Welcome to Day 2 of my “clean swaps” posts! Today’s story is all about natural deodorant and the year (but really – it was a year, haha) it took me to find a good fit in that department. Let’s dive in! 🙂

I used Secret deodorant for forever – like from 13-years-old and on – but over a year ago, the stuff just stopped working for me. Both as an antiperspirant and a deodorizer. YIKES. I was lamenting my issue to my SIL, and she said that it isn’t uncommon to become immune, basically, to deodorant and that if/when that happens, you just have to move on to another type. And so, my good-deodorant-seeking adventure began.

I didn’t jump to a clean deodorant option right then. I actually went with a really dirty deodorant (I found out later) – Donna Karan Cashmere Mist – since it was one that I saw lots of women recommending online. They swore by it, so I bought it (and it was expensive! bleh!) but I was pretty let down by it right away since it had a very musty scent. It did stop my sweating, though, so I half-way accepted defeat and moved on. Until I started learning about “dirty” ingredients and how they are so rough on body systems — think cancer, infertility, acne, moodiness, depression, anxiety (bleh!). I got curious about my deodorant one day and I checked the Donna Karan deodorant’s ingredient list to see if it was being nice to my body or not and well? I was unpleasantly surprised…

I was instantly flagged by the ingredient “Talc,” remembering that Talc has been linked with causing cancer. I had no idea what the first ingredient was on the Donna Karan’s ingredients list, so I looked it up (“cyclopentasiloxane”) and found that it, too, has links to causing uterine tumors. I didn’t even bother investigating the rest of the ingredients on the list, since they were unrecognizable to me/I couldn’t even pronounce them. PRO TIP: an inability to pronounce an ingredient in anything – products, food – is a solid sign that the ingredient is an unhelpful chemical. On the other hand, if you can pronounce ingredients, chances are they’re naturally derived. EX, look at the ingredient list for the Native deodorant above. You can read those ingredients, which means they’re natural and nicer to the body. PRO TIP #2: the shorter an ingredient list in certain products, and definitely for food, the better the product is for you. Less ingredients = a cleaner and safer, more natural product = something the body can better work with and process. Using both pieces of logic – ingredient names and ingredient-list length – is important when making clean swaps in your lifestyle.

WHY INGREDIENTS MATTER

Okay so back to finding the right deodorant! After seeing the Donna Karan deodorant ingredient list, I went through this logic sequence below, which sounds dumb to say on the outset, but hear me out:

— underarms are part of my skin

— my skin is an organ

— what I put on my skin is absorbed into my body’s bloodstream

— so deodorant, applied to my underarm skin, matters: having cancer-causing chemicals in my deodorant is consequential

— will this deodorant single-handedly give me cancer? no

— does it have the capacity to throw off/overwhelm my body’s systems? yes

— will switching to clean deodorant come at a great cost to me – of money? or time? no

— time to switch to a clean deodorant 🙂

Here’s the thing: little by little, year of after year, if the body consistently deals with trying to process toxins and chemicals, the body can wear down and get sick. EX, cancer is technically defined as the “uncontrolled reproduction of cells.” Cell reproduction happens constantly in the body, but when cell reproduction gets out of control for a body system because the body’s system is overwhelmed, cancer develops. I say all of this because the first time I heard that “deodorant causes cancer” was in 2011 right after I was married – I thought it sounded so absurd. But as I’ve learned more, like about body system overwhelm, and when science keeps proving that chemical ingredients do cause cancer, you can break down the logic and see that the “deodorant causes cancer” claim isn’t absurd. Rather, it’s understandable.

Here’s the last thing: bodies are unique and our bodies, individually, process things differently. EX, while deodorant may overrun my body’s systems, it might not overrun yours. That’s why taking learning facts and putting them up against our intuitions (or God’s personal guidance for us — the best!) helps us make the best decisions for us.

THE RIGHT DEODORANT FOR ME

Okay, so back to finding the right deodorant! This is how I found the right one for me…

I first tried Native deodorant per lots of online and personal recommendations. Unfortunately – and weirdly! – my underarm got a clogged lymph node after I started using Native’s deodorant. I haven’t heard of this happening to anyone else, so I think it was just my body not gelling with the coconut oil in it, but for that reason, I dropped Native.

Just Ingredients is an incredibly clean brand (remember how I love her face serum??), so I decided to try that deodorant next. I really liked this deodorant’s smell, but gosh, it isn’t an antiperspirant and I got sweaaaaty while using this one. I know that you can detox your underarms and help your body adjust to using a non-antiperspirant deodorant, but man, I just don’t have the time for that. At least not right now. 🙂

Next, I tried the Schmidt’s deodorant and THIS IS MY WINNER! The ingredients are 100% clean, it kept me from sweating, and it smelled good. The Lavender + Sage scent is my favorite; I used it  till the bitter end and I loved it. Here’s a plot twist, though: Schmidt’s was bought out by a parent company and some of their deodorants now have the chemical, “Fragrance,” in them. The yellow Schmidt’s deodorant below is one of them. I bought that bottle (and am currently using it) because that’s all that Target had when I ran out of my Lavendar + Sage bottle, and I’ve just dealt with the fact that “Fragrance” is one of the last ingredients on the ingredient list (so there is very little of it in the deodorant). But! I recently learned that only Schdmit’s sensitive skin deodorants have Fragrance in them, and you can still get the original Schmidt’s on Amazon HERE. Yayyyy! So when I wrap up with the Patchouli + Hops Schmidt’s below, I’m going back to the Lavender + Sage.

That said! Here are my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for natural deodorants!

Schmidt’s takes the gold!

Just Ingredients gets silver.

Native wins the bronze.

🙂

I hope this post helps you see that choosing natural, clean products is a process and it is a personal one. I have friends that swear by Native’s deodorant and I’ve heard of others loving Just Ingredients’ brand. Neither was for me, but trial and error helped me find that Schmidt’s is the one for me.

Also, overall, I hope my story here helps you see that it took me time to come around to understanding the importance of knowing what ingredients are in our products and why they matter — of knowing how they affect the body. Coming to this conclusion was a process, too. And it was a personal one! The best we can do as stewards of our bodies and health is to get educated, to think logically, to get a little divine guidance/listen to your gut, and then swap out products as you see fit. From makeup to deodorant and beyond. 🙂

Like as “beyond” as household products! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post — a clean swap I made in my home that I’ve been really happy about.

xoxo!

Jeni