This is the fourth in a series of overly honest product reviews following the positive feedback from both my safety razor review and my period pants & mooncup review (you can read about my grazed labia here!). Seeing as you all seem quite interested in the goings on of my lady region I thought I’d throw my armpits into the mix too. I popped a poll on instagram asking who wanted to know more about The Natural Deo Co. and a whopping 97% of you answered “Yes Please I Smell”, so here you are.

And just a quick note to remind you this post is not sponsored, not paid, and no product was gifted (sigh).

A brief history of my armpits

For background, I suffer from pretty bad eczema in my armpits. I don’t often get it anywhere else now I’m in my 30’s, apart from occasionally around my eyes if I use a product that triggers it. I was riddled with eczema as a child but cutting out dairy seems to have cured me, apart from my armpits. It seems almost every deodorant leaves me redraw, stinging like hell and occasionally even bleeding. That combined with my efforts to avoid plastic packaging and my chances of having sweat patches are pretty high. I’ve been excited many times on discovering a new ‘natural deodorant’ only to cash out and yet again be left with raw unsightly pits. Lush Greench? Tried and failed. Neals Yard Aloe and Lavender? Nu-uh. Whatever brand you are about to message me and suggest? Probably tried it. Probably didn’t work.

I first heard of The Natural Deo Co. about a year ago when I stumbled upon it in a yoga studio in London, I saw the little glass travel sized jar and thought YAY! Although a week later my pits were raw and stinging like hell and I had to stop using it. But bear with me, after several attempts with their products I have completed the trial and error so you don’t have to. The first Natural Deo Co. I bought was from the active range. I emailed the company and told them it wasn’t working for me. They explained it’s likely the sodium bicarbonate I’m allergic to (which is in most every deodorant).

Luckily, The Natural Deo Co. have thee ranges:

1) Active (kept for your most demanding days, with LOTS of sodium bicarb)

2) Clean (most peoples go-to deodorant, a combination of antibacterial magnesium and sodium bicarbonate)

3) Gentle (antibacterial power of magnesium oxide and white clay to ensure even the most sensitive skin stays fresh, and NO sodium bicarbonate, wahoo!).

But does it work?

So, off I went and purchased a new travel jar of the Gentle Unscented cream expecting it to have superpowers. But did it work? Well, when I bought this jar we were in the middle of a 30°C three month long heatwave in London, so after application I was almost guaranteed to be dripping with sweat again within a couple of hours. I wasn’t that impressed and forgot about it. But wait! I tried it again in winter, in ‘normal’ conditions (e.g. daily life, on the tube, cycling around town) and it’s been great. Yes, I may need to reapply half way through the day but it’s the first deodorant ever that I’m not allergic to, and I think that using it first in the heatwave may have been an unfair trial …

Tips and tricks

I’ve been using it everyday now for a couple of months and am learning to love it. My advice is keep it somewhere warm as it’s much easier to apply if it’s a little warmer in the jar, I have been known to break a nail trying to scrape a dollop out of a cold jar in the back of my icy van. Also, spoiler alert, it will leave white marks if you’re not careful. I’ve found it best to put on out the shower when naked (swit-swoo) then wait a couple of mins (brush your teeth and hair while you’re waiting, you’re welcome) and then get dressed. If you put it on then pull a tight top or sports bra over straightway, the top will have white marks down it. If you’re already dressed and out and about you can just carefully pop it on under your top but make sure you wash your hands after.

The 20g size jars are PERFECT for hand-luggage when travelling or keeping in your gym bag. I have a larger jar that I now decant into the little travel one when I’m going on holiday.

Plastic Free

The Natural Deo Co are dedicated to reducing their plastic usage, the 55g jars are now plastic free and the 20g sizes currently have a glass jar and plastic lid, and the 5g pots/lids are plastic.

Ingredients

Organic coconut oil and wild fairly traded shea butter hydrate and soothe

A clever combination of magnesium oxide and white clay provides odour protection and dryness
Specially formulated for dry and sensitive skins
Contains no Sodium Bicarbonate
Gentle enough to use post-shave
Registered with The Vegan Society
Certified Cruelty-Free
100% Natural
Free from aluminium, alcohol, preservatives, artificial fragrance, mineral oil + palm oil

Overview

I will continue to use the gentle unscented cream as it’s the best I’ve found to date. If you’re not allergic to normal deodorants, you should definitely give the Clean and Active range a go for a stronger cream that will likely withstand yoga and running and whatever other sweat inducing activities you do. If like me you suffer from eczema, then try the Gentle range, but do remember you are human and if you do excessive exercise you’ll still sweat. This product does not create a magic sweat forcefield, but it will keep your pits moisturised, unsmelly (not a word but who cares) and mostly dry in day to day life. So go forth and be proud of your fresh pits.

Overly Honest Product Reviews // The Natural Deo Co