Perspiraton by any other name... still smells like... sweat!

This is a bit of a stinky topic... deodorant and/or antiperspirant. Have you ever noticed that men are sold deodorant (which means it's OK for them to sweat, as long as they smell nice) and women are sold deodorant/antiperspirant (which means it's not OK for them to sweat and they still have to smell nice).

I've known for a while that anti-perspirants are bad... (lymph nodes, breast cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.)... and so, for many years, have used men's deodorant. I still sweat like a pig but at least I smell nice.

No wait... what do they say... horses sweat, men perspire and women glow. Nah... I sweat like a horse when I'm working hard and it's hot out... like moisture dripping into my eyebrows and down my nose. I'm not exactly sure how deodorant in the armpit is supposed to help with the everywhere-else-sweat... Hmph. Sweat is sweat, let's just call it what it is.

Anyhow... my deodorant ran out last week and I thought I would do the eco-friendly thing and recycle the container. I took out the empty dispenser bit with lingering bits of deodorant on it and then searched around the container for the recycle sign with the plastic number. Could not find it anywhere... And as I looked at the empty container, I realized it's made up several different types of plastic... which made me think... "this is probably like a toothbrush... not recyclable".

I looked up deodorant containers on our Recycle BC site and... as I surmised... deodorant containers are NOT currently recyclable. Put them in the garbage bin. Hmph.

Which got me thinking... are there other options to buying deodorant in non-recyclable plastic containers? And... naturally... there are.

First... it would appear that not even men's deodorant, as sold in stores, is necessarily safe. Some of those have aluminum and paraben as well as a variety of chemicals which are not too good for our bodies.

Second... there are a tonne of options out there for natural deodorants, everything from Himalyan sea salt bars to lemons to baking soda concoctions sold in jars or cardboard tubes. Wow... I had no idea. On top of that, you can always make your own deodorant concoction. Although, a bit of digging and this seems quite complicated... and I don't think I'm ready for complicated at this point.

The key factors for me are (1) an effective anti-BO product and (2) it has to be sold in an eco-friendly container. Best Health Magazine Canada offered some reviews of 13 of Canada's top products... all of which sounded nice for handling BO but... what container did they come in?

Schmidt's got rave reviews, particularly their Charcoal and Magnesium natural deodorant but... the packaging looked suspiciously like your typical plastic deodorant container. Oh... wait... they also have it in jars! Ah-hah... With a variety of fetching flavours... Definitely an option.

As I was writing this my partner appeared and said that years ago she used a Himalayan sea salt bar as a deodorant. And that it worked really well. Huh... go figure. I dove down the rabbit hole of sea salt and... while there seem to be some options on Etsy, a lot of the Amazon options are sold out. I found some places in the UK and USA that sell the bars... and a couple in Ontario (on Etsy). The bars can last for a year so would be more economical than some of the other options, like the Schmidt jars. Choices, choices.

At this point, I'm thinking that Himalayan sea salt bars are our best option...

Mind you... we still have some of the traditional deodorant sticks... either use them up or... donate them. Have you ever tried a non-conventional deodorant?