search for a new one online and my beloved brand shuttered. Yikes!! There was no way to try another option from the company.
I went down a rabbit hole of online research (which I’m quite good at) and found three brands to try that received rave reviews by consumers and influencers alike. Hume Supernatural, Necessaire, and Kosas. There began my many weeks of testing to find a natural deodorant that works.
Reviews:
Hume Supernatural - this stick format deodorant by far had the best scent. I wasn’t really looking for a scent, but their probiotic-rich deodorant was a pleasant surprise. It’s effective for day to day, but doesn’t last as well during a sweat-inducing workout. I’m keen to the Desert Bloom scent. Out West was very masculine and not as unisex as I hoped. (Truly, I was thinking it would be like a CK One.) A bonus I didn’t expect was falling for their dry body oil in Desert Bloom. It’s fantastic. I’ve used it on the whole family and even on my face.
Necessaire - I’ve used most of this line’s offering and really like the unscented line. (Just can’t get around to liking the other scents and eucalyptus isn’t healthy to have in a home with babies.) I really wanted to like their deodorant but it’s a gel format. I remember liquid deodorants when I was a teen and even back then, I couldn’t do it. It feels like I’m putting sweat right on my body to start with. Stick form only please.
Kosas - Similar to Necessaire, this is a liquidy format. But it really works for tough workouts. And it smells good! The positives outweighed the negatives here and allowed me to stomach the format. However, I’d limit this just to a pre-workout use (i.e. jelly format.)
If you’re interested in natural deodorant, know it may take a few tries to find one that fits your body chemistry. Hume Supernatural is a great start. Also, it’s not a complete departure from the traditional deodorant format.
When trying out natural deodorants stick to this plan. Wear nothing for 3 days (you can do it!) and then try a new deodorant consistently for a few weeks. If it doesn’t work, then start over with another one and that 3 day waiting period of wearing nothing. You’ve got to give your body a break to reset itself and see if a new formulation will truly work.
Why Natural Deodorant?
You may be asking, why don’t you just go to the drugstore and buy regular deodorant. Great question.
Many of the mainstream deodorants are also antiperspirants. Which means they do two things - they stop the sweating and control the odor. That one, two punch has been marketed to us for decades as the solution for any sort of unpleasant odor on our bodies. However, most of us don’t take a step back and dissect that marketing lens. I’m going to do that for you! Let’s myth bust deodorant!
Sweat doesn’t actually smell! Sweat is just salt and water. When sweat mixes with the natural bacteria that lives on our skin, that’s when an odor arises.
Antiperspirants do just what the word means, stop the sweating. When an antiperspirant is applied on the body, it stops the sweating on that part of the body only. The sweat and heat still has to get out of your body, so you will sweat it out from someplace else. Think of how a dog pants when it’s hot, the dog can’t sweat out its fur, so it has to get the heat out of its body another way.
Deodorants neutralize and mask smells temporarily. Like perfume, it’s something that fades over time. The scent and efficacy are dependent on multiple applications per day!
Antiperspirants are in fact (study after study proves this) harmful to women, especially those with a tie to breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. Check your ingredients. If your deodorant has aluminum in it, put it straight in the trash. (Guys, aluminum is what stains the underarms of your t-shirts as well).
I hope you now feel informed, prepared, and brave enough to try natural deodorant. It may take a while to find a natural deodorant that works for you. But don’t give up, your unicorn is out there. And I promise, it’s aluminum-free!