My Anosmia Deodorant Fail Story

Hello Everyone!

Today, I’m going to talk about my “deodorant failing” paranoia.

Yes, you guys…This paranoia about smelling bad is a real thing for me and it all stems from having anosmia. I have never been able to tell whether I smell good or bad and because of this, I’ve lived through various embarrassing experiences, especially at work.

A little backstory: I used to walk and ride the light rail to my job. One time, I had just arrived, and I see my friend/coworker at her desk. As was usual, I went up to her to give her a big hug hello. She was always really excited to see me, but this time, her reaction was very different. She holds my arms and then locks eyes with me and proceeds to tell me, “Omg Yazz, I need to tell you something.” After she says this, all sorts of things popped into my head. While I daze off she asks me if, “I just came back from exercising or something.” I tell her no, (unless my short walk from the light rail counts). She then blurts out that “I smell really bad, like armpit, and need to go wash up in the restroom.” I guess my short walk from the light rail did count LOL!

I was shocked! “What?” I ask her. “What do you mean I smell really bad?” I felt so embarrassed. I end up going to the restroom to clean my underarms and come back feeling so self-conscious. I then ask her if I smell better and she reassures me and tells me, “I’m A-okay!” I remember I had been running late to work that day and it turned out that I had unfortunately forgotten to apply deodorant. Which really sucked because just like my sister had talked about my incident with me smelling bad the other time (in episode 1) when I had met with her for coffee, this same gut-wrenching experience had happened again, only this time, it was with my coworker friend.

These two experiences have scarred me for life! Because of them, I developed a trauma and compensated by applying deodorant up to 5 times a day. It doesn’t help that I live in Phoenix, AZ either. The weather here gets super hot during the summer, and that equals a lot of sweating and even more reapplication and paranoia for me.

I knew in my gut, anything in excess is usually bad and I found out this was also true with my deodorant habit. After watching several documentaries about personal products having icky ingredients (parabens, sulfates, and even aluminum) I decided I wanted to find a different alternative and take charge of my health. I knew I had to go aluminum free.

This is how I found out about SmartyPits. Their name popped up when I was searching for more info, so I checked out their website. I saw they had a lot of different products. I became so intrigued by what they offered that I even reached out to SmartyPits founder. Her name is Stacia Guzzo. I ended up telling her my story about having anosmia and how I was looking for a better alternative for underarm odor protection. What was totally unexpected, and so awesome at the same time, was that once I told her about having no sense of smell, she knew exactly what I was talking about! Stacia told me she knew about this condition already, because one of her dear friends in college had it.

When I read all of this I was jumping up and down! This was all so exciting to hear!

So I kept reading more about Stacia and her company, and I felt like they have such an inspiring story:

It turns out, Stacia’s mother discovered she had breast cancer and it was through her noticing a lump directly underneath her underarm.

What was confusing was that Stacia’s mother knew they didn’t have any family history of breast cancer, so Stacia began to do some research to learn more about breast cancer and its risk factors. That was the first time she learned about studies which linked the aluminum in antiperspirants to breast cancer.

After finding this out, Stacia tried to go aluminum-free herself….and luckily after a few years later, after studying skin care formulation, she created her own brand of aluminum free deodorants. It was then SmartyPits was born.

I was able to receive two of their products, their Lavender Rose and Rosemary Mint scent deodorants.

They have two types of formulas available; one that has baking soda and then a sensitive skin formula that’s baking soda free. I have sensitive underarms, so I went with the baking soda free. For my first product testing, I went with the Lavender Rose. This is the scent my husband aka Designated Nose liked most. He said it smells REALLY Good!

My only issue is that it wasn’t as smooth to apply. These deodorants have more of a firm consistency compared to the commercial brands I used to use. One tip I would recommend is to make sure to apply it slowly, just so you ensure you get an even application.

So, after applying the Lavender Rose deodorant, I started off my day like any other day. I drank my coffee, ran errands, and managed my editorial calendar. I resisted the urge to purposefully reapply throughout the day because I really wanted to test out this deodorant’s strength.

I even went as far as going out for a quick jog. A quick jog you guys! I put in a lot of dedication to researching this product.

Eventually, the day comes to an end and so does my jog (thankfully). I come back and I ask my DN to be my smell judge.  I was so nervous. Did this deodorant pass the test? Will he sniff me and express a sour face? Well, all I can say is he WAS SHOCKED! What did he think of all of this?