It’s ever so tempting to keep using deodorants and antiperspirants that contain potentially harmful ingredients. The ads make them look amazing! Use those sprays, roll-ons and sticks and you’ll have people swooning in your way, looking admiringly at you on the bus as you raise your arm to hold onto a rail while exposing your drier-than-dry underarm. Ooh, aluminium, parabens and petrochemicals never looked so sexy!
But as much as it’s convenient to keep your head in the sand about the hazards of long-term use of such ingredients on our largest organ – our skin – a little patience and persistence with natural deodorants really does pay off in the long run.
One of the challenges with the effectiveness of natural deodorants is that it can take a small transition period for our bodies to adapt to them. But it’s important to give it time. When I first switched, it did an OK job but I didn’t feel any kind of “Wow, that’s great!” But I hung in there and persisted and sure enough, it dawned on me one day after a few weeks or so that it really was working very well. It had just been so gradual in improving that I forgot all about it!
Now, there are two elements to a great deodorant: keeping you fresh and keeping you dry. It’s pretty easy for certain natural substances to create an unfriendly environment that makes it harder for the bacteria to feed off our sweat, thereby reducing the degree of pong. But what about dryness? How do natural deodorants keep you dry? Can they even do that at all?
Yes, they can!
There are plenty of natural ingredients that help with keeping the skin both dry and fresh. These include aloe, vegetable glycerine, baking soda, charcoal, natural mineral salts, coconut oil, tapioca starch, arrowroot, beeswax and zinc oxide.
While sweat is a natural part of life, it can also be stress related. Here’s where essential oils can also help, as they are are beautiful for relaxation. Just by using essential oils generally in your life throughout your day – diffusing, using as your perfume, taking capsules and foods and supplements that include pure essential oils, such as those made by Young Living – these can all help your mood and body to find a sense of balance and equilibrium that reduces the physiological response of stress-sweating.
Now, you could get creative in the kitchen and mix up a blend of ingredients to come up with your own essential oil-enhanced deodorant paste or lotion. But you have to source the materials, validate their purity, buy a minimum quantity and … well, there’s a much easier way! Young Living has two 100% natural and effective essential oil-powered deodorants from which to choose: AromaGuard Meadow Mist Deodorant and AromaGuard Mountain Mint Deodorant. I like to keep both on hand and alternate them. A change is as good as a holiday, and variety is the spice of life!
AromaGuard Meadow Mist and AromaGuard Mountain Mint both have the same base of deodorising and perspiration-targeting ingredients to swipe under your arms: Coconut oil, white beeswax, pure vegetable esters, zinc oxide, natural mixed tocopherols (vitamin E). They both include the delightfully cleansing and refreshing essential oils of lemon (Citrus limon), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis CT 1,8 Cineol) and clove (Syzgium aromaticum).
In addition to this potent trio of oils, AromaGuard Meadow Mist and Mountain Mint have different essential oil combinations to provide you with two fragrance options. Both smell fairly subtle soon after application, so they won’t clash with your favourite essential oil ‘signature fragrance’ that you wear as perfume or cologne.
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
Any questions? Please get in touch via our Contact page.
All of the ingredients in these deodorants are botanical beauties that are gentle and nurturing to your skin. So they don’t just do no harm: they are highly beneficial, too!
Here are the essential oils in each, in addition to lemon (Citrus limon), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis CT 1,8 Cineol) and clove (Syzgium aromaticum):
AromaGuard Meadow Mist includes essential oils of geranium (Pelargonium graveolens), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), furanocoumarin-free bergamot (Citrus aurantium bergamia, non-sun-sensitive due to being furanocoumarin-free), tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) and niaouli (Melaleuca quinquenervia).
AromaGuard Mountain Mint includes essential oils of peppermint (Mentha piperita), Eucalyptus radiata and white fir (Abies concolor).
On heavy activity or mood-intense days, I do reapply them because I think it’s only fair to be realistic about how long-wearing their performance will be for the duration of a long active or stressful day. If I have to re-apply my deodorant once or even twice over a whole day and night, for me that’s an easy trade-off versus dubious-ingredient-laden alternatives.
You might find that you don’t need to re-apply at all, especially if you’re eating lots of fruit and vegetables and drinking plenty of water, herbal tea and Young Living Slique Tea (click here to discover the energising benefits of this tasty cinnamon cacao oolong tea). Experiment to see what feels best for your own body. And do give them a settling in period: resist the urge to alternate with the ‘old style’ traditional commercial antiperspirants and deodorants and let your armpits adjust to their new status quo. It really is worth it.
Fun tip: How about multi-tasking your toothpaste as your deodorant? It’s awesome when you’re travelling. Not many toothpastes would work effectively this way, but Young Living Dentarome Plus toothpaste is a gem when you don’t have room for AromaGuard deodorant in your bag. How neat is that?!
Essential oils are potent, so as always, please follow directions on the bottle and the usual guidelines for safe use of authentic essential oils.
Please ensure you are choosing a brand with complete transparency from seed to seal, such as Young Living. You can learn in this short video why we only ever recommend and choose Young Living oils and love them so much!
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
Any questions? Please get in touch via our Contact page.
