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I recently had the opportunity to test out Oars + Alps natural personal care products. While they all had their upsides, these two products were my favorites and two I will continue to leave space for in my self care rituals.

Oars + Who?

I hadn’t heard of Oars + Alps before this #sponsored partnership but they are not a brand I’ll be forgetting any time soon. Founded by two women inspired to create cleaner, more travel-friendly products for their outdoorsy husbands, Oars + Alps “creates no-nonsense products without any pointless toxins, senseless rigmarole or needless middle men.” Their products include natural deodorants, charcoal soaps, an innovative solid charcoal face wash stick, eye roller and more.

Walking the Walk

I won’t claim to be an ingredient expert but I appreciate the great lengths Oars + Alps has taken to make sure their products are not only effective, but as natural as possible, looking to ingredients you can’t find in other products, like their signature Alpine Caribou Moss™. On their website you can look through incredibly user-friendly “Yays and No Ways” ingredients lists, laying out exactly why each ingredient is (or is not used) + what purpose it serves.

All Oars + Alps products are vegan (with the exception of their lip balm), paraben-free, pthalate-free, and made in the USA. They’re also all designed with travel in mind. No need to check a bag to bring these TSA-friendly products with on your next adventure or worry about product spilling out in your gym bag.

As if quality ingredients you can feel good about + take just about anywhere wasn’t enough, the packaging + branding is spot on. The clean designs spark all the joy when I reach for them in the morning. As they say, you can’t judge a book by its cover, but it doesn’t hurt if it looks good on your bookshelf.

Natural Deodorant

Trying out this deodorant couldn’t have come at a better time. Not only am I at a point in my life where I’m becoming increasingly conscious of the products I not only put in my body, but on as well.

I also didn’t know antiperspirant + deodorant were different products serving entirely different purposes. As the names imply, antiperspirants help prevent you from sweating to stay dry. Aluminum salts in antiperspirants react with the water in salt to create physical barriers in your sweat glands to keep you dry.

Deodorants, on the other hand, allow you to sweat (something your body naturally wants to do to help regulate your body temperature, flush out toxins, etc.) but help cover up any negative smells you don’t want hanging around.

“If I’m still sweating, won’t my shirts be covered in yellow sweat stains?” Good question. No. Sweat itself is colorless (and naturally odorless!). Those yellow pit stains are actually caused from a chemical reaction between the aluminum in antiperspirants + the urea found in sweat.

I’d heard stories of natural deodorants being slick and slimy and taking forever to dry. I didn’t notice this at all with the Oars + Alps deodorant. It rolled on smooth and dried quickly. I picked up the Eucalyptus Spearmint and the combination is both a soothing + stimulating way to start the day.

There is a little bit of an adjustment period when making the switch an antiperspirant to a more natural deodorant. The details are outlined below in a screenshot from the Oars + Alps Natural Deodorant product page but essentially you’re putting your underarms through detox. While your antiperspirant was great at keeping sweat back, it was also holding in toxins + bacteria that need to make their way out. Like any detox, it’s not going to be pretty at first, but the end result is worth it.

I definitely noticed the mentioned “odor detox.” At first I thought maybe I was just taking too much turmeric and it was coming through my pores but I’m now realizing this is what it was. It helps to know this phase is temporary and normal and that I’m on my way to a cleaning up my beauty rituals.

That said, either everyone in my life is just too polite to say anything or it was only noticeable to me. Either way, when you’re ready to make the switch, try to make sure you don’t have anything major going on week 2 that would make you self-conscious to not be your merry, aromatic self.

While this has nothing to do with the product itself, I can’t help but give the brand a little extra shout out for not using emotionally charged marketing tactics to sell their product. A shocking number of trusted, ingredient-conscious brands tout their natural deodorants as being “aluminum-free,” playing off consumer desire to use cleaner products.

However, as we went over above, since aluminum is used to to slow down sweating + deodorants only help prevent your natural sweat from stinking, all deodorants are aluminum-free. To market deodorant as “aluminum-free” is like branding your bottled water as gluten-free; a cheap sales tactic hoping to grab attention.

Yes, Oars + Alps created their Natural Deodorant as a personal care, under arm alternative to using aluminum but they’re not shouting their “aluminum-free” status from the rooftops, + that builds exceptional credibility in my book.

Since aluminum is used to to slow down sweating and deodorants only help prevent your natural sweat from stinking, all deodorants are aluminum-free.

Wake-up Eye Stick

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t so sure about this one at first. I already have an eye cream I’ve been pretty happy with, but after using it for a couple weeks, it might very well be one of my top 5 favorite beauty products of ALL TIME.

The Wake-Up Eye Stick seems like it couldn’t possibly do much with how lightweight it is but I was actually shocked at how crazy effective it was reducing puffiness and brightening the area under my eyes. I thought I was looking more bright eyed and bushy-tailed since I started incorporating CBD oil into my nighttime rituals for better sleep quality, but it honestly is mostly this wonder product. Most morning I’ll even skip the under eye concealer all together because the eye stick has done its job so well!

For usage, the Oars + Alps website says to “gently roll across under-eye area twice per use.” Maybe it’s my dry brushing background, but I found it really calming to make small circles with the roller ball starting from the outer edge under my eye working in. I heard once you never want to pull outwards from your eyes so that just always stuck with me.

PRO TIP(S): I store mine upside down so all the magic ingredients are soaking the roller ball when I’m ready to use it but word has it it’s also super refreshing if you put it in the freezer! I keep my jade roller in the freezer and love how that feels so I’m not sure how I still haven’t hopped on that bandwagon yet.

Adventure On

I hope this was helpful in not only open your eyes to this up and coming brand, but to give you a few more tools to select beauty/self care products right for you and your lifestyle. You can find Oars + Alps at your participating local Target store or online at oarsandalps.com.

Thanks again to Oars + Alps for this opportunity! Have you tried a natural deodorant before? What was your experience making the switch? Do you have any advice for others looking to do the same? Leave your comments below!

Stick Around

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