Okay, be honest.  Have you tried Tom’s or another natural deodorant?  They totally don’t work.

It’s not just me.  I’ve asked all my friends and smelled my laundry after a day in natural deodorant.  Great, I just lost my appetite.

Seriously, they do not work and it’s no “secret”.  (pun intended)

We all have armpits.  Things under there don’t see the sun much.

Plus, it’s moist.  (yep, I said it)

But natural deodorants don’t work, so we all either live in our own eau de life, or we begrudgingly return to the chemical-laden grocery store deodorant brands like Secret or Degree.

I know I did. 

But even when I succumbed to chemical-laden, non-natural, clinical-strength deodorants, here’s how my day looked:

It’s 3 p.m. and I’ve been entertaining my toddler all day.  I want to go to the park or meet friends for dinner but I Just. Feel. Gross.  Instead, the baby and I shower.  It eats up that precious sunlit free time we had, and the day closes on a much less exciting note than had I been able to continue out-and-about enjoying my day.

The next day I repeat the same scenario but I try to reapply my clinical-strength deodorant and run out the door after my son’s nap.  However, the minute my hands hit my steering wheel I can smell the sour aroma of a day well spent… but this aroma is going to cut the fun short, for sure.

At the park I see a friend.  She wants a hug and I give her some variation of a hug that resembles T-Rex giving a chest bump.  Are we close enough that I can tell her my pits stink?

This is absurd: tomorrow I’m not leaving the house without a midday shower.  How inconvenient!  But sadly, how necessary.

Every day has played out like this since I had my son. 

I need to change clothes constantly but the only thing that really helps me feel clean is a midday shower.

Before I became a mother, I spent $30 a week in dry cleaning bills because I was so self-consciously aware of my business suits smelling fresh.

By the end of a work day, there’s no way I would go network after hours in my collared work shirt; I didn’t feel clean.  While I didn’t bother to smell myself; I felt sticky and soiled and wanted desperately to wash the day off of me.

Of course, if I did dare to take a whiff, it wasn’t pleasant.

In retrospect, my inability to feel fresh cost me thousands; most tragically in missed opportunities.

Let’s look at a happier time: today.

A couple years ago one of my best girlfriends told me that she wanted me to try some new deodorant.  Yeah, no.  I don’t have that bad a stench.  Right?”  

(Crickets.)

Okay, I’ll try it.

I never knew how much my body odor was invading my life.

My life is so different now.

I wake up.  I workout.  I play with my son and we visit libraries, swimming pools, or hiking trails.  He naps.  I write for a couple hours.  He wakes: we continue our day.  We play, we dine, we socialize.

Once the day is over, we get our shower and it creates a warm environment ripe for an easy transition to bedtime.

In the meantime, my days rock so much more.

I’ve played, worked out, dined, changed for dinner from my yoga clothes to a cute tank with jeans, and lived my life without feeling gross or dirty.

I can now live an active, athletic life without feeling dirty all the time.

I can go from hiking to a romantic dinner without a hint of feeling grimy.  This stuff has changed my life.

Best of all, my body odor is virtually non-existent.  Every day.  Even if I hike 6 miles.  (Believe me, I’ve tested this theory at length.)

When I began using clay & beeswax deodorant from Routine, I thought I was buying into some crunchy hippy patchouli-scented waste of money.

I was dead wrong.

I once wrote a series of articles on the affects of chemicals in beauty products on our bodies.  They’re terrible and I made a point to move to organic shampoos and toothpastes from then on.

But have you ever tried organic or natural deodorants?  They’re terrible.  They seem to actually make B.O. worse.

I could never use natural deodorant.

I guess I just needed to use the dirty stuff to stay clean…

But I desperately wanted to avoid aluminum zirconium, aluminum chlorohydrate, parabens, triclosan, propylene glycol, and all the other horrifying crap they put into deodorants.

Aluminum is even believed by many doctors to toxically impact our brains; particularly linking to Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.  No thanks!

But suffering the affects of B.O. thanks to “natural deodorant” was making me equally insane…

Enter Routine Cream.  

I don’t know a lot about this company at the time of writing this article because I buy my Routine Cream from my girlfriend who sells it in her yoga studio.  (I don’t do yoga.  I just buy cool stuff from her store, tbh.)

But this deodorant has seriously changed my life.

It’s not some annoying MLM cream that friends who haven’t contacted you in four years are going to start pushing down your throat while claiming they just want to “reconnect”.  Boo!

I’ve done just enough digging to be able to share this:

Routine Cream is totally natural deodorant that’s packaged in glass, not plastic!

The width of the jar’s mouth is wide enough that you can get every last morsel of your deodorant out.  Bonus points for smart packaging that gives me a LOT more for my money!

Routine Cream ingredients are totally natural and range from marigold to ylang ylang flower oil.  I don’t know what a ylang ylang flower is either, but it’s natural and that’s what counts.  It’s no aluminum or some other petroleum-derived chemical that’s going to seep into my pores and take over my brain.  Score!

Did you know that applying deodorant with an applicator can case bacteria in your armpits to stick to your deodorant stick?  Yuck!

The clay & beeswax deodorant in Routine Cream eliminates that risk because you apply it with your fingers or a little spoon, not a gummed up, bacteria-laden plastic applicator.

There are about a dozen scents including one scent-free and one vegan offering and they’re tested on friends, not animals.

(And what’s more, I found out that you can totally avoid patchouli scents, such as my personal favorite, Maggie’s Citrus Farm.)

 Johnny’s Cash is a sexy man scent, but because I run out of my Routine Cream rather quickly (I apply liberally, I admit), I often steal it from my husband.

(It still works for me!)

Do yourself… nay – do the people you love a favor and get yourself some natural deodorant that actually works.

Find Routine Cream at www.routinecream.com and use (all caps) code HAPPYMOM for $5 off. >>>>>>  (OR A FREE SAMPLE SIZE!)

*** I make no money off of this.  I’m promoting it because I BELIEVE in the product and the founders are boss babes I want to support.  Plus they’re Canadian.  Canadians are so nice! ***

If you aren’t interested in the deodorant, you have to just seriously check out how beautiful their packaging is and inform yourself a little about why natural deodorant is really, truly important to the health of you and your family.

If you want to go with the grocery store stuff, don’t blame me if they call you “stinky tom” behind your back.

Check this out >>  (I get no commission, only the joy of satisfyingly scent-free hugs with friends.)