This Underarm Scrub is a Holy Grail Product for My Pits

All my adult life, my armpits have been mystifyingly sensitive. No matter what products I used, they’d remain red, bumpy, and blotchy. But then I tried the Pacifica Underarm Detox on a total whim. Although the wonderfully coconut cream-scented Pacifica Beauty Coconut & Charcoal Underarm Detox Scrub is a relatively coarse, physical body scrub, it didn’t irritate my sensitive skin at all. In fact, it brought what I thought was an inescapable truth about my sad, red armpit skin to a sudden end. 

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Pacifica Beauty Coconut and Charcoal Underarm Detox Scrub

How It Works

I came across this scrub while researching vegan, cruelty-free skincare and makeup—Pacifica’s entire line of products qualifies as both. (The Underarm Detox Scrub isn’t just vegan and cruelty-free, but it’s also mineral oil, paraben, sulfate, phthalate, and aluminum-free, to boot.) Given the fact that it’s specifically a scrub for your armpits, it struck me as a really novel product. Come to think of it, I’d never seen a similar item to it, in all my scrolling on the skin-care corners of the internet. 

It’s actually marketed toward people looking to make the switch from standard deodorant to natural deodorant, meaning deodorants that are generally made without aluminum or other antiperspirants. Using a combination of coconut oil, green tea, apricot powder, and charcoal, the Pacifica Coconut & Charcoal Scrub is intended to cleanse, hydrate, unclog pores, and neutralize odors. And, the brand claims, these effects should help ease the transition and make your pit skin generally happier in the process. (Disclaimer: There’s no definitive research proving that aluminum in deodorant is dangerous, and it’s still possible to have an allergic reaction to natural deodorant).

I was pretty unhappy with my deodorant at the time: a conventional antiperspirant for sensitive skin that managed to fail at preventing stink, sweat, and irritation. To top it off, it never felt like it completely rinsed away when I showered. So, even though I didn’t see much value in the scrub from a wellness standpoint (I wish I could scrub the tired word “Detox” from its label) and I wasn’t set on changing products, I felt compelled to try it just for the sake of calming—and thoroughly cleaning and exfoliating—my pits.

How I Used It—And How It Felt

It bears mentioning, repeatedly, that a little goes a long way with this scrub. So, again, a little goes a really long way. I learned this lesson within two seconds of glomming a handful of it onto a single armpit only to find my whole upper arm covered in the stuff (luckily, it rinses away easily if you use it in the shower). Excess product aside, it worked its magic as soon as I massaged it into my skin. Where a regular soap or cleanser would leave my armpits feeling tacky and squeaky, undoubtedly thanks to the residue from my subpar deo, this scrub made my pits feel velvety smooth—a texture I didn’t even know they could attain. I was in disbelief.