If you've read my other posts or followed this blog at all you've seen my struggle with finding an anti-antiperspirant free deodorant. Most of the deodorants I have tried have given me a rash or just flat out not worked (you can see all my deo reviews by going into my "deodorant reviews" tag, who would've thought). Then I found the brand Schmidts. Buckle up because this is a long one with no pictures to break it up, sorry in advance!

Initially trying Schmidt's products I was overjoyed, I had found a deodorant that worked as well as my antiperspirants at keeping the smell away, and didn't give me any sort of reaction! Well that's how I felt for about the first week of using the first product of theirs I tried (the lime + bergamot stick deo). With continued use, I found the products (not only stick versions, jared ones as well) would give me a reaction of little, sometimes extremely painful, sometimes itchy, bumps all over my pits. This happened within the day of wearing other scented stick version such as the ylang ylang + calendula and cedar + juniper. Then I tried the charcoal + magnesium and, as well as with the Lavender + sage jar and lime + bergamot stick, the bumps would form after a couple days of continued use, without washing my pits in the morning then reapplying.

I then decided to try out the fragrance free stick version, thinking maybe the aggravation was coming from the added scents. For the first couple weeks of using the fragrance free stick, I didn't have any reaction. But after that I started getting as very mild form of the reaction if I didn't wash my armpits in the morning between applications as well as at night. The reaction from this version was occasionally painful, but not itchy itchy, just had less than half the amount of red bumps. The bumps also did not look as bad if that makes any sense, they were super small and not as angry looking, lol.

At this point I am still using the fragrance free stick and follow the following routine; shower at night using an exfoliater on armpits, apply deodorant, reapply in morning, repeat. This seems to keep the reaction down to very minimum to non existent. I am completely confused as to why I am getting this reaction, but at this point with this routine its not enough of a concern for me to stop using a product that works so well.

Now onto the actual review of the product. It goes on slightly less stiff than the other stick versions. Its a normal creamy white deodorant stick, so it can and will get on your shirts. It goes on and smells almost like nothing, just a slight kind of....powdery smell? But even that does not really describe it accurately. Regardless its super subtle and fades right away.

In the morning occasionally I do smell a little, if I had a serious night of sweating. But usually I wake up smelling like nothing, and reapply. I find that if I am sweating a decent amount during the day (which I am most days now that I'm going to school again), I will not stink. If I have sweated a shit ton, there is a slight smell to my pits, but it is nothing like B.O. I honestly don't know how to describe it, its not necessarily unpleasant, just like...sweat without the stink.

If I had a day of heavy sweating usually by the time I'm ready to shower my pits smell a little off, but still not really like B.O, just that smell when you've sweated and its mixed with your deo. Very rarely I smell a little like B.O. but only by the end of a serious sweating day, and even then its nothing anyone around me would notice, only if you stuck your nose in my pits.

Overall I have a love/hate relationship with this deodorant. I was pleasantly surprised that I can keep the reaction at bay by using the fragrance free version and that it still gives the same great results as the scented versions, but I do have to pay more attention to my deodorant application than I would like to ideally. That said I am not currently looking for any more deodorants, I'm very content continuing to use this one. So I'd say I give this about an 8/10. If I wasn't noticing any reaction at all it'd for sure get a 10/10.

(Also I'd like to mention that the other scents I have reviews of that I previously rated 10/10 obviously are not accurately rated in those reviews as they were made before the reactions started).