Kadano · @Kadano
27th Jan 2023 from TwitLonger
The story behind K-Deo
There's a description of my deodorant cream, what it does and how it works on my website: http://kadano.net/deo
For those who are curious about why I'm selling deodorant cream or want to know some additional details:
Basically, 11 years ago I was really unhappy with regular store-bought deodorant as I found that I got smelly within 2-4 hours after using that (unlike the 24-48h advertised on the product), looked into why that is and found out that their only antibacterial ingredient is alcohol (which quickly evaporates), and then looked into stronger yet safe antibacterial ingredients and optimized the formula over the years.
As I had made more than I could use up in 4 years in my initial testing batches, and found that it worked far better than I had hoped, I gave some extra to friends and family members, and nearly every one of them preferred it over what they used before. When I heard about an acquaintance of my mom, who out of desperation had tried 20-30 different expensive deodorants but was unhappy with them all, as they either left him smelly or gave him rashes (but mostly both), I gave him some for free and he reported that it was the first product that worked for him perfectly.
That's when I realized that probably there are plenty of people out there who could see quite substantial quality of life improvements through my product, so I gradually scaled up production.
I still make it by myself in my kitchen, but the process is quite optimized by now and feedback has been great. I have several customers who've basically been providing all their friends and family members for years by now.
It's not very profitable / scalable since even a small jar for 6€ lasts for 2-4 months for most people, so there's not a lot of profit to be made per customer per year. That's not my motivation for this anyway though, it's mainly because I felt that my peronal quality life went up by quite a lot through using my deodorant cream, so I want to share that with other people (while getting a fair compensation for my time spent producing and optimizing it).
I have about 23 different scents by now, most of them being recreations of famous designer scents mixed by a family business in the US as pure fragrance oils. That makes the scent be more subtle yet more lasting, which I personally much prefer over perfume spray or deodorant spray.
In the last couple of years, especially here in Europe other companies also started making similar deodorant cream. Some of my customers have told me that they find my deodorant cream to last much longer, which makes sense as I went for rather high percentages of active ingredients. As far as I know, none of the other companies offer as many different scents as I do, and I haven't heard of any offering different consistencies.
With my deodorant cream, the higher the consistency rating, the more solid it will be at a given room temperature. If you store a jar of 20C deodorant cream at a room temperature of 18-23°C (64-73°F), it will be relatively soft and easy to apply, but not close to melting. At 24-25°C (75-77°F), it will be pretty soft and close to melting, and at temperatures beyond that it will gradually become more liquid.
25°C is intended for room temperatures around 25°C and is accordingly better suited for summer or warmer climates. It's comfortable to use at 22-27°C room temperature (71-81°F), but below 21°C (70°F) it will be quite hard, so applying it takes a bit longer (it melts from the body warmth of your finger if you give it a few seconds).
A benefit of the thicker consistencies is that the deodorant cream will stay on your skin for longer rather than slowly running down, with the effect wearing off. Some of my customers prefer them over 20C for this particular reason, even if they store it in a relatively cold room.
For these customers specifically, I also added 28C consistency, which uses only shea butter (which has a rather high melting point) as a carrier substance, whereas the other consistencies have varying amounts of coconut oil to melt more easily.
28C becomes really solid at colder room temperatures, but with some patience it can still be applied, assuming that your finger isn't too cold.
For first-time customers, I usually recommend ordering a couple of small 20g jars with different scents and consistencies so that you can find what works (and smells) best to you.