You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman

MY MINDFUL YEAR - JUNE



Continuing on the theme of trying to be more mindful of the stuff that enters my body, I decided to switch to an all-natural deodorant.

There's a lot of crap in drugstore mass-produced deodorants. Parabens are linked to breast cancer - bad. Aluminum is linked to Alzheimer's Disease - bad. Triclosen, Seareths, TEA and DEA contain carcinogens - bad, bad, and bad. I've been putting these things into my body multiple times a day every single day for years.

It was time for a change.

But this change was...sweat inducing! I've always been a sweaty lady. I don't end a run with a dainty glow. I finish with a red sweaty face and a body to match. When I'm nervous, I sweat. A lot. My favorite season is winter in large part due to the sweaty grossness of summer in NYC. And my sweat does not smell sweet. It smells like sweat.

My old routine looked like this: Each morning I applied deodorant with antiperspirant. Before bed time, I applied clinical strength antiperspirant. My underarms were basically wearing sweat-proof armor.

The cold turkey approach was a little too ambitious for me. So when my clinical strength stick ran out, I just stopped my nightly application of the stuff. Surprisingly, I noticed no difference whatsoever. This was very encouraging!

When it came time to swap out my tried-and-true Donna Karan Cashmere to a natural brand, it took some trial-and-error. And it turned out to be a treacherous journey.

• The Honest Company's lavender spray deodorant smelled like a spa but was 100% ineffective. (And I really did try, one day with 10 applications of the stuff!) 
• Lavanila original stick was not super effective and caused a chemical burn (OUCH!). 
• Native's sensitive skin formula in cotton lily smelled fantastic and worked wonderfully at preventing odor but left me with a gnarly red, bumpy rash (EEK!). 
• Schmidt's for sensitive skin worked and I didn't have any reaction at all. BUT the scent options were less than desirable. I tried 5 in total:
• 1: virgin pina colada (no)
• 2: the scent of the carpeting in a Bikram Yoga class (no, gross)
• 3: that indistinguishable smell of the inside of an old woman's purse (oh hell no)
• 4: lots and lots and lots of lavender (maybe too much lavender for me)
• 5: tea (it actually smells pretty nice with my body chemistry)

My new routine looks like this: Each morning I apply some natural deodorant after my shower. I carry around a travel size deodorant at all times and re-apply if I need it. Before bed time, I wash my underarms with a mild soap.

Now I wear natural deodorant every day and I smell like a fresh cup of jasmine tea. I do sweat but my clothes don't have any yellow pit stains anymore. Most importantly, I'm mindful about this habit. And it feels pretty great to be doing something good for my body.

UPDATE: I now use Schmidt's Rose & Vanilla as I quickly learned the lovely tea scent does not hold up to a sticky, sweaty, NYC subway.