I’m always on the lookout for less toxic health and beauty products. Lately I’ve been using Lume deodorant. You may have seen their hilarious and visually stunning musical advert everywhere. Or their other hilarious and visually stunning musical advert. Looks? Humor? Zero stink? Take my money!
The company asserts many positive traits in their marketing. I perspire proudly and profusely so I was really eager to try it based on their “72 hour” efficacy.
Overall I give Lume a 3/10. Would I use it again? Yes. For the “bits.” It’s a product made for “pits and parts” and I found it worked well for “parts.” Just not the all-important pits. I’m pretty sure it’s going to help prevent the long term embedded smell that all work out gear seems to get as it wears out. At least for my bottoms. Also, summer time is coming and it’s climate emergency HOT for months at a time now in L.A. I’m sure to pull out the rest of my Lume then and use it up on my parts.
I think it’s worth trying. There are laws about making unsubstantiated product claims. They double blind test with a respected 3rd party. All the rave reviews are likely true. I’m probably the statistical outlier with my experience. I sweat a lot like I said. I followed all instructions and I evaluated it for a full month.
Here’s how it went for me. In the name of science, I started with a stick and cream bundle of the unscented.
PROS
Works for “parts” as well as pits
This is seriously awesome. Especially if you sweat in odd places during workouts. Or, want to feel fresh for intimate moments. Or keep your shoes in good form
Length of coverage
Works as advertised for me for 48 hours on the bits
Variety of scents
Lavender sage. Juniper. Spruce. Jasmine Rose. Unscented! I don’t want scented deodorant and there are quite a few brands that don’t offer that option
Different formats
There’s stick and tube. I’d never tried tube deodorant before and I really liked it. Especially for non-pit nooks and crannies
Sample/travel size tubes available. Alas, only as a package of 5. Because sample. And I think shipping a single small tube is likely a money loser for them
Soaps in the same scents as the deodorants
Layering baby!
Price deals
Save if you buy by the bundle. Free shipping if you purchase over $20. Special holiday prices. Specials for subscribers, newsletter readers, social media followers
Cruelty free
Aluminum free
Baking soda free
Vegan
Product safety
Developed by a gyno and you can put trust in that
CONS
Length of coverage
Never got any where near the promised 72 hours protection. My armpit stank was back within about 8 hours. Needed to reapply. I waited weeks to judge this because they discuss a 10-day “wash out” in their testing to ensure that waxes and residue from other deodorants were completely gone
Unscented is not without scent
It smells unpleasant to me. To my sensitive nose, the stuff smelled faintly of bathtub tile grout. Not a deal breaker. But not “unscented.” Fortunately this smell did not extend to my person. My parts remained scent free for length of time mentioned above
Packaging imperfections
On the stick: the cap doesn’t stay on tightly. The middle hole tended to get clogged and wouldn’t push out as intended. The protective cover didn’t rip off easily. The unevenness of it made for a potentially scratchy application (see photo above). The foil protective cover on the tube was super difficult for me to remove. Had to pull out a pick to lift the tab. On the bright side, the difficulty in removing the protective elements on both types means the product is safe from tampering and spoilage.
Mail order purchase only
This is personal for me. YMMV if you like that convenience. Subscriptions are great for automating. I’m not interested in mail packaging waste. and I don’t run out of deodorant on a fixed schedule. I don’t want to have to remember to go online to adjust the delivery cycle
Price
A stick costs $13.99. A tube is a whopping $18.99 There are bundle deals. Get about a buck and half to two bucks off per unit for subscribing. There are sales for their subscribers and social media followers. Even still it’s spendy. Costlier still if you don’t use the free shipping for purchasing $20 or more. The stick pricing is in line with some of the deodorants one can buy at the local corpo-hippy grocery store. No offense amazoogle, just telling it like it is. If I’m going to pay that much however I need it to work well. At least you only need to use a small bit of Lume and the stick and tube are likely to last me a long, long, time. That amortization brings the price down if you want to compare price on an apples-to-apples basis.
I really wanted to love this deodorant. It simply didn’t work for me. Per the how-to I waited for my body to “adjust” to it, i.e. get other deodorants out of my system. Since I’ve been using non-toxic natural deodorant for ages, it likely wasn’t necessary for me. But, you know, following instructions. they say it takes awhile for your body to adjust.
They advise treating your clothes to remove any odors embedded (older clothes, alas, are beyond fixing). My clothes are all old and they say those are beyond hope. I like to buy my duds at thrifts because of environmental sustainability. They don’t smell to me, but hey, it could still be a factor. I made sure to wear brand new thus embedded scent free clothes for multiple days running. Didn’t help.
Alas, Lume doesn’t beat my usual go-to healthier brand deodorant. I never got the coverage I craved for my pits. I’m used to having to re-apply once during the day with many natural deodorants. Seems to be par for the course every one I’ve tried with one exception. I don’t need to re-apply with my longtime fave. Not that my fave is all that. It sadly does that clothes yellowing thing that most antiperspirants and deodorants do.
The “perfect” deodorant is unlikely out there in the natural health space. My daily only gets a 6.5/10 for me. There are reasons why natural products can be a bit less-than typical ones. For example, do you know how hard it is to manufacture stuff without the problematic preservatives? A lot of the formulations one makes for oneself at home can’t scale to be safely shelf-stable. The “common ingredients in health stuff that aren’t so hot” discussion is a post for another day.
This review ran way longer than I intended. Ultimately, I think Lume is a great product. It simply wasn’t so great for me. I suspect because I’m a heavy sweater and it washes out. Given how many positive glowing reviews it gets I’d say give it a go.