A natural deodorant that extends the time needed between washing your clothes? Impossible! That’s what we thought in the weeks and months leading up to starting No Pong.
This is the story of how a natural deodorant came to save the day, and quite possibly a marriage on a hot and sweaty, surf trip in Java, Indonesia.
When Chris & Melanie, the founders of No Pong were travelling through the tropics on a search for waves, Chris ran out of his regular roll-on deodorant. This wouldn’t usually have been too much of an issue apart from the fact that the village they were staying in had no running water, and Chris was down to his last T-shirt.
Now, Chris is a pretty smelly guy without deodorant so this could have gone one of two ways:
- Chris sleeping outside with the mozzies
- Chris finds a way to salvage the situation, and stay out of the doghouse.
Fortunately, being very conscious of what she puts on her body, Melanie had been making her own skincare products for quite a while, including a natural deodorant.
Unbeknownst to Melanie, Chris was about the venture into the wild in his last T-shirt. He knew he had only one option left. He had to find and use Melanie’s natural deodorant concoction.
Resigned to his fate, Chris pulled out a jar of Melanie’s natural deodorant. He reached in, scooped out a pea-sized amount and rubbed it into his armpits. With nothing left to do but cross his fingers and wait, he started mentally preparing himself for a few tropical nights out under the stars.
However, after a day of trekking through the thick jungle in search of waves, by that evening the world was distinctly looking, and smelling like a brighter, fresher place.
He couldn’t believe his nose. No. Smell. Nothing at all. He checked both armpits again. Not a whiff of pong. How was it possible?
After a salty wash down, it was off to bed. Without jumping to a hasty conclusion, “Let’s see how we go tomorrow” he thought.
The next day was more of the same. Wearing the same T-shirt, hot and sweaty in the tropical heat and his armpits refused to smell. Rather than stink up a storm, Chris’ armpits didn’t smell at all.
Melanie also hadn’t said anything and in this case, no news was good news. It was starting to seem like this natural deodorant actually worked!
By the end of day 3, it was clear that Melanie was on to something. How was it possible? Most importantly, it worked better than any deodorant Chris had ever used before, and contained only natural ingredients, and definitely no questionable ingredients at all.
It was at that point that this dynamic duo decided to do something, so they pulled out a pen and paper. In the tropical heat, sun kissed and pong-free they started putting together the building blocks of the business that is today known as No Pong.
Even today, the No Pong team regularly hear from customers surprised at how effective it is. With an average rating of 4.9 out of 5, from over 1,700 reviews they must be doing something right!
Although wearing the same T-shirt for days on end is a somewhat off-label use, they have no hesitation putting No Pong to the test like in this example above.
