Natural Deodorants

Like many people trying to move to more natural products the one product I'm having difficulty with is natural deodorants.  My reasons for wanting the move to natural deodorants is probably very similar to most people.  Firstly, as what I wash off my body (including my deodorant) ends up going back into natural world I would rather it was as natural as is possibly to reduce any possible impact that this could have.  When it comes to this I would rather be safe than sorry.  Secondly, mainstream deodorants contain a number of products, such as alcohol and sodium benzoate, that appears to be drying out my skin quite badly.  This is particularly obvious during winter and I'm finding that I'm having moisturise my underarms every night after I shower saving the deodorants for the next morning.  Thirdly, while the evidence coming from the scientific community have shown that parabens to do actually cause breast cancer and that aluminium does actually cause cancer and alzheimer (for more information go to the cancer controversies page on www.cancerresearchuk.org).  I've decided that I would still rather reduce the amount of chemicals not actually needed by my body that I put into it.  This is purely to see if remove these from my cosmetics will hopefully reduce the issues I have with allergies and my dry skin.  Lastly, I want to move away from products that are designed to block pores as part of their process.  While I am aware that my body is more than capable of sweating in other places and at removing toxins in processes that are far more effective than sweating, I would still rather just allow my skin in that area to do what it's meant to.

I first tried to use natural deodorants many years ago, but didn't have any luck with it and just ended up feeling dirty and smelly and so just gave it up.  However, recently I decided to give it another go and this time I was more determined to give it a go.  (At this point I should probably point out that I sweat a lot and I do mean actually sweat.  If women glow, men perspire, and horses sweat I am a sweaty horse.)

I started using products that I could get easily here in the UK.  

First was Jason's Calming Lavender Pure Natural Deodorant Stick.  I'm not sure if I was just using this completely wrong or didn't try using it for long but after 1 week of using it you would think that I hadn't used any deodorant at all.  I may try Jason deodorants again but I think I need to research that a bit better.  Next I moved onto dr.organic Organic Tea Tree deodorant.  I tried a tea tree deodorant as tea tree is meant to be such a good anti-bacteria and I use it regularly in my beauty and cleaning products.  However, what I didn't count on was the fact that tree tea smells very like how I smell when my deodorant stops working.  While I may have been clean and bacteria free I found the smell quite disconcerting  and stopped using it.
As these products hadn't worked for me I asked a friend of mine who lives in Canada to send me over some North American natural deodorants as there seems to be a better selection.  This was just to cover me at the beginning of moving onto more natural products as the start is apparently when you smell the most while your skin settles after the change of deodorants.  I also read a bit more about the transition to natural deodorants and while before I had read that you had to give it a week before you skin settles, most of the information now states that you really need a month before your skin begins to settle back down.  With all that in mind and my new Canadian deodorants I gave it another go.

Next on the list was Green beaver Tea Tree Natural Deodorant.  When I first started using this I was a little worried about the tea tree scent due to my previous issue, but the grapefruit in this did help reduce this (though I did still find myself wondering now and then).  With this product I definitely needed to re-apply this throughout the day but I liked the fact that it was vegan and cruelty free.  The main problem I had with this was the fact that I did have a bit of an allergic reaction to it.  To begin with it wasn't a huge reaction, but my armpit skin was a little red.  However, this worsened throughout the month and the area became quite tender meaning that I couldn't make it to the end of the month.  It is likely that it is the sodium bicarbonate in this product that I reacted to.  Unfortunately this product is in many natural deodorants and is a product that others have also had a reaction to.  I did also feel more damp then I'm used to, but it wasn't too bad and I got used to it after a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately I didn't have much luck with my other Canadian present, the Desert Essence Tropical Breeze Deodorant.  Once I had realised that I was definitely reacting to the Green beaver natural deodorant I moved to this.  The smell is definitely better with not a whiff of tea tree in site, but despite the claim of long-lasting protection I did need to reapply this again during the day (though much less that the others mentioned).  The big issue I had with this is that I had an allergic reaction to this too, even more severe than with the Green Beaver deodorant.  What I'm not sure about is did I react to this deodorant the way I did because my skin was already irritated and am I also allergic to corn starch (an ingredient that is also regularly used in natural deodorants and that some people have had problems with).  As I'm not entirely sure what it was I was reacting to I'm going to give this deodorant another go once my skin has completely healed again.  The other issue was that this deodorant felt particularly damp when I put it on and didn't seem to dry at any point.  It then remained damp throughout the day, which I was very aware of and made me feel very uncomfortable.

Despite the problems I've had with these two deodorant I would recommend both of these as long as you're not allergic to sodium bicarbonate and corn starch and don't mind having to re-apply them during the day.

The last deodorant I tried (and which I'm still using) is the dr.organic Manuka Honey.  I got this deodorant initially as I knew that the Manuka Honey would help with the healing of my irritated underarms.  I do really like the smell of this item and it actually lasts all day without me having to re-apply.  It is apparently made with a non pore clogging formula as well as being aluminium, SLS, paraben, and alcohol free.  Cruelty free and vegetarian (obviously not vegan because of the honey), it basically covers almost everything I'm looking for.  They do also claim that it is natural but a quick read of the ingredients list indicates that this is not completely true.  On the plus side I did notice sodium bicarbonate at the bottom of the list and yet, instead of having a reaction to it, my skin has actually healed quite well.  This hopefully means that I can still use deodorants containing sodium bicarbonate, as long as they contain other products that counteract its effects.   I would actually recommend this to others as an effective more natural deodorant which is easy to find at Holland and Barretts.

I do still have other deodorants to try and will write about those once I do.  If you have any recommendations about what other deodorants I should try then please let me know and I will give them a go.