Questions.
Answers to the questions we hear most, in the same plain-spoken voice we use around the shop.
About the product
Does natural deodorant actually work?
Most of them don’t. That’s why we built one that does.
Most natural deodorants use inert ingredients that smell nice but do very little to stop odor. They fail on hot days, at the gym, and by mid-afternoon. Ours doesn’t, because it’s built around baking soda — the same ingredient that has deodorized kitchens and refrigerators for a century.
It stops odor. It keeps you fresh all day. It’s not a compromise.
What does MINT smell like?
A clean, subtle finish of peppermint oil. Not a candy-shop mint, not a heavy fragrance. Just a quiet, cool freshness that fades into the background once it’s on your skin.
No synthetic fragrance. No masking scents.
Is it a deodorant or an antiperspirant?
It’s a natural deodorant. It’s aluminum-free and works by neutralizing odor — it doesn’t try to block your sweat glands.
Sweating is what your body is supposed to do. Smelling bad isn’t. We stop the smell and leave the biology alone.
How do I use it?
One or two swipes is plenty. This is the single most common mistake people make with baking-soda deodorants — they slather it on like the drugstore stuff and end up with white residue and irritated skin.
Apply to clean, dry skin. Let it absorb for a few seconds before getting dressed. That’s it. If you’re still smelling yourself at hour ten, use a hair more next time — but odds are you won’t need to.
How big is it, and how long does it last?
Net weight 2.65 oz (75g). One stick.
Because you only need one or two swipes per underarm, a single stick lasts most people two to three months of daily use. It’s not the biggest tube on the shelf, but you’ll get through it slower than you think.
About the ingredients
What’s in it?
A short, honest list:
RSPO palm oil, sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), corn starch, sunflower seed wax, zinc ricinoleate, and peppermint oil. Nothing else.
Every ingredient meets Whole Foods’ Premium Body Care standard — the same standard that bans parabens, phthalates, PFAS, aluminum salts, synthetic fragrance, and 240+ other ingredients from anything they’ll sell under it. Nothing here would land on a serious clean-beauty watchlist.
Read the whole story on our Ingredients page.
How does MINT stack up against the “clean beauty” standards?
Very well. Two independent checks:
Whole Foods Premium Body Care. Whole Foods bans 240+ ingredients from anything sold under their premium beauty standard — parabens, phthalates, PFAS, aluminum chlorohydrate, synthetic fragrance, sodium lauryl and laureth sulfates, formaldehyde donors, and the rest of the drugstore usual suspects. Every ingredient in MINT is on the acceptable side of that list.
Yuka. Yuka is an independent barcode-scanning app that a lot of parents use to check whether “clean” beauty products are really clean. It’s user-funded, takes no ads, no brand money, and its score is capped by the worst ingredient in the formula — which means one questionable additive can tank an otherwise good product.
MINT scores 98 out of 100 — near the top of Yuka’s Excellent tier (75+). You don’t get there with anything in the formula flagged as more than “low risk.”
Will baking soda or mint irritate my skin?
Honest answer: for a small number of people, yes.
We spent three years testing this formula, and here’s what we learned. Baking soda and peppermint oil are two of the most effective natural odor-eliminators on the planet — nothing else we tried came close. But they’re more active than the inert stuff most “natural” deodorants use. Most people love them. A small minority get a rash, especially in the first week or two of switching from an antiperspirant.
If you’re in that minority, we’re sorry. We really are. Send us a note at customer.support@tronalabs.com and we’ll refund you in full, no questions.
But we’re not going to reformulate away from the ingredients that make natural deodorant actually work just because they don’t work for everyone. Baking soda has deodorized kitchens and refrigerators for a century. It works. We stand by it.
Is it aluminum free?
Yes. Aluminum chlorohydrate — the active ingredient in most antiperspirants — is on Whole Foods’ banned-ingredients list and every clean-beauty watchlist we’ve looked at. We don’t use it, and we never will.
Also paraben-free, phthalate-free, PFAS-free, and free of synthetic fragrance.
Is it cruelty free? Vegan?
Cruelty free, yes. Never tested on animals — and our factory shares that commitment as a company-wide policy.
Vegan, too. The formula is plant-and-mineral based (baking soda is a mineral). No animal-derived ingredients.
Where is it made?
Crafted in the USA, in Middleton, Wisconsin, at Natural Contract Manufacturing — a small, natural-personal-care specialist who happens to be very, very good at exactly the kind of anhydrous stick formulation MINT requires.
They’re one of the reasons this product came out the way it did. They took the spec seriously, held the line on ingredient quality, and treated a first-time deodorant brand like a real client. We’re proud to have them on the label.
Ingredients are sourced globally to a short, tight spec. The stick itself is poured, cooled, and packed in Wisconsin.
About the company
Who’s behind Trona Labs?
A small, founder-led operation with one product and one conviction: natural deodorant can actually work, if it uses the one ingredient that eliminates odor instead of masking it.
Read the full story on What is Trona Labs?
Wait — are you a great surfer?
Nope. Not even close.
But our founder is an enthusiastic surfer, and has spent 20+ years chasing pretty-big waves around the world and doing his best to ride them. He’s better than you’d think from the way he talks about it, but nothing like his heroes — Dane Reynolds, Craig Anderson, Jack Johnson.
He does, however, sweat a lot while surfing. Which is one of the reasons this deodorant exists.
Where does the name “Trona Labs” come from?
Trona is the mineral we mine baking soda from. It’s an evaporite — the crystallized remains of an ancient lake bed — and about ninety percent of the world’s baking soda comes from a single deposit in Sweetwater County, Wyoming.
Named the company after it because the whole product is built on that one mineral. Everything else is just delivery.
About ordering
Where can I buy it?
Exclusively on Amazon for now. Prime eligible, ships in the standard Amazon window.
We’ll expand to other channels as we grow.
What’s your return policy?
Amazon handles standard returns and refunds through your Amazon account.
If your reason for returning is skin irritation from the baking soda or mint, please also email us at customer.support@tronalabs.com. We stand behind the formula, and we want to hear about it either way.
How do I contact you?
Email customer.support@tronalabs.com or use the contact form. We read everything and reply in a day or two.