Beauty | Coconut Matter – Low-Waste and Plastic-Free Deodorant [Ad – Gifted]

Ad - product gifted in exchange for a blog post
Coconut Matter Deodorants - Spring, Hero, Free, and Zen

Happy Veganuary! A few days ago, I ran a poll over on Instagram, asking whether you’d like me to focus my #Veganuary content solely on food, or whether you’re interested in vegan beauty and lifestyle features over the next weeks as well. I was really pleased to see so many votes for wider content – it’s so exciting for me that people are interested in reducing animal products in all aspects of their lives. To kick the month off, I’m really excited to be working with Coconut Matter today!

Coconut Matter Vegan Deodorants 0 Zen and Spring

Coconut Matter

The brand produce a range of vegan AND low-waste cosmetics. Based in Hong Kong, Coconut Matter focus on using natural and functional ingredients and producing their products as sustainably as possible. Wanting to avoid plastic, their deodorants are packaged in card with a biodegradable lining. Soap scrubs come in a functional soap bag, while body balms and butters are packaged in tins. Lip balms and sticks currently come in tubes similar to the deodorants, and Coconut Matter are working to reduce waste even more by finding a biodegradable alternative to their labels.

Low-Waste and Plastic-Free Deodorants

I’ve had the pleasure of thoroughly testing out Coconut Matter’s deodorants over the past months, and I’ve been seriously impressed. While natural deodorant that actually works isn’t as much of rarity anymore as it used to be, these little sticks really go the extra mile. Their paper-based packaging means they’re ultra-light – making them perfect for travel or taking with you on the go. Although, I’m not sure you’d need to do the latter, the product really lasts all day! Unlike many natural deodorants, they’re also 100% functional while being completely free from bicarbonate of soda. Personally, I don’t have particularly sensitive underarms, and using deodorant containing bicarb doesn’t bother me at all. I do know, however, that this isn’t the case for everyone, and that bicarb can be a serious irritant. If that’s the case for you, the Coconut Matter deodorants are a very good shout, especially because you still get to pick from their full range of options!

Coconut Matter Plastic-Free Deodorant - Hero, Free, and Spring
Flatlay of Coconut Matter low-waste deodorants

Reducing Bathroom Waste

Coconut Matter are on a mission to reduce bathroom waste, starting with our armpits. According to their estimations, only 1 in 5 people recycle bathroom toiletries – and that’s only when they actually can be recycled! By creating a plastic-free deodorant, they hope to help tackle this problem. After using their deodorant all Autumn, I’m estimating that a single tube will last about three to four months. That means I’ll need about four tubes to last me a year. Now compare that to a standard spray can or plastic tube of deodorant – how long would one of those last you? A month? Maybe two? That’s a lot more waste over the year, recyclable or not!

A Note on Cost and Shipping

As with all ethical and low-waste products, it’s important to me to acknowledge that being able to purchase them is a priviledge. At USD 18.00 (approx. GBP 13.75) a tube, or USD 50.00 (approx. 38.20 GBP) for a set of five, Coconut Matter isn’t the cheapest kid on the block. I think the price point is absolutely sensible for a high-quality zero-waste product, but there’s no point ignoring that it’s not accessible to everyone. This is a key issue in the low-waste movement and fight against climate change in general, which I’ve written about previously. There is also the fact that products are currently shipped from Hong Kong, which is quite a lot of air miles for those of us based in Europe! Buying a year’s worth of deodorants rather than just one at a time helps to reduce shipping, but ideally I’d really like to see a UK or European distributor, which would reduce the carbon footprint further.

Low-waste deodorants in paper-based packaging

Having said all that, Coconut Matter have managed to develop an impressive product, which I’m going to be using for quite some time. I’m hugely looking forward to seeing their development over the next few years and I hope their deodorants especially become a household name!

Shop the post
‘Free’ Natural Deodorant – Coconut Matter
Zen Natural Deodorant – Coconut Matter
Hero Natural Deodorant – Coconut Matter
Spring Natural Deodorant – Coconut Matter

Follow:
0

2 Comments

  1. January 18, 2020 / 12:07 am

    Bathroom waste is terrible! I new law passed making it harder to recycle certain plastics, and the one store I use don’t take some toiletry recyclable anymore, which is a huge bummer.

    • hannahcolquhoun
      Author
      January 18, 2020 / 8:26 pm

      So frustrating when things seem to be going backwards :( Here in the UK loads of things are marked as ‘fully recyclable’… but no council actually recycles more than a small number of plastic types, so they end up in the normal waste anyway!