Tuesday, March 10, 2009

"My Deodorant Failed Me" or "Danger: Too Much Information Ahead"


You read the title, right? There is definitely TMI ahead, so consider yourself warned.


Um, today was rough. I guess mostly the end of it where I smelled worse than I've ever smelled in my life. And I really had no good reason to, like running 10 miles or even just 1.


I am trying to save the world. I have reusable grocery bags (which I actually remembered to take to the store for the first time on Sunday! I've had them for months), natural dishwashing paste (mixed reviews on that one...it left my stainless silverware cloudy), whole wheat pasta, lots of tofu and the chemical-free deodorant alluded to above.


There are lots of chemicals in most of the mass produced soaps and cleansers we find in stores; these additives are harsh on our skin and bad for the Earth. I've found great natural soaps that perform beautifully, so several months ago I embarked on a mission to switch to a chemical-free deodorant. I first tried out Tom's of Maine in one of the scents...I think it was Lemongrass. That worked pretty well if I really put it on heavily, but it was a bit harsh and burned a bit after a while and actually made the skin around my armpits (can you believe I typed THAT word on my blog?!) peel a little bit. So next I tried Tom's of Maine unscented which didn't irritate my skin, but every once in a while it would fail me a bit. I remember the first time I noticed it I was reaching for a paint sample in Lowe's and got quite an embarrassing surprise. I had had a dinner date with my brother earlier that evening after which I definitely hugged him, so I had to call him and apologize for any...offense. So embarrassing. So I redoubled my efforts to apply plenty of natural Earth-saving Tom's.


In light of the ok results with the Tom's products I decided to audition a new player: Kiss My Face Active Enzyme Fragrance Free. I think I started using that this past Sunday. Monday went pretty well. Than came Tuesday.


Its late afternoon today and I'm washing my hands after a bathroom break. While reaching for the paper towels...yes, you guessed it, another embarrassing surprise. I was like, "Shoot! I'm just trying to save the Earth here!" I had sweated a tiny bit while running errands at lunch time (to clarify I didn't run at all...it was pretty warm today, though), but not enough to warrant an embarrassing surprise. We were done for the day just a couple hours later, and I decided to wait and shower after the 30 minute walk (2nd one in two days...we're trying to save ourselves along with the Earth!) with hubs. It was just a walk! But by the time I got back the situation had gone from bad to horrendously worse. I couldn't help but LAUGH really hard at the horrendousness. It was CRAZY! Kiss My Face let me DOWN! Absolutely the WORST I have smelled in my life. I don't know if I've EVER smelled another human being as offensive as I was.


What am I going to do? I want to save the Earth, but I also want hubs, with his ridiculously keen sense of smell, to want to be around me. And friends are nice, too. Sigh...there are a couple other brands I can look into. I shall continue the mission, but I might have to smell like a man tomorrow...the only other deodorant in the house is hub's, so hopefully he'll let me borrow it.