Gendered Deodorant? No Thanks
PiperWai is a natural deodorant for EVERY body. We’ve been saying it since our humble beginnings and the words “every body” have been woven into our brand mission for a reason. We want our natural deodorant to be available to everyone, regardless of gender or age.
Do you ever go to the store to grab deodorant and are overwhelmed by all the options and scents? You shouldn’t have to stress-sweat over which deodorant to buy or how you will end up smelling.
Since many deodorants cover up odor with strong, synthetic fragrances, it can not only be irritating to the body, but to those around you. For those who are sensitive to smells (like one of our own team members!) it’s frustrating to put on deodorant and get a headache from the overpowering scent. Additionally, the word "fragrance" can be misleading. It's a catchall term for any hundreds of unregulated ingredients that the FDA does not require brands to disclose. This is why it's so important to us to have full transparency with our ingredients.
We kept all this in mind when developing PiperWai’s essential-oil scent. No heavy scents that interrupt your day or make you smell like a coconut factory. Just a nice, subtle smell that works with your body chemistry, not against it.
PiperWai has a fresh scent made from a carefully chosen blend of 11 essential oils. Our goal is to create a pleasant-yet-not-overpowering, gender neutral smell. We like to describe the scent as "mintrusy" since it smells a little minty and a little citrusy (mint + citrus = mintrus!) with other clean notes that will remind you of a spa. We dilute the entire essential-oil blend so that it's less than one percent of the entire formula making it perfectly balanced with our other ingredients to work with your body, not against it.
Gendered Smells
Who made the rule that women must smell like flowers and men must smell like distressed leather? Regardless of who made this up, we hate it. We just want to neutralize body odor, without the manly man and ultra-feminine marketing or fragrance.
Our culture has told us over and over that certain products and smells are for men and certain ones are for women, with no in between. In our opinion, that’s just silly.
What Is The Pink Tax?
Next time you’re in the grocery store, compare the prices of men’s and women’s products. Oftentimes you’ll see price discrepancies between men’s and women’s products, including deodorant, razors, shampoo and conditioner, body wash and even clothing and toys. The upcharge for women’s products has been referred to as “the pink tax.” In 2015, the New York Department of City Affairs found that on average, women’s and girls’ products are seven percent more than their male counterparts. And that’s just the average. For personal care products like razors and deodorant, that number jumps from seven percent to 13 percent.
“In all but five of the 35 product categories analyzed, products for female consumers were priced higher than those for male consumers,” the report said. “Over the course of a woman’s life, the financial impact of these gender-based pricing disparities is significant. In 1994, the State of California studied the issue of gender-based pricing of services and estimated that women effectively paid an annual “gender tax” of approximately $1,351 for the same services as men.”
No Gendered Deodorant, Just Natural Freshness
Why is one gender paying more for essentially the same product? It’s a question that doesn’t quite seem to have an answer. As a personal-care brand, we will always be open and transparent about our products being for everyone. You won’t see a “pink tax” at PiperWai, nor will you see products from us that are specific to any gender. It’s important to us that natural, healthy living is accessible and inclusive, which is why we stick to what we know: odor-neutralizing natural deodorant that works.
