Has anyone tried Lume deodorant?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I see their ads on TV. Lume. It’s supposed to be good for all over/everywhere on your body.

Reviews are seriously mixed. In fact, plenty of them say that the stuff (even the unscented one) smells worse than the odors it’s trying to banish.

Things like:

A week goes by and I can’t shake this onion smell… I smell it all the time. I feel like I frigging smell like onions! I love onions, cook with them everyday, have NEVER felt like I smell like them! My family said they didn’t smell it but I did like all the time. Next I got a huge rash under both my under arms!!!

Unlike any deodorant I’ve ever used, toward the end of the day I start to smell RANCID. This doesn’t happen on days when I forget to use deodorant so I know it isn’t me.

Gave in to the ads and thought I would give this a try, but oh my I have never smelled so bad in my life. Maybe it is just me, but there is no deodorizing from this product and it makes me smell ungodly awful. I have been only using it a week but I had to shower in the middle of the night/morning because the smell was so bad I couldn’t stand it anymore.

I smelled a lot worse after the fact than I did prior to showering.

Granted, there are still lots of positive reviews. It could have a lot to do with body chemistry, too, the way a cologne will smell great on one person and not so great on someone else. Many reviewers said the formula has changed recently and rank smells started with the updated version. Updates are almost universally evil IMHO.

2

I use it and I like it a lot. But I do think it’s far less effective if you don’t pair the deodorant with the body wash. The body wash is acidified and seems to neutralize body odor at its source. Then the deodorant picks up the task and carries on for a couple of days, depending on how active you are.

I ordered the sample pack and tried the rose, tangerine, lavender and toasted coconut scents. I prefer toasted coconut and my second order was for just that scent. The scent itself isn’t long-lasting, but the effectiveness has been. On me, at least. (I like to think my friends would mention it if I stink!)

3

It absolutely smells like wet dog when you first put it on, but mostly fades. I’ve used the all over cream - that smells the worst - and the deodorant stick. Forgive the TMI, but it is very effective, crotch wise. Coincidentally, I was just having this same conversation with a girlfriend and we agreed that the user seems to be sensitive to the smell but no one else detects it. When I take off a blouse at the end of the day, it doesn’t smell like body odor, but it don’t smell good :confused:

Bit of a hijack - has anyone else panicked because they thought they could smell themselves and it turned out that someone was eating onions?

4

I hated it.
I gave it to the Lil’wrekker and she says it’s a godsend on stage. All the girls are using it.

5

I don’t get the onions thing, at all. It’s never smelled like that to me or on me. Weird how it’s so different on each person.

6

Maybe it’s like cilantro. I have friends who eat the fresh stuff by the handful. I can’t bear the taste of it or the smell. I don’t even like to stand near it in the supermarket because of the smell. :woman_shrugging:t4:

7

Or not?

8

I don’t think the Lume made her slip. It was her new character shoes.

She says the AC back stage is not keeping up and under the lights on the stage they sweat like longshoremen.

They really complain about the guys smelling up the joint, to no avail.

9

I saw/heard one commercial for it addressing this - that to some people it smelled bad - and the spokeswoman said it was like cilantro, it affected some people and not others, and they were working on it.

My current soap and water and deodorant seems to be working for me and I don’t feel an impulse to change. It’s not like anyone is sniffing my crotch or buttcrack these days, which seems like a weird hyperfocus to me (maybe some people do have odor issues in those areas).

From the start it sounded too good to be true, except of course it’s significantly more expensive than more typical deodorant.

10

I looked it up on Amazon because I was curious about it and it was gawdawful expensive. Don’t know whether it has come down since it was first out.

I did go and Google the list of ingredients:

Water, Mandelic Acid, Maranta Arundinacea Root Powder, Tapioca Starch, Isoamyl Laurate, Hydroxypropyl Starch Phosphate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Caffeine, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Behenyl Alcohol, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Fragrance*, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Floral Pyranol, Tocopherol, Allantoin, Panthenol, Sandalrome, Stearyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Cetearyl Glucoside, Pentylene Glycol, Phenylpropanol, Potassium Hydroxide, Dipropylene Glycol, Sodium Benzoate, Tetrasodium Glutamate Diacetate

*Scented products only

The second ingredient (after water) is derived from bitter almonds, and so is cyanide-- however, it isn’t amygdalin, which if I’m reading correctly, is the poisonous part of bitter almonds. I did happen to read, though, that the odor of bitter almonds is somewhat subjective, and something a few people cannot smell at all. So there you go. Perhaps the first non-water ingredient IS subject to individual perceptions.

I’m curious as to why the stuff has two different stimulants in it-- caffeine and theobromine of chocolate (the reason the stuff is so bad for dogs). I wonder if they make your pores constrict, the way they do your blood vessels, so you don’t sweat as much?

11

The ads do make it sound like a miracle product so I am skeptical. It’s a deodorant not an antiperspirant thus it’s lacking in aluminum.

Lume from what I’ve researched has Mandelic acid (alpha hydroxy acid) the main active ingredient that has anti bacterial properties among others. Its derived from bitter almonds, maybe that’s the smell coming through in the product?

I’m also curious about the Native deodorant also free from aluminum etc but this has a probiotic added to it. Funny reading reviewers opinions on switching, most say just wash your bits on a regular basis and you’ll smell clean enough.

12

Does bitter almond smell bad?

*One of the classic gourmand aromas, Bitter Almond oil smells like marzipan (almond paste) heaven – rich, intense and very food-like. It lends a sweet, nutty, cherry-like top note to natural perfumes, and a seductive and alluring nuance to men’s colognes.

That does not sound too bad to me.

*From here

13

It could smell like ambrosia itself, but any company that email-bombs me gets none of my business.

14

I used the UNSCENTED version last year, in July and August, when I was emptying out my house preparing to sell and move. I thought it worked very well. I use unscented products as much as possible, including laundry detergent. Maybe a scented Lume clashed with a scented detergent, resulting in a bad smell.

15

No. No it wasn’t. You know why she fell. Fess up!

16

A friend suggested that I try using it. I’m not sure if she was suggesting that I had a strong body odor or didn’t shower often enough, but I’ve been putting off buying any because the ads sounded like a lot of hype to me. I also wasn’t aware that it came in different scents, which is another negative in my opinion.

17

The scent of bitter almonds is the scent of almond extract, and of amaretto, and marzipan/almond paste, as noted above. It’s considered a pleasant scent, although there’s a small percentage of people who don’t care for it. I personally love it, especially in almond croissants with almond paste filling.

18

It doesn’t have aluminum, but apparently those stimulants in it do constrict pores when applied topically, so I guess they could limit sweating. Only thing is, caffeine taken orally can increase sweating, and it can probably be absorbed through the skin, so that one ad that says you just need to use a little probably isn’t freaking kidding.

It’s also got some things it known to trigger allergies in lots of people not especially allergy-prone, and to cause bad flare-up in people with eczema.

Maybe that’s why the hefty price tag. If it’s meant to be used sparingly, and it says so, one container will last a long time, and it’s a move that runs counter to most hygiene and cosmetic products that instruct you to use them liberally (lather, rinse, REPEAT!)

That doesn’t mean it works, but does suggest, at least to me, that the makers at least genuinely believe it does.

Not finding it on any well-know sites that list scams and quackery, which again, doesn’t mean it works, but it apparently is not a deliberate rip-off.

19

It’s a newer product, there might not have been time for the quack watchers to review it.

20

Hmmm…I wonder if there’s any connection between this fact and the name “Lume”?