Have you noticed that our deodorant balm is now creamier and easier to spread? We’ve also simplified things. There’s no longer an ‘active’ or ‘gentle’ version. There’s just one recipe now, designed to work for everyone.

 

I changed the name to "Botanical Deodorant Balm".

 

Because we are not here merely to repeat what’s been done.

We are here to create, to listen, to question. Sometimes change begins with the simplest of conversations.

 

One day, a colleague, let’s call him H, asked me:

 

“Ezgi, why two versions of the same deodorant?

It takes us a day to gather and cook the plants, another to craft the balm,

and still, we divide it into two. Why?”

 

Proudly, I answered:

“One has baking soda, one does not. For those with sensitive skin,

we must think of them.”

 

He looked at me gently and said:

“But both work, don’t they? Otherwise, you would not make them.”

 

And I proudly smiled,

Of course, they work, not because of the baking soda, but because of the plants.

 

The plants are alive, filled with probiotics, good bacteria that eat away the odour-causing bad bacteria, while honouring the sacred flow of sweat.

 

For sweat is health. It is not to be stopped. The body speaks through its rivers, the liver and kidneys, filtering, cleansing, sending out what must be released.

The liver breaks down harmful substances into less harmful ones, and the kidneys then filter and excrete these waste products from the blood, urine and sweat. 

To block sweat is to whisper to the body:

“Keep my toxins inside me.”

What a cruel and confusing command.

 

And so many of our chronic illnesses, "reasons unknown," begin with these manipulations, a body forced to hold what it longs to let go.

 

I have seen this in my own life through my sister’s breast cancer,

through my mother’s Lymphoma, and my MS.

 

Medicine worked to treat symptoms, and then some asked us to wear pink ribbons.

 

But my heart said: Educate. Share. Offer a way of living in rhythm with the body, not against it.

 

So, no, we do not block sweat. We honour it. And it is the plants, not the baking soda, that neutralise odour.

 

There was a long pause between us, then laughter.

 

And in that moment, I knew the active version was no longer needed.

The gentle one was enough. More than enough.

 

Because in truth, I had been following a path just because it was already there, believing that if everyone used baking soda, I must too.

 

But life is not about repeating what has been done.

It is about creating freely, with messy hands and open hearts.

 

And so we return to one balm, one recipe and a creation guided by plants.

 

May it remind you and me:

To trust nature and that we are not here only to follow. We are here to create, to question, to live.

 

“Create as if the world is waiting for your touch because it is. Happy creating.”

 

with all my love,

Ezgi