This year, I bought most of my Christmas shopping online. We made humungous fragrance free gift baskets for every person we know who we’d ever want to come into our home. Cause, let’s face it: if they’re not FF, they can’t come in. (And we’ve been missing people. A lot.) My daughter found some deodorants while doing the weekly shopping at Lamana (an independent Grocery store) that we added to the baskets at the last minute; so, because we had already ordered fragrance free deodorants online (here), most people now have a choice of deodorants to wear when visiting us! (For some people (who use a lot of fragrance/haispray in their ordinary lives, we keep a change of clothes here for them. That way, they can ‘be’ fragrance free. Until, I can get better, this is something we may need to do more of.)
These are based on the same recipe that’s in all the Crystal deodorants, but they are packaged so that they come in a metal spray can that squirts, not sprays. I’d say these are marketed at teenagers, men, and women who are in the ‘cool’ crowd, because they look that way–cool. Well, in a Lynx-spray-can kind of way (not that Lynx is cool, but Unilever do a great job at marketing/hoodwinking it to be that way), so it’s great to see the companies, who are actually the good guys, catching up–because their products actually ARE COOL ( Well, at least, they are not causing the wearer of the product to infringe on other people’s right to breath, forcing those they come in contact with to breathe chemical laden air, and to get sick from fragrance ingredients dispersed in a solvent and petrochemical based hydrocarbon formula; and at most, they are not gassing young boys in their own bathrooms!), so it’s great to see some clever marketing in this area.
At first glance, you would not think these are fragrance free deodorants, at all:
So I guess I haven’t done such a bad job at getting my teenager to read labels after all. I’m quite chuffed and proud actually.
But I’m supper proud of this company for going this way with the marketing, not sure if they intended this pun though:
“Natural. Feel fresh all day – even after strenuous activity. Give your commercial body sprays the ax.”
You see, overseas from Australia, ‘Lynx’ is marketed as ‘Axe’ by the same company, Unilever. (And for those who don’t know, Unilever are not only pushing fragrance chemicals to the masses, but using smarmy, sleazy, sexist, bordering on misogynistic, tactics that stink just as much as their ethics do, to get them to buy these toxic fragrance chemicals. Evil much?)
If you click on this here link, you’ll see the Lynx packaging (actually, I just changed my mind, after being excluded from classes this year (because of companies like this one) I can’t share my New Years cheer with them, so you’ll just have to imagine what a can of Lynx looks like); and if you click on this here link, you’ll see the Crystal Rock Packaging. Cause Crystal Rock Rocks!
More information: crystal rock natural deodorant spray for men – 24 hour protection – unscented (unisex no fragrance) 118ml. Ingredients: Aqua/eau/water, caprylyl-capryl glucoside, potassium alum, fragrance/parfum*, sodium bicarbonate, benzoic acid, zinc gluconate.
*The Unscented version (as shown above) does not contain the fragrance/parfum, which is listed on the ingredients of the unscented version found online. I know this, because I bought it. But you would not know it from searching online. It’s a bit stupid for companies not to list the fragrance free/unscented version without the fragrance/parfum in the ingredients listing: it’s not like it’s just a personal choice, for some people; it can be very serious whether the product contains that particular collection of ingredients or not.
Hopefully, you, or someone you know, can find this in your local supermarket. If not, it’s available online from places like here
There are a whole heap of fragrance free, although not necessarily unscented versions, available in Australia, here and here
In the US, the Rock Unscented version, and the others are available here
More Links for Deodorants
More Natural Deodorants, from Vrindavan Body Care in Austalia
Miessence Aroma Free (and other naturally scented) deodorants
Any company who’d like to become a Retailers or Distributors can find out more here
More Articles
In the US: Ron and Lisa: The Healthy Home Team: Deodorant: Ingredients to choose and ingredients to loose
Elizabeth Rose: Natural Beauty Guide: Natural and Eco-friendly
Natural Life Magazine: Spraying Yourself with Toxic Chemicals is Not Sexy
In Norway: Annelie Molin: Body spray – Lynx – Axe – Blacklisted
In Australia: The Allergy Whisperer: Scents and Smells
More in Australia: Sara Wilson: Part I Toxin Free Products
And Australia: Sarah Wilson: Part II Toxin Free Products
In the US: Campaign for Safer Cosmetics
This is an awesome article!! I can’t wait to go find me some better deodorant. Sharing!
Thank you. If I were rich, I’d give the whole world freebies of this stuff! And we could all be healthier, lymph nodes and all.
Do they WORK though? I desperately want to get away from the chemicals and aluminium in ordinary deodorants, but all the “natural” ones I have tried don’t work for me 🙁 They work for my husband though, so I guess I should be grateful for that. Poison deodorants are the only toxic product I still use (Only when leaving the house, which isn’t often though).
Yes, I find that they work. But they need to be applied to skin that is clean to begin with; whereas the other deodorants can be used to cover up odours, these are more of a preventative because the minerals absorb the sweat before it can make an odour. I’m not sure the function of aluminium but I do know that its been found in breast tissue biopsies (not to say it’s the cause of breast cancer, but the research is not favourable towards its use). My daughter recently bought QV naked deodorant (cause it comes out of a spray can, and that’s a bit of a novelty for her, having grown up without spray cans in the house most of her life (she had to use this outside)), this one is unscented, but when she went back to buy another, there were two available, one with aluminium and one without, so I gather people like to use this aluminium.
There is also a new brand called Fresca, which I’ve heard good reviews about. Personally, I’d only use the unscented one, but I’d really like it if other people used these, it’d make breathing a whole lot easier.
Are you sensitive to chemicals?
I sure am and it makes you sit up and take notice.
Aluminium is a toxic poison to our bodies, I steer clear of it, and I am certain that a lot of Breast Cancer cases are caused from using deodorants (Not to mention the toxic perfumes and the rest of the vile ingredients they use). It’s a bit of a mine-field really.
The more research I do on the toxins in our everyday products the more I shake my head at the regulators who allow us to be bombarded with poisonous substances just because they are deemed to be in “safe quantities” in foods and other products. They are so very obviously NOT safe, and they are never tested in combination or over time. In reality this “testing” is completely bogus and it is up to us as individuals with a brain to work it all out ourselves. (Now who put that soap-box there? lol)
I know, I can’t believe it sometimes. There are so many people now who say that chemicals make them sick; that should be proof enough that those products are not okay. It’s only logical that if one particular ingredient is toxic to quite a few people, that many toxic ingredients together, over a longer period of time is a recipe for disaster. [I put the soapbox there, welcome!]
Great post, Miche. And I love my crystal rock deodarant sticks that I’ve been using for years and years and years…and of course it lasts like almost a year! Very cool.
Good to know there are new products that might look more appealing to the teens and still be as good as my old fashioned crystal stick 🙂
Also, love the video – very useful and great. I used to clean bench tops with diluted Eucalyptus oil which is also good for killing cockroaches and acting as a disenfectant. I will try the lavender (probably nicer smelling) and the white vinegar and oil of cloves for the bathroom, I didn’t know it killed mould. YAY!
Thank you Michelle. I too, love the crystal
Yes, we need healthy companies to play hardball and match the advertising towards our youth [i’ve got my grannie hat on] that those irresponsible companies put out. I don’t want other people to end up like me. I’ll do a post one day about all the perfume I used to use. It was a lot.
I updated the video. I had the wrong one up there (it was still good though). this one is about the topic of this post: deodorant. These girls are amazing. so healthy, so inspiring. See, our world is changing for the better!
I go through a bottle a week of cheap white vinegar in my bathroom/ and for the toilet too.