Last September, after reading Dr. Bob Sears’ excellent Vaccine Book, I got myself into a bit of a panic over aluminum. Bad enough to have it in vaccines in high doses, but really bad when you add to that the fact that my daughter, 18 months old at the time, had spent most of her life sleeping in my aluminum-coated armpit. (Lighter Footsteps has a great summary of the problems with aluminum in deodorant.)
I already had her on a delayed vaccination schedule to mitigate the risk of the injected aluminum. So I moved on to getting rid of the topical variety and switched to Tom’s of Maine. And it worked great! Even my canine nose detected no unwanted odor during the day. Right up until July, that is. It’s been close to 100 degrees here quite a bit this month, and the “cooler” days have been in the high 80s. That’s normal, but it also unraveled my relationship with natural deodorant.
At first I thought it was just my sensitive nose, but once my husband and my two children told me I had stinky pits, I had to admit, as others have, that I needed to make a change. For now, I’m back to a half-used stick of Degree that I had in the bathroom, but I’m looking for other solutions. Here are a few interesting tid-bits I found:
TreeHugger not only recommends FloralActive, but alerted me to the fact that the Tom’s of Maine stuff contains mineral oil (yuck!).
Care2 has a great article on the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant, and also includes two recipes for home-made deodorant. Not something I’m ready to make from scratch, but something to keep in mind I guess!
National Geographic’s Green Guide has a great discussion of natural deodorants, and in the end, has a couple of leads that I might try in September when the weather begins to cool a bit!
Do you use natural deodorant? Which one? Does it pass the 100-degree-July test? Please let me know!
3 comments
Julie says:
July 25, 2008 at 11:08 am (UTC 2 )
I literally feel like I started to stink as soon as the temps went over 90. And I am outside a lot in the garden, playing with the kids, walking the dog, etc., so I admit I’m asking a lot of my deodorant. But I also don’t want to stink!
I’m glad to know I’m not the only one and to have some recommendations of what to try next!
Nicole says:
July 24, 2008 at 12:32 pm (UTC 2 )
Funny that you mention it…I’ve been using a deodorant rock for 2 or 3 years now with ZERO problems. Suddenly this summer I STINK. I’ve been remedying it by putting hand soap in my armpits before my shower (I find that certain soaps fix the problem better than others and with the current soap I’m using I stink faster than with other soaps), then following up with a deodorant sample I got in the mail on days I really need to smell good. So soap is one answer. Mel said something on her blog this summer that also made me wonder if my nutrition is playing a part here too.
I haven’t bought deodorant in years and may have to start
Sherie says:
July 24, 2008 at 11:35 am (UTC 2 )
I love Earth Science: Liken http://www.cosmosveganshoppe.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ESD&Category_Code=PCS&Product_Count=0
The rosemary mint doesn’t work as well as the liken/herbal. Haven’t tried lavender, but I’ll go back to liken (lichen) before I do