I Gave up Deodorant for 30 Days and This Is What Happened


You’re probably wondering why I gave up deodorant for 30 days?  Well, it all started when I was standing in my closet looking at my clothes.  I was looking at the new shirts I had just purchased and discovered they already had some glittery yellowish brown stains under the armpits.  I was upset.

I started googling what actually caused the yellowish brown stains and discovered it wasn’t the sweat itself that caused the stains.  It happened to be the aluminum combined with sweat that was the culprit.  My first thought was to research natural aluminum free deodorants.

But I wanted to try something else instead….. What if I stopped using deodorant for 30 days?  Would I see a difference?  Would my clothes be stained free?

natural aluminum free deodorants

The answer is Yes!

Now, most of you are probably thinking I could never do that.  I would stink.

During this experience, I went about my normal day to day activities. I Worked out 4x’s a week and what I discovered is I normally didn’t sweat that much, to begin with.  I was a glistener…  therefore I really didn’t need much of an antiperspirant.  But what about deodorant?  Did I stink?  Imagine yourself coming home from the gym, getting undressed to take a shower and sticking your armpits in your husbands face.  Asking him, do I stink?  Yup, that was me.   Multiple times throughout the month.   He was a good sport and honestly answered… his answer, with a bit of disappointment, was No.

Antiperspirants vs. Deodorants.  Aren’t they the same?

No.  Antiperspirants have chemicals like aluminum to stop the sweating.  A deodorant masks and neutralizes the odor.

To my surprise, a lot of my friends were looking for a similar solution. Each had a different reason on why they didn’t want a deodorant with aluminum.  So I asked them on Facebook what their favorite all natural aluminum free deodorants were.   If you aren’t ready to go deodorant free. Here is a list of the Top 15 recommendations.

All of the items listed are Momslifeboat affiliate links.  Purchasing through these links helps you support Momslifeboat without any cost to you. 

15 Aluminum Free Deodorants

Malin + Goetz

Bali Secrets Natural Deodorant – Organic & Vegan

Organic Island Deodorant

Freedom All Natural Deodorant

ORGANIC 101 Lemon Haze USDA Certified, All Natural, Extra-Strength Deodorant

Thai Crystal Deodorant

Naked

Piper wai

Crystal Roll On

Toms (white ones highly recommended vs. green)

Jason’s Deodorants

Primal Pit Paste

Schmidt’s

Naturally Fresh Deodorant Crystal

Dr. Hauschka Rose Deodorant

A few of my friends also told me they made their own homemade deodorants.

HOMEMADE DEODORANT IDEAS:

Option 1:

Baking soda paste.  Using equal parts of water and baking soda.  Applying too much can burn.

Option 2:

Melt coconut oil and beeswax together over double boiler. stir until everything is melted.   Add remaining ingredients
Stir until all ingredients blended together and runny. Quickly pour deodorant into the deodorant stick and smooth the top.  Note:  Keep cool dry place.  Deodorant can melt in warmer climates.

Now you all may be wondering… If after the 30 days I went back to wearing deodorant.  Or did I switch to the aluminum free deodorants? Well… considering I live in the desert with these 100-degree weather, you may be surprised that my answer is no.  It’s been over 2 years now and I’m still not using deodorant.

Every body type is different.  I’d encourage you to try it for yourself.  The cooler months are a perfect time to start.  Comment below and let me know your results.

Avoid Useless Gifts – My Top 5 Things to consider when purchasing a gift for children

The holiday shopping season is underway and many of you are getting into that shopping mood. The kids are writing their wish list and you’re hoping to grab as many things you can off their list.

Top 5 Things to Consider When Purchasing a Gift

Before you grab everything off a child’s wish list, I want you to start thinking about the things you are buying for them. One of my biggest pet peeves is when a child gets a useless item.  I know the thought is there and I really appreciate that.  But sometimes people are in such a hurry to finish their shopping they end up buying an item these children end up using once and their useless and a waste of money.

I know I’ve purchased a bunch of things to find out they were useless.  So I’ve made a list of the Top 5 things to avoid/consider when purchasing a gift.

1.)  Toys that have a gazillion pieces.  You’ll especially want to avoid this if you don’t have proper storage for all of your kid’s toys.  A toy box just doesn’t do it.  The kids dump all of their toys into the toy box and they don’t even bother looking for all of the pieces to play with the toy again.

2.)  Extremely Large Toys.  These can be anything from indoor basketball hoops, motorized cars, bouncy ball etc. These types of toys get in the way of everything and are hard to store.  We end up getting rid of the items sooner because we are just frustrated with tripping over these items.

3.)  Think about how your child is going to use the item.  One year Santa brought a wagon for our youngest child.  The wagon seemed like a great gift to put all of the toys in, ride along with etc.  However, living in the desert and all of the rocks we have in our backyard made the wagon useless. We never took it anywhere because it wasn’t an easy item to load up in the vehicle and go.

4.)  Board Games. A great gift — if you get the right ones.  When choosing these types of gifts find games that are age appropriate.  If you’re purchasing a game that says 4 or more players and you only have a family of 3 it’s not going to get much use.  Also, choose games that don’t require your assistance.  I love being able to play games with my kids but not all the time.  I want them to be able to play the games without me.

5.)  Clothes. One of my biggest pet peeves when kids get gifts of clothes.  When you are buying a bigger size for a child so they can grow into it, consider the season.  Winter clothes are what you’ll find during the holiday season.  If you’re purchasing a gift for a baby that is 12 months and you buy an 18-month winter outfit and it’ll fit them in the summer.  You just bought a useless gift.

I wrote this article a few years ago when my children were smaller.  These 5 tips still ring true today.

What’s on your list that you try to avoid?

Need some ideas? Check out some of our gift suggestions.

Cool gifts ideas for boys

Personalized Gift Ideas

 

15 Things You Don’t Know About Me

It’s May 1st and I want to hit the restart button on this website.  Lately, I’ve been feeling like there is this big disconnection in the blogging world.  So many websites with amazing information.  However, the majority of them have seemed to have lost something, myself included.  We’ve been so focused on giving you great useful content.  That we’ve no longer have a personal relationship with our readers.

So Let’s start this month with getting personal!

15 Things You Don’t Know About Me

  1.  I am not money motivated.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like money, but money doesn’t fuel me.  I have turned down jobs with better pay and career advancements because they didn’t fit into my families schedule.
  2. Some of my family and friends think I’m cheap. It’s not that I’m cheap it’s just that I value items differently from what other people value.  An example would be our family going out to dinner.  We order water.  6 people at $3 a pop, plus tax and tip = $22.00.  $22.00 for soda is ridiculous.  (Mentally I have a $2.00 limit for soda at a restaurant with a limit of 2 people)  In my mind, I would rather take the family out for ice cream after dinner and spend the $22.00 on that instead of soda.
  3. I am a basic math nerd.  I can add up an entire cart of groceries and be within $5 of the total.  I can estimate how much fabric I would need to do a project and be spot on.  I know percentages, finance charges, what’s a good deal, etc.  However don’t ask me to read a ruler, fraction, or anything algebra or geometry relation.
  4. I am a great copy cat.  If I see something, I can mentally figure out how to make it.
  5. I can sew, but I have no idea how to read a sewing pattern.  Most of the stuff I make is pretty much by figuring it out mentally.
  6. I can cook and make meals from scratch.  I was just having a conversation about this the other day with friends and I was oblivious to how many people can’t do this and rely strictly on recipes.
  7. I don’t often create new made from scratch meals with guests I invite to eat over.  I don’t ever know how the meal will turn out and don’t want to be embarrassed that the dish was not edible.
  8. Every family photo we do, we take one picture with our eyes closed.  We got the idea from the show My Name is Earl.  We figured it was easier to ensure all of us had our eyes closed, rather than the fighting to have them all open.
  9. I feel like when God made me, he used all of his ingredients.  He gave me a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I love everything.  I want to do and be everything.
  10. I’m a great friend… now.  There’s not much I won’t do to help my friends out. However, when I was younger I was very selfish.  If helping you didn’t fit into my life, I wouldn’t do it and would lie about why I couldn’t.
  11. I love talking to people on the phone.  I can talk for hours and I’m a great multi-tasker while doing it.  Most of the time, I’m cleaning so this helps my time go by a lot faster. My sister in law runs while talking to me.
  12. I’m a night owl.  My creative juices thrive best at night.  If I could stay up till 3 am and sleep until 11 am every morning, I’d be one happy camper.
  13. I am a story teller.  I love telling stories and have so many of them.  (All life related of course.)
  14. My husband and I met on a blind date… however he wasn’t my date.  He was the blind date of one of my childhood friends.  Fast forward 8 months, we both were lied to by my sister and her boyfriend.  Each of them telling us that we wanted each other’s phone number and connected us together.
  15. I have always been a believer in Christ.  But it’s only been within the past 10 years that I started following Him.  I have so many “It’s a God thing” stories and the faith I have in him is strong.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I am not a theologist.  I don’t know all the answers, there are a lot of words I cannot pronounce in the Bible.  I can barely remember bible verses, but yet… I am HIS child and he is doing so much in my life.

I hope you enjoyed these 15 Things.  A community is so important to me and I hope you feel like you’ve gotten to know me better.  I’d like to get to know you too.  Which of these 15 things can you most relate to with me?  Comment below and share.

 

When You Think Your Daughter is Marrying the Wrong Guy

My daughter is getting married. When she showed me her engagement ring, I would love to tell you, I was jumping for joy in excitement. But the truth is… I wasn’t.

In fact, when I heard of the proposal, I got tears of sadness. This wasn’t the man I envisioned for my daughter. Their dating history wasn’t favorable in my eyes and he was rude and disrespectful to me in my own home to the point where we became those parents who closed the door and locked it with a dozen deadbolts.married wrong person

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I Quit My Job to Be a Stay at Home Mom During the Recession – What was I thinking?!

It’s almost been 7 years since I made the decision to quit my full time job to become a stay at home mom.  During the Recession.. What was I thinking?!

If your new to my website let me give you a quick back story of our lives back then.  2009 was a rough time, my company did some reorganization structures which lead me into a different position in the company that I despised. My shift was terrible, but overall I was still thankful that I still held a job in these economic times.

quitting my jobRead More

5 Sacrifices Moms Should Stop Making

From 1994-2012 I feel like I made all the sacrifices in our family. I worked full time, part time, adjusted my schedule around my husbands, turned down job opportunities because they didn’t fit within our family’s schedule. Lost friends because I had no time to spend with them. I even quit my job to be a stay at home mom, because that ended up being the best for our family. That’s what moms’ do right? We sacrifice everything we want because we love our family.

MomSacrifices

 

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20 Minutes of Chaos

School started back up this week.  I’m so excited because this is my first year without having any of the kids home.  Yesterday was a day of quiet, I didn’t have any cleaning or laundry to do.  I started making dinner early because we had to be at the ball field by 4pm.  I put rice in the rice cooker and had pressure cooked my meat.  Feeling ahead of the game I left early to pick up the kids since our school parking lot has been a bit crazy.

By the time I got to the school, it appreared that everyone else had the same idea.  There wasn’t much parking left but I was still able to park within the same area I normally do.  My kids never saw the car, so we ended up leaving late.  I needed a few ingredients at the store… which put us getting home even later.

By the time we got home it was 3:40 – we had 20 minutes to get everything done.  And why is it when you are rushed that all types of chaos happens?

20 m inutes of chaos

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10 Free Mother and Son Activity Ideas

Looking for free mother and son activity ideas?  We’ll you’ve come to the right place.  I have 3 boys that I love to take out and do activities with.  However we don’t always have the funds to do that.  When we do have the funds, to be honest my husband and I take advantage of date night instead.  That left me with looking for ways to have a mother and son activities without costing me money.

Mother and Son Activity Ideas

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