Deodorant: Time for a pit stop?

Cool approach to deodorant

Have you considered taking the opportunity of this period of cool weather to make the change to a natural deodorant?

Changing your deodorant – a relied-upon, daily weapon – is a BIG deal. Even if you’re fairly prolific about the choice of brand on the stick/spray/roller that you use, it’s another thing to shift to a different approach to deodorising.

Why bother changing deodorants?

An antiperspirant deodorant is designed to stop perspiration. But sweating is one of your body’s natural processes:

• it helps cool us when temperatures rise, critically keeping our body temperature even
• it helps remove toxins from our bodies, especially when other organs are under stress

By using an antiperspirant we’re preventing this. If we have excess toxins that can’t escape in sweat, they’ll find another way out, and that usually means spots.

Healthy deodorants

There are many other reasons for considering the change to a natural deodorant:

• some change following an experience of or fear of breast cancer
• for others it’s having experienced weight gain
• or when suffering from high blood pressure
• many are simply looking to use ‘cleaner’ ingredients on their skin

a switch to a natural deodorant can be beneficial in each of these situations.

How about you?

If you’ve ever wondered about making the change, now could be the time to shift, before the heat of summer.

If you’ve not considered your deodorant before (let’s be honest, there’s not been much to chose between deodorants for years), you’ll be surprised to know what’s going on in the world of under-arm deterrents.

Deodorants are changing

A plethora of new products are coming to market, responding to the increased demand for natural deodorant – on average there’s a launch a week. It is estimated that the market will grow 15% a year through to 2022. It’s not just the Indie brands, Unilever and Proctor & Gamble have both recently acquired natural deodorant brands.

The critical ingredient that people are trying to avoid is aluminium – a staple ingredient in many of the deodorants that have been around for the past 20 years or so.

Aluminium is a fast and effective way to deodorise, but it has been compared to fast-food for the body. There are certainly other approaches that can work more kindly with the natural processes of your skin.

BIY Deodorant

The simplest way to get your hands on a clean deodorant is by blending it yourself. Once you understand the key ingredients that help make a great deodorant it’s easy to switch them in-and-out, up-and-down in your formulating until you get the perfect blend to suit your skin.

With your choice of herbs and essential oils too you can create a unique and most personal of products.

There’s more on how to blend-it-yourself below.

Deodorant detox

The dependency we have on our familiar deodorant isn’t all in the mind. Our body also develops a dependency upon the aluminium in deodorants too. As such, making a change to a deodorant without aluminium can involve a period of detox.

Here’s a quick summary of what you might experience:

Pre-detoxing

Your underarm sweat glands and pores are clogged. This traps bacteria requiring frequent washing and applications of deodorant to prevent unpleasant odours.

During detoxing

Gradually sweat levels and smell decrease. However this can have ups and downs. Some people experience an increase for a short while. That’s why it’s good to know the maximum time this should last for is 21 days, some can make the shift in 7 – we’re all different.

Post detoxing

Normal sweat production stabilises typically with a reduction in sweat and smell levels.

The normal skin processes for emitting toxins can continue unhindered, as the pores and glands are not blocked.

Some people find they use much less, or even no deodorant, following detoxing.

Some tips for successful detoxing

• Wear loose fitting clothing and natural fibres that breathe
• Keep really clean during the process, especially scrubbing armpits – you’ll feel much more confident about it then. In your cleansing consider:
  • Using a detoxifying soap or add detoxifying herbs to your bath – great ones to include are: parsley, loveage, spearmint and borage.
  • Use natural loofahs and washcloths

• Help the declogging process by gently exfoliating armpits and shaving too.
• Enjoy the detoxing power of hot baths and saunas
  • You can add a detoxifying bath bomb to the experience (these are packed with detoxifying ingredients such as charcoal, seaweed and turmeric)
• Dry brush your body to keep your lymph system active, minimising the sluggish accumulation of toxins
• Treat yourself to an underarm detox mask, these are often based on bentonite clay which promotes ongoing detox activity

Keeping fresh

Once you’re detoxed, you can keep the fresh feeling that supports your skin’s natural functioning and whichever natural deodorant you chose by:

• continuing to exfoliate to minimise build up of pore-clogging dead skin cells
• Maintain your underarm pH at 5.5. This will reduce your dependency on deodorants

Your dream deodorant

The shift is happening away from deodorant as a functional, hidden item. We can now think of our deodorants akin to perfumes. The new kids have beautiful, natural scents and come in packaging that could sit proudly on any dressing table.

A survey of Millenials indicated that 70% were unhappy with the deodorant they were using, let’s hope these new offerings give them something to smile about.

Blend-it-Yourself

For your perfect, fully customised, unique-to-you deodorant it’s worth mastering the art of blend-it-yourself. With a little kitchen wizardry you can create products to take you through the seasons and your moods using the wonderful ingredients that grow around us.

Here’s a guide to the best ingredients to include in a natural deodorant, and why.

You’ll find a full and comprehensive recipe to use or adapt to your own needs in Vital Skincare, along with over 100 other recipes for blend-it-yourself natural skincare.

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