I stink!

And some of my stuff stinks, too. How did this happen? Biology! I’ve been battling the stink since I was a teenager.

I’ve spent years testing out different antiperspirants and deoderants, and they’ve all neutralized the stink, but I started to worry about what was in them. Does aluminum cause cancer or alzheimers? Do I really want to wait for definitive research results? I also noticed that I really had to scrub my armpits to completely remove their residue in the shower, which was disconcerting. So my quest to find a better way of combatting the stink moved to a whole new level.

After much searching, I found my answer on Make-Up Alley: Baking soda! Many of the reviewers there claimed it was as effective as deodorant/antiperspirant, but without all the potentially toxic chemicals. For those who found using baking soda alone to be too harsh, they mixed it with corn starch to eliminate skin irritation. While I was skeptical about throwing out my deodorant, I thought I’d give it a try. I poured some baking soda into a small Tupperware container and after showering, dusted a pinch around each pit area and went about my day. Since I was more than a little worried that it wouldn’t work, I informed my colleagues of my experiment and they promised to apprise me should I smell less than fresh. I went through the entire work day and evening and my pits remained odorless! And there was no residue on my clothing, either. A true miracle.

Since I converted to using baking soda as deodorant, I also began using it to manage other stinky problems. The Make-Up Alley reviewers had a large variety of uses for baking soda, and these are the ones that I swear by: I dust my shoes and orthotics with baking soda to completely remove the funky foot smell, put half a cup in each laundry load for fresh clothing and linens while preventing the mildew smell in the washer, and throw some into the litter box when the pee smell starts drifting into other areas of the house. Another awesome use for baking soda: exfoliation. I mix it with apple cider vinegar and use it as a scrub to exfoliate my face. It’s amazing at cleaning out pores and removing dead skin.