Earth-friendly Living Tips: Deodorant

Earth-friendly Living Tips: Deodorant

I have recently begun the daunting task of weaning myself off of all of those convenient, plastic-packaged, store bought beauty products filling up my bathroom...just as soon as my huge bottle of shampoo and bulk-pack bars of soap run out, that is. One of the first switches I made was to natural deodorant. I had previously been under the impression that only a thick white paste of an anti-perspirant would free me from the social horrors of body odor. But I also hated that this white gunk would inevitably end up all over my clothes, and that the aluminum and other potentially toxic chemicals found in these anti-perspirants were soaking into my body every day. Interestingly enough, apparently perspiring is a perfectly normal bodily function which we should not feel forced to suppress, as it provides many benefits to our bodies. The point of a deodorant should instead be to neutralize any odors caused by bacteria, not to just cover it up with heavy perfumes.

So I went to my local natural food co-op and decided to try Kiss My Face's Active Enzyme Deodorant, which is aluminum-free, paraben-free, and artificial fragrance-free. The best part about it is that it is in a hard clear gel form, which means no more white stripes on my black shirts! The bad thing about it is...that it doesn't make me smell very nice. It has a lovely faint lavender scent, but its claim to "neutralize and eliminate odor" isn't holding up so far. I did give it a few weeks to see if my skin just needed to adjust to these "Active Enzymes", but I still am sadly noticing more unpleasant odors than ever before. I don't want to give up on the search for an effective natural deodorant, so perhaps I just need to find the right brand that will work for me. So the search continues...

Sarah