I’m always making the effort to use natural skin care products as much as I can. While I am definitely not using 100% natural 100% of the time, trying out and making natural products has been another step in the right direction. Our skin is our largest organ and is incredibly important. I’m trying to give mine the TLC it deserves!

You may have been wondering what the fuss is all about regarding natural deodorants or perhaps you’re just curious as to why my friend Laura Lea (llbalanced.com) and I decided to stay in on a Friday night this summer and make homemade deodorant. Well, besides the obvious ( we are total health nerds), we wanted to see if we could use natural ingredients to make a daily, skin friendly, and chemical free deodorant that would work. This all stared when I read an article in a wellness journal on my flight down to Nashville a few weeks ago. So far, we have found that our homemade deodorant actually works! Awesome!

Home deodorant making. Melting beeswax and coconut oil! (See link below for recipe from Wellness Mama)

My curiosity about natural deodorants started a few years ago while I was teaching middle school physical education. I asked my students to bring some deodorant into school to keep in their gym lockers. As I’m sure many of you can recall, middle school years can be brutal and no one, NO ONE, wants to be the “stinky kid”. As I expected, many kids brought in a variety of different brands of common deodorants, but more and more I began to notice that students were bringing in natural deodorants or more natural mainstream brands. These students voiced that their parents had said regular brands contained dangerous chemicals or were too strong for young kids. This sparked my interested and I started to look into these claims a bit. At the time, I settled on Dove brand as it seemed relatively gentle.

There is a ton of reserach to argue several points on the matter, and while I’m certainly no scientist, it simply took me getting pregnant to explore further into the idea of natural deodorant. When I found out I was pregnant the intensity in which I read about healthy living material doubled. This was likely because of my somewhat neurotic personality and the fact that I took my pregnancy very seriously. I felt strongly that I had a responsibility to take the best care of myself as humanly possible. Certainly this did not mean being “perfect” (whatever that even means..), but it did mean that I immediately wanted to limit the potential for chemicals being absorbed into my skin on the chance that they would reach the placenta. This is not something I’m being “over the top” about, this is a reality. Our skin absorbs everything and so we need to pay close attention to that fact. (Click here to read more on skin care during pregnancy).  At the recommendation of a friend, I started using a wonderful brand of spray organic deodorant by the company EO products. They make amazing products that smell unbelievable and can be founds at many locations such as your local Whole Body at Whole Foods Market.  I used this throughout my entire pregnancy. What’s nice is that you can reapply it throughout the day without the yucky layering affect of most solid sticks. I do want to say , however,  that I did continue to use Dove only when I had a special event such as a wedding.

After giving birth I continued to use my natural spray deodorant and started to explore other options. In fact, there are a ton of natural deodorants out there and more are coming on the market as we speak! In fact, recently The Honest Company released a spray on deodorant which I absolutely LOVE. Many people are finding that they like the Thai crystal deodorant as well, I have yet to try that one so I can’t comment on it just yet!

Some of you may still be thinking “ok, what’s the big deal ? ” and are not convinced it’s worth the switch. I’m not trying to convince but simply raise awareness that it may be something worth looking into. Check out this article from mindbodygreen.com and do be aware that the internet is filled with opposing views on the matter. It’s totally up to you how YOU feel about it. I do encourage you to explore if you are finding that you want to learn more about this topic.

For the recipe on the homemade deordant that my friend Laura Lea and I made, check out Wellness Mama (another outstanding resource!).

So how many of you out there are using natural deodorants or other beauty products? Feel free to share you recommendations in the comments section!