All Eyes On Her

I’ve been hearing more and more about “manuka” lately, and I finally figured out what’s going on. The Wikipedia entry claims that manuka is the same plant species as tea tree, which I’ve since learned isn’t the case. (When I know more I’ll go back and update that!)

Manuka is a very *similar* plant to tea tree, but it’s more common in New Zealand, whereas tea tree is native to Australia. And while tea tree smells very strong and medicinal and a bit eucalyptus-y, manuka smells like… honey. Sweet, delicious, benign honey. A MUCH nicer fragrance!

This is great news for me, because I’ve been working on a natural deodorant formula that uses antibacterial essential oils as the main funk-busting agent. The most effective oils I’ve tried to date have been tea tree and neem, but the problem is that these are both kind of stinky. Tea tree I can handle, as I enjoy weirdly medicinal cough-drop-like scents. But neem is BAAAD — the smell of neem is almost worse than the smell of BO, so it’s kind of counter-productive.

But now that I’m getting my manuka info straightened out, I think I’m going to try a manuka-only version of my deodorant, and see how it holds up to the funk test (of moving furniture). I have high hopes for this stuff — I may finally be able to perfect my natural, homemade, absorbent, funk-busting, non-irritating, and above all else, pleasant-smelling deodorant. Now THAT’S a good product!