Do natural deodorants work? If you have tried natural deodorants and been disappointed by their performance in combating sweat and body odor, then this episode of Green Beauty Conversations will be a real learning curve and eye opener.

The first question to tackle though is what is sweat?

Body sweat has a primordial purpose even if today's taboos and societal conditioning have put paid to us broaching the subject of sweat in a reasoned way. Sweating has a core function in cooling our bodies when we're hot or under stress. Its other role of signaling 'fight or flight' hints at how homo sapiens functioned millennia ago.

Once we understand the role of sweat, we can choose the right natural deodorants to work in tune with our own particular needs. If you buy regular, mainstream antiperspirants or deodorants, you may choose them for their scent and strength. Yet, using the same one-size-fits-all, drug store deodorant or antiperspirant year in year out is not necessarily the best nor healthiest approach to masking body odor nor to our overall well-being.

To unpack the discourse on sweat, shame and body image, we speak to Ada Juristovski, Co-founder and CMO of Nala Care, a natural, personalised deodorant brand based in Vancouver, Canada.

Ada gives us an in-depth, enlightening insight into physiological and psychological aspects of sweat and, in the process, helps us understand sweat better so we can choose healthier deodorant options for our daily personal care routines.

Research has shown that we each have differing armpit microbiomes, which is an aspect of our skin that Nala takes into account in formulating its natural deodorants.

Listen in as Formula Botanica CEO and podcast host Lorraine Dallmeier digs the dirt on the types of sweat, how we deal with body image and underarm cleanliness, and the pros and cons of natural deodorants, including their reliance on baking soda and activated charcoal. We think you'll come away realising it pays to understand more about sweat, and to get hot under the collar about ideal body images.

In this episode, you will:

• Learn about the different types of sweat and its function in keeping our bodies in a state of healthy equilibrium.
• Hear about how societal conditioning has influenced notions of the female body image and fostered the pursuit of beauty over health and well being.
• Discover that sweat is now beginning to be talked about more positively as it is associated also with exercise, sex, empowerment and strength.
• Find out about how natural deodorants work in tune with our bodies by letting us sweat again rather than by clogging sweat glands.

Key take-aways include:

• We all sweat to different extents and in different situations, so we should think of mixing up our deodorant product choices to suit varying needs. Our lifestyles, our water consumption, whether we are on medication and so on can affect our levels of sweat and on a daily basis.
• Natural deodorant formulas usually include and rely on the odor-neutralising ingredient baking soda which is highly alkaline and therefore not in line with the skin's pH. So look out for brands which offer different formulation strengths, including a baking soda-free option.
• Other ingredients play a huge role in natural deodorants' efficacy too. Copaiba oil, for example, has stress-reducing properties so by inference has the potential also to reduce sweat production when we face stressful situations.
• Be more mindful of what causes you to sweat; and be mindful too of the products you use to mask body odour. Using a deodorant isn't just a routine, two-second affair each day.