Why you dont want to use antiperspirants. Antiperspirants work by blocking your sweat glands. They prevent sweat from reaching the surface of the skin, and less sweat on the skin means less odor.
Why sweating is good. Your body uses sweating to help push out toxins you don’t need. Yes sweating can lead to odor. But what if some of that odor is because of the toxins that are coming out? We have to face it. We live in a world with a lot of man made chemicals used everywhere for everything. Even if your home is completely chemical free, and you have only ever eaten made from scratch completely natural and organic food, it's still in the air you are breathing. It's impossible to not be exposed to toxins. Yes, you can greatly reduce your exposure, and by all means please do what you can to reduce your exposure, but let's also give our bodies the opportunity to push toxins out too!
Why you might need to detox. Because there are likely toxins in your sweat glands, and in your armpits, and in all the lymph nodes in that area, detoxing is a good thing. You want to give your body the opportunity to get those toxins out! Sweating is a completely natural way to do that. If you want to help it along, you can do an armpit detox. An internet search will find you a lot of ideas on how to do that.
How to do an armpit detox. A simple mix of bentonite clay and apple cider vinegar applied as a mask works great! This article explains how to do it.
Salt crystal deodorant contains aluminum. A popular natural deodorant that is recommended a lot is salt crystal deodorant. However, salt crystal deodorant is made from potassium alum (full chemical name potassium aluminum sulfate), yes that's right aluminum. That's the ingredient we are all trying to avoid in deodorant. Plus I can tell you from experience that it doesn't work very well anyways.
The top natural deodorants dont work. When we got into using natural deodorant in 2005, we just went down to our local health food store and bought different things off the shelf. We lived in the mountains in northern Arizona at the time, so the weather was very mild in the summer. But even in the 80° dry days, those natural deodorants didn’t work very well. And then we moved to South Florida, with days in the upper 80's, close to 100% humidity, and a UV index of 11+ in the summer, and those natural deodorants failed terribly. Yes, terribly. As in "why did I even bother applying this stuff", "I need a refund because this did nothing", kinda fail. So we started looking for alternatives. We started tried even more different brands of deodorant, we tried the salt crystal, we used straight vetiver essential oil, but nothing worked well at all. So the only option remaining at that time was to DIY an organic deodorant with different ingredients. And I had a new baby, so I was home all the time, with lots of time on my hands while she slept, so I experimented.
Top natural deodorant ingredients. These are the ingredients in the natural deodorants we tried - now remember, we were new to this whole world, so we didn't know that labels needed to be read even in the health food store yet. Things like propylene glycol sodium stearate, eEthylene brassylate, ethylhexylglycerin, ectenidine Hcl, tetrasodium EDTA, allantoin, squalene, beta-sitosterol, fragrance, and parfums. They aren't all terrible, but I am sure most of us don't know how to pronounce them, or even what they are without doing an internet search.
Popular natural deodorant brands and who owns them. Toms of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive, Schmidt’s is owned by Unilever, Burts Bees is owned by The Clorox Company, Native is owned by P&G, Jason is owned by The Hain Celestial Group.
I prefer food quality ingredients, as unprocessed as possible so that's what I use. If I know what it is by name, if it comes from the earth, or if it's edible, I feel completely safe putting it on my body and letting my kids put it on their body. At Island Deodorant our most popular deodorant, the one I suggest everyone start with, contains only Coconut Oil*, Corn Starch*, Baking Soda (which is naturally aluminum-free), Candelilla Wax, Jojoba Oil*, and Probiotics and most of our ingredients are organic (*Organic).
Left to right: Jojoba oil, baking soda, shea butter, coconut oil, cornstarch, candelilla wax, probiotics
Our deodorant and is made from simple ingredients, but don't let that fool you - it really works! And to prove it, it has a money back guarantee, so you can try it and if it doesn't work for you, we will happily refund you.
FAQ about Organic Deodorant
Is organic deodorant better for you? Yes, it is! It doesn't block your sweat glands, which has been linked to health concerns.
What is the healthiest deodorant to use? Pick an organic deodorant with ingredients you understand. We think ours is a great one to try, and since we offer a money back guarantee there is no risk!
Should I use organic deodorant? We think so, but do some research for yourself and make your own decision. Could you go on to live a long and healthy life using conventional deodorants? Maybe. But would switching to an organic deodorant that actually works hurt you? Definitely not. Plus there are health benefits to sweating, like we covered above. Here's an article we wrote on why you should switch to natural deodorant.
What is the most harmful ingredient in deodorant? Aluminum is the ingredient most people are concerned about. We have an article on it here.