This $18 natural deodorant that’s all over Instagram is the first one I’ve tried that I feel actually works

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While natural deodorants have become popular for their clean ingredients, they have a reputation for not doing the best job at banishing body odor.
Megababe’s Rosy Pits ($18) is a natural deodorant that smells as good as it looks, and it’s received a lot of hype over the last year — 13,000 people were on a waitlist for it last summer.
I’ve been using Rosy Pits for a while now, and it’s also the first natural deodorant I’ve tried that I feel really works.

If a product has a 13,000-person waitlist, I’m intrigued. If that product is a deodorant, I’m really intrigued.

That product just so happens to be Megababe’s Rosy Pits. It’s the aluminum-free deodorant that — since its release — has been garnering hype for its natural formula, adorable packaging, and serious stink prevention.

Natural deodorants have become increasingly popular as consumers question the safety of ingredients used in antiperspirants, most notably aluminum. The problem is that most natural deodorants don’t do that great of a job of keeping sweat and B.O. at bay. For many, making the switch to natural deodorant feels like a begrudging compromise. While it’s supposedly healthier for your body, if it doesn’t do its job of keeping you smelling fresh and clean, then what’s the point of using it at all?

I’ve dabbled in all kinds of deodorants — natural or not — to find one that keeps me smelling fresh all day and doesn’t leave any annoying white marks on my clothes. I wear black way too much to deal with that. I don’t think of myself as a particularly sweaty person, but the natural deodorants I had tried in the past never kept my pits dry, let alone "rosy." So, I was excited to give the Megababe’s deodorant a try and see what all the hype was about. What better time to try it than during a New York City summer?

Before even getting to the actual deodorant, there’s the packaging, and it’s really cute. A minimalist shape, fun fonts, and a millennial pink cap make this a deodorant that you’d want to keep visible on your dresser sandwiched between some tubes of Glossier makeup and an Otherland candle. While deodorant isn’t something that we usually want to show off, let alone talk about, Megababe is all about de-stigmatizing personal care products by creating solutions for the issues that all women face but have been told to keep quiet about, like boob sweat and chafing thighs.

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Twisting off the cap releases an overwhelming scent, but not in a bad way. While most deodorants offer only subtle aromas, Rosy Pits is fragrant. It’s a little floral, kind of musky, but all around intoxicating. Imagine spritzing on your favorite floral perfume and then running barefoot through a verdant forest — the scent of flowers, herbs, trees all whirling together — that’s what you might get from a whiff of Rosy Pits.

While it smells good from a first impression, you have to wonder if it would smell good after a long day of work, going to the gym, and riding the subway. I have to be honest, the first few days were not great. My body was used to barely sweating at all thanks to my usual antiperspirant, so the natural deodorant was an adjustment — that is to say I was significantly more sweaty. Megababe’s website addresses this though and notes that it will take most bodies two weeks to adjust to Rosy Pits, especially if coming from a traditional antiperspirant. After doing a little research, it seemed like my best bet during these two weeks would be to reapply, and do it often. I kept Rosy Pits in my bag so I could reapply before I worked out, after I worked out, and even if I just started to smell a little during the day. A quick swipe will immediately cover any B.O. and have you smelling rosy yet again. Now, after using this deodorant for over two weeks, one application a really is enough to last the day.

It smells great and it’s free of aluminum, parabens, and other toxins, but there are a few more benefits too. One of the main ingredients is coconut, which not only has antifungal properties but also is a great moisturizer, so it’ll keep your underarms nice and smooth. There’s also green tea and vitamin e included, which are particularly helpful in soothing irritation, especially if you have sensitive skin. Then, there’s sage, sandalwood, and horsetail plant, which contribute to that musky scent, but also help protect against bacteria. In exchange for aluminum, Rosy Pits uses cornstarch to help absorb moisture — it’s not guaranteed to wick all moisture away, but after a while it’ll get pretty close.

I don’t even think of Rosy Pits as a natural deodorant anymore, I just think of it as the deodorant I actually want to use. It doesn’t feel like a compromise when I find something that’s safer, feels better on my skin, works just as well, and smells even better than what I used to use.

Get Megababe Rosy Pits, $18, at Ulta

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