Review: Lavanila Healthy Deodorant

Maybe this is going to sound weird to some of you, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have deodorant in my purse. There is literally nothing worse than being somewhere important and smelling yourself. Purse deo is an absolute necessity and I pity the sweaty fool who ventures out of the house without it. Recently, Lavanila sent me a couple of their “healthy deodorant” products to test out. I will rarely say no to a potential deodorant review because a) I’m literally never without deodorant and b) some of the ingredients in large brand deodorants are kind of scary. These deodorants don’t have parabens or aluminum in them at all! Plus, the Lavanila deodorants, as you might suspect from the name, combine vanilla with all sorta of great essenses like coconut, blackberry and even grapefruit to come up with really mellow but noticeably delicious scents.

I received  pure vanilla and lavender vanilla. They come in adorably purse-sized containers that don’t scream “deodorant” but instead have lovely packaging that looks modern and downright pretty. I threw the lavender vanilla into my purse and the pure vanilla into my travel bag, as I had a big trip to New York coming up and I’d planned to take the biggest risk ever: test a new deodorant while on a business trip. Are you impressed by my chutzpah? You should be, because it was risky, and that risky only partially paid off.

Here’s the tl;dr nitty gritty:

• First of all, the scent of these deodorants is probably my favorite thing about them. The lavender vanilla smelled really flesh and not too “fake perfume”-like. The vanilla was more mellow than the lavender, which I didn’t mind, and the pure vanilla was the same – mild.
• The size of the deodorant containers is perfect. They are purse-sized – even pocket-sized, and definitely glove box sized.
• The texture feels like… deodorant texture. Pretty simple. It goes on like other solid deodorants, and I’m pleased to report that it doesn’t clump or get weird when you actually do sweat. These are not labelled as antiperspirants.
• The Lavanila deodorants don’t last as long as your average big name, drugstore deodorant. But… that’s where the purse deo comes in.

On my trip to New York, I started out every morning by taking a shower and using Lavanila’s deodorant. After that, I’d throw it in my purse and head out for 14 hour days of random walking, cab-hailing, and lots of eating. I was spending lots of time trying to develop relationships with new people that I’d like to work with, so distracting them with my “it never really gets above 65 degrees so my sweat points is probably lower” Seattle stank is not something that I was interested in doing. For the first couple of hours, I felt awesome. Every once in a while I’d catch a hint of lavender or vanilla and feel confident and damnit, I felt fancy. I usually wear men’s cologne or Lush perfumes, so the base of lavender vanilla was complimentary.  After those first couple of hours, I would take off my jacket and feel like a gross, stray dog that or a 13 year old boy – whichever simile you like best, you can use. I wasn’t a stink-bomb, but I was definitely more aware of whether or not my deodorant was working and that is the antithesis of what a deodorant should do for you. Not having to worry about whether or not you smell funky is the why a good deodorant can get you high on your own stench-confidence! So every few hours, I’d sneak away into the bathroom of a Starbucks and stealthily reapply, though it appeared to become less effective with each reapplication. Ultimately, I can’t say that I hated the stuff because the scents were really nice, and were I not walking around NYC in a blazer and leggings, I’m not sure that it would have caused the amount of frantic pit-attention that it did. I love that it’s paraben-free and I really love that it’s full of healthy ingredients like essential oils and antioxidants. Skin loves that stuff!

The verdict: Yeah, I’d recommend it.

I’d definitely recommend it for people who don’t do a lot of running around in their day to day life. Office jobbers, this would be the perfect thing to keep in your desk when you’re running late on a “do your mascara on the bus” kind of day. Even after my crazy NYC trip, I ended up using all of the lavender vanilla deodorant – all of it! It’s just too easy to keep in my bag, and I find that I use it more often than I think! If you’re going to overuse deodorant, it should probably be healthy deodorant, right? I would not recommend it as a sport deodorant. The scents aren’t strong enough to take care of serious-business sweating. As far as natural deodorants go, though, this is one of the top – and I’ve tried my fair share. It would be a great thing to get for someone who was on the fence about abandoning their chemical-laden drugstore brand, but thinks natural deodorants are all patchouli and under-arm crystal-rubbing.

Have you tried natural deodorant? What’s your favorite?

If you want to give Lavanila’s natural deodorant line a try, you can find it here:

• Lavanila’s site! They have all of the scents, including vanilla blackberry, which I’m dying to smell…
• Sephora has a pretty good selection of three! Coconut, vanilla, and lavender.
• Amazon has five individual scents available.
• Skinstore has all six scents, too!
• Beauty.com has grapefruit, vanilla and lavender.
• DermStore has all six scents and some cool multi-sets.
• BeautyBar has four to choose from.

It seems to be an even $14 pretty much everywhere! Definitely more expensive than drugstore brands, but maybe worth it if you don’t mind investing in good ingredients!