What Makes our deodorants different?

Most "natural" deodorants fall into the greenwashing category. They may include a few natural ingredients, but many still contain aluminum, fragrance, or other harmful chemicals that are absorbed into your body when you use them.

When developing our own all-natural deodorant, we knew it had to be effective at controlling odor without any of the junk—and without irritating your skin. We took that job seriously and spent over four years perfecting our recipe. Our deodorants contain no fragrance, aluminum, chemicals, or baking soda. Why no baking soda? Let's talk about it.

When creating a natural deodorant, you have to choose a primary ingredient that will fight odor. Sweat itself doesn't have a bad smell, but the bacteria on our skin (which we all have) break it down into foul-smelling fatty acids. Most natural deodorants use either magnesium hydroxide or baking soda as their primary odor-fighting ingredient. Both work by shifting the skin's naturally acidic pH toward a more alkaline environment, creating a difficult environment for odor-causing bacteria to survive.

As we tested a variety of recipes, we found that baking soda was much harsher on the skin than magnesium hydroxide. Magnesium hydroxide has low solubility in sweat. This means that as it interacts with underarm moisture, it doesn't immediately dissolve. Instead, it slowly releases its alkalinity throughout the day (or night). This makes it a gentle, long-term odor-fighting agent without adversely disrupting the skin's natural barrier.

Baking soda, on the other hand, is very soluble in sweat. When it comes into contact with the moisture under your arm, it quickly dissolves. This results in an alkaline spike, meaning it has a more short-term effect on odor. That spike also causes a more immediate and dramatic shift in the skin's pH as the alkaline mixes with sweat, which can lead to stinging, redness, and rash. We found this to be true in our own personal testing and development.

As you can guess, we chose magnesium hydroxide as one of our natural ingredients to help in the never-ending fight against underarm odor. After experiencing reactions to baking soda ourselves, the decision became easy.

In September's blog, we'll expand further on the other measures we take to fight the battle against body odor—the all-natural way. As a hint, we'll say—we LOVE HERBS!

If you're tired of natural deodorants that quit working by noon or ones that leave your skin irritated, give ours a try. All four scents, in mini and full sizes, are availablehere.

Our entire skincare line is availablehere.