Most of my life, I’ve had issues with deodorants. When I was going to high school and working in the ungodly Arkansas heat, I’d quickly sweat out both my shirt and undershirt. I got in the habit of only buying antiperspirants with the maximum amount of aluminum in it (I think it was 21%). I knew the aluminum wasn’t good for me, but nothing else worked. I’d still sweat out my shirts, but at least I wouldn’t stink. I kept the habit up through college, and when I ended up in Miami I of course stuck with it. Brut brand is what I settled on. When I got off of active duty and moved back to Wisconsin, I decided to try to go to regular deodorant. The fact that I was now married probably made me less afraid of stinking, too. Regular Old Spice burned my armpits and left a bright red rash after one use, so I stuck with the Brut Antiperspirant.
One day, I was at Wal-Mart (I know. This was years ago though. I almost never go to Wal-Mart anymore) buying some deodorant. They had raised the price on the Brut by a dollar. So I decided to go with the Arm & Hammer antiperspirant, as I had used it before, it was effective, and it was now less than the Brut. When I went to grab a stick, I noticed a new product, Arm & Hammer Naturals deodorant. Aluminum free, and I could pronounce most of the ingredients. They also had a woman’s version, so I bought a stick for myself and one for the wife. From that day on, this is what we both used. It didn’t make my armpits break out, and it was tolerably effective.
By tolerably effective, I mean that I would put 25-30 strokes under each arm in the morning, and as long as I didn’t work out or do any heavy labor, I’d smell OK at the end of the day. Heavy labor or a workout would result in me needing to shower and reapply deodorant. I had no plans to switch deodorants, until I discovered Honey Hog Farm’s Pit Sauce Deodorant. Not only did it have half the ingredients of the Arm & Hammer, but they were also ingredients I was already familiar with from Courtney’s soap and lotion making. Courtney had talked about developing a deodorant recipe to accompany her homemade soaps and lotion bars, but lately she’s been pretty busy sewing custom dresses. So I ordered a stick of Pit Sauce for each of us to try.
I have overall been quite happy with Pit Sauce. It costs more than the Arm & Hammer, and there is less deodorant in a stick, but I also think I use less daily. With Arm & Hammer, I’d do 25-30 strokes under each arm. With Pit Sauce, you don’t really do strokes. You simply cover the entire pit (once) and you’re done. It is important to cover the entire pit—the one time I had a stink come through was because I had followed the directions and just done 3-4 strokes under each arm. One one side, this had resulted in full coverage. On the other, it left an uncoated strip that I discovered by smell. Once I switched to visually covering the entire armpit, I never again had this problem. In general, I think Pit Sauce is more effective and better smelling than the Arm & Hammer
The other thing I noticed is that because I wear merino wool undershirts, which remain odor-free for days, I am often putting on the same shirt over freshly applied Pit Sauce for several days in a row. After a few days, a fairly thick layer of Pit Sauce does build up on the shirt. If your wear cotton undershirts and thus a new one every day, this wouldn’t be a problem, but it does get annoying with the merino undershirts. However, the Pit Sauce does seem to wash off fine.
Courtney has one synthetic dress that is her fancy dress, and she found that the Pit Sauce did not wash out easily from it. However, she found that it washed out just fine from her natural fiber dresses. Courtney also felt that the Pit Sauce lasted longer than the Arm & Hammer deodorant, and that if she didn’t take a shower one day, she also didn’t have to reapply deodorant, while with the Arm & Hammer she was applying at least once a day and often twice a day. In conclusion, I fully endorse Honey Hog Farm’s Pit Sauce Deodorant, and it will continue to be my daily go-to. Give it a try!