Best natural deodorants that really work - tried & tested

    By Lucy Slight for Beauty Heaven, 7 December 2018.

The road to finding the perfect natural deodorant is bumpy. There’s the first time you wore a grey marle T-shirt after ditching the antiperspirant only to find yourself on the fast train to sweat-patch city; that time you thought you’d try your new natural deodorant at the gym on the day your instructor decides to make you partner up with a stranger; and of course, that time you couldn’t concentrate at work because all you could smell was… yourself.

I’ve been through all that and more, so I’m now well qualified to give you a list of the natural deodorants I’ve found that ACTUALLY work. I hope they work for you, too!

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that natural deodorants have no antiperspirant properties, meaning you’ve got to get used to the idea that you will now sweat. It’s a natural bodily function which helps our body to regulate temperature by allowing heat loss through evaporation. It might take a while for your body to adjust to sweating again, so you might find you sweat a lot more than you naturally would at first. Give it a good few weeks and you’ll be used to it in no time.

I found that my yardstick for measuring whether a natural deodorant worked for me was whether or not it made me smell funky. There were a number that I tried which gave me that weird deodorant-mixed-with-sweat scent and made me feel really self-conscious. The products I’ve listed all ticked the box when it came to neutralising odour, and funnily enough they all have that same thick and almost powdery texture, so I put it down to the combination of sodium bicarbonate (which helps nix that odour), essential oils and natural butters (like shea).

First in Lucy's list of favourite tried & tested natural deodorants:

Little Mango Vanilla Natural Deodorant, $17.99 

This New Zealand made aluminium-free deodorant contains shea butter, mango butter, coconut oil, tapioca, sodium bicarbonate, sweet almond oil and other essential oils. Because it’s in a jar, you do have to apply it with your fingers, which actually isn’t as gross as it sounds. Most of the time you’re applying it straight after a shower so you’re clean as a whistle anyway. I did notice a little bit of yellow staining on my white T-shirts – so that’s something to be aware of if you’re a fan of a white tee, too. However, I had no odour issues using this particular scent – and there are plenty more scents to choose from, too. For those with sensitive skin, there is a lavender-scented sensitive formula available – the lavender helping to soothe and prevent skin irritation.