My hunt has been a long and arduous one, but I’ve finally found the best natural, aluminum-free deodorant for me. I’ve been trying to switch to natural deodorant for months now. There’s no hard evidence that traditional commercial deodorants cause breast cancer, but there’s enough Internet worrying about it that I took notice. Then there’s the fact that the aluminum in those store-bought deodorants works by blocking your body’s natural attempts to sweat. Then there’s the fact that aluminum is apparently what causes those yellow stains in the armpits of your favourite white shirts. I use natural shampoo and natural make-up and natural oils and butters, so why not natural, aluminum-free deodorant?

Well, it turns out I’m really sensitive to them. I first tried pure baking soda mixed with a little water to make a paste. Then I tried Arm & Hammer Essentials Natural Deodorant. Then Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil Deodorant with Lavender. Then Tom’s of Maine Long Lasting Wild Lavender Deodorant. Then an Aromaco bar from LUSH. I even tried a men’s deodorant that didn’t claim to have any anti-perspirant properties at all. All of them turned my innocent armpits into a rashy mess. Sometimes it’d take days for the redness to set in, and I’d be hopeful for a moment, but it’d eventually turn up in every case.

I wanted to give up a couple of times and go back to my tried-and-true commercial deodorant, but I’d been through the two-or-three-week detoxifying period where my body was supposedly getting used to the lack of aluminum and expelling all of its pent-up nastiness, and I hated to lose my momentum. But because of the rashes, I kept trying to go without any deodorant at all, and I was tired of smelling myself at night when I was trying to sleep.

And then I read my friend Cassie‘s blog post about her very sensitive armpits and her switch to Bubble & Bee‘s ‘Pit Putty in Geranium Lime. She’d had all of the same problems I had and swore ‘Pit Putty actually worked and didn’t upset her fussy skin. So I bought two sticks of the stuff (along with a couple of lip balms, because I can’t resist flavors like coconut-lime).

DREAM COME TRUE. I noticed even on the first day of use that something just felt . . . different . . . from the other natural deodorants I’d tried. Over the next couple of weeks, I felt like my body really was getting used to the ‘Pit Putty in a way that it hadn’t with the others. I seemed to stink less every day and to need less of the stuff. I love the way it smells so citrusy, and I love that it instantly deodorizes me even if I’ve been lazing around the house for hours like unemployed people are wont to do. I’ve been applying it two or three times daily as my body gets used to it, and I’ve never had a problem with skin sensitivity.

It was going on kind of crumbly at first so that I had to rub in the flakes after I applied it, but I’ve found that if I twist it up so that it’s just peeking over the sides of the container, I don’t have any crumbling. It feels like powder going on, and it keeps feeling like powder all day long. It doesn’t leave any residue on my clothes, and my clothes never come off smelling funky like they did with other natural deodorants. I have no complaints, only praise. I highly recommend that you try ‘Pit Putty if you’d like to make the switch to natural deodorant, and I suggest getting the Geranium Lime or Original scents without baking soda in case you have the same sensitivities I spent so many months dealing with.

After just a few weeks with ‘Pit Putty, I finally feel like I’ve found something that’s not only as good as my old deodorant but actually better. Huge, huge thanks to Cassie and to Bubble & Bee.