Sunday, April 19, 2015

Personal hygiene update: Part 1

I don't care for the term "crunchy", which Google says means "politically and environmentally liberal" (whatever THAT is supposed to mean), but is usually used when referring to any alternative approach or thing involving personal hygiene.

Maybe it's because my recent reading experience has been saturated with crunchy blogger this and crunchy mama that. Seriously, there are hundreds of those, if not thousands, all professing to lead the crunchy life. Which is actually well and good as long as you don't brag about it. I guess coming across all of them at one go overwhelmed me.

Anyway, I've been using the DIY deodorant I described previously, and I actually managed to get Enfant Terrible to try it too! (He's actually game for anything as long as it's not eggy.) It has been demonstrated in our sample size of 2 that the deodorant is 100% effective.

One limitation to this study is the size of the tubes used, which are actually lip balm tubes. I haven't found suppliers nearer to Malaysia who stock deo tubes, and shipping them from the US would cost more than the tubes themselves. Unless I buy more tubes, but then I'd be spending close to RM400 on plastic?!

The second limitation is that the powder portion of the formulation renders the mini deo stick slightly crumbly, so it doesn't glide on smoothly. Come to think of it, this is true of Nivea stick deodorant, but nevermind. ET manages to break off bits when he applies it, and just smoothes it in before dressing.

A third possible limitation is that people who don't like the smell of coconut might dislike it, which makes them monsters in my book. (There are also people who say sandalwood and coconut are "Indian" smells. Ya rly.)

Nevertheless, this deodorant is highly effective and efficacious (works when you apply it after sweating as well), is cost-effective to produce, and has its own pleasant smell.

*A portion of this work was styled as a scientific research manuscript. Because day job bleeds into nightmares sometimes.

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