photo by Darci Fontenot who most certainly smoothed over my pits in editing since they were flaring up at the time this photo was taken.

This month marks one year since I stopped using antiperspirant. That may not seem like such a big deal but it has been for me. I have tried to keep my beauty routine as close to clean and green as possible since college. My roommate probably thought I was nuts when I unfurled my cruelty free pocket list at Target (this was before the “there’s an app for that” phenomenon) to make sure my shampoo wasn’t tested on animals. For me it started as an extension of eating vegetarian and has evolved as I have learned more. Your skin in the largest organ in your body so it only makes sense not to slather yourself with toxic chemicals that will go directly into your blood stream. I am a super sweaty stinky girl though and I just wasn’t able to find any deodorant that worked. I would try a natural product for a few weeks, maybe a month at a time. At first things would be fine but inevitably I would smell like a garbage can and have to go back to the regular stuff. Last year I started working with an acupuncturist and he not only recommended I clean up my diet a bit but also suggested I get rid of the yucky antiperspirant for good. I was nervous to try again but I knew it was important. And if I’m honest, even with the antiperspirant I was using, I still didn’t smell great a lot of the time. I figured I didn’t have much to lose so I went for it (in the heat of summer no less). I’m here to say it was not without it’s challenges but I am on the other side and grateful that I stuck with it. I got a pretty gnarly rash, which I am learning may have actually been from the heat and not from the baking soda. I was not willing to back down and kept going despite the warning to discontinue use if rash appears. For me what has worked this past year is Primal Pit Paste, we prefer the jars that you have a smear on yourself versus the sticks. After doing their pit detox, I now use their baking soda formula and (bless his heart for doing this with me) my husband uses the sensitive skin magnesium formula without baking soda. This is not sponsored in any way but since it has worked for me I might as well spread the love. I was just going to post this on social media but felt like is deserved it’s own separate blog post. I guess if there’s a moral to this story it would be, keep going even if you think you have tried everything. I figured I would never find a natural product that worked but here I am a year later.

Cheers to aluminum free pits that don’t smell like trash (most of the time anyway!)