#smelllikeahippy

 Alright, so... I was in one of the local big box grocery stores a couple weeks ago. I had a store gift card to use up, so the $4 and change (ish) price tag got dropped down to under $3. 

I bought the Tom's of Maine Natural Strength Deodorant, for Women, Natural Deodorant, Fresh Coconut, 2.1 oz. As Amazon has roughly the same retail price ($4.95) as the grocer's I'm not feeling too bad about the money I spent.

I don't want to go and jinx myself, but in the week I've been wearing it, I've not had any reactions to it. The only challenge I'm facing with it, is the fact in the container it smells like a hint of coconut. On my body I smell like a patchouli'd hippy. I do have to agree with one of the reviews on Amazon, where they said they smell like they trolled through a Vermont co-op. Someone on the Tom's website claims it "smells like weed" - like they smoked up. 😶

I'm just lucky to be using it for the week and not have my pits look like I rubbed sheet metal laced with sand paper on them.

Honestly, it's not bad... but if you're not used to the fragrance of an old vegan lesbian, you're not going to like this stick. Okay, okay... don't jump down my throat. I realize I just passed judgement on a group of people who have a particular taste in certain genders, spiced smells and non traditional foods, but I happen to know a few of those humans and have memories of them from my youth. To which I correlated this smell to. My first thought (after a day) was "I smell like an old hippy lesbian", although I am not one to fall into those categories mentioned, it does happen to be an oddly clean smell, in a round about way. 

Sounds insane. I know. The oils must have seeped into my head already and screwed with my brain. No wonder I've had problems concentrating this week. 

It's weird - I know I said I don't want to jinx myself (because this brand seems to be working), but if it has all these different oils in it (coconut, castor, soybean, palm) and little of the essentials ("natural fragrance") , it's surprising that I'm not getting break outs from it. Because yes, the scent is strong of patchouli, but it's tame in the negative effect to my pits. There has to be little essential oils in this, as I've not had an adverse reaction like I've had with other products that have "made with essential oils!" on their label. The lack of coconut is confusing, but the heft of being a hippy is overpowering odd. 

Overpowering is the wrong word. I mean, I smell slightly like I bathed in some of the different earthy essentials, but no one has come up to me and complained that I need a bath or a shower. I made a comment to someone I work with, and they said they don't even smell it. Like they weren't paying attention to me, even though I need to pass by her to get to my office / desk (we work in close quarters). We usually smell certain residents when they walk into the room, as they seriously douse themselves in all the oils (Emi and Erica know who I am talking about). So for me to be non existent on the nasal radar...that's a good thing. 

I am going to finish using this flavor, but I'm on the fence on buying it again. If it's not a fluke that it doesn't smell like coconut, I'm not going to rush out and get that beachy clean feeling from another stick. I'll maybe try a different scent, but I still have a spray bottle of Dove left from when I got my Native order, plus one more Native stick. 

I'm covered for now, so I'll see what happens in the new year.

Until then... stay fresh,

Cheers;