With Earth Day 2022 just around the corner, we've been on the lookout for local businesses selling sustainable products.
We spoke to the man who has created a fully sustainable, locally-sourced deodorant that'll work better than normal deodorants and won't break the bank.
Ben Breslin created Vico Deodorant - a homemade, natural, organic deodorant that might just change your life.
Read more: Everything you need to know about Earth Day 2022
Vico Deo is made from locally sourced ingredients free of aluminium or parabens. The tube is made of recyclable cardboard with vegetable colouring that is sourced from a manufacturer in Northern Ireland.
Speaking about how it all started, Ben told Dublin Live: "It was at the beginning of 2021 and I was spraying a can of deodorant beside my girlfriend Maria, and she was like, ‘Stop spraying that so close’ because it was full of harmful chemicals.
"So I never had thought about it before so I started Googling it and realised that there was a heap of quite controversial chemicals in it."
The Dubliner added: "Not only that, the industry creates billions of pounds of plastic waste each year. When you think about it, a lot of people go through maybe one spray can a month."
Ben decided to start looking for a natural deodorant that worked and could be easily found in Ireland.
But it wasn't easy as most brands only shipped to the US and UK, with one brand saying they could send him one for a whopping €35.
He said: "I had a lot of spare time so I wondered how hard it’d be to make it yourself. So I used the internet to teach myself and the first few I made were pretty bad but I finally made one that contained some key ingredients and it actually worked."
Ben said he finally landed on a formula that worked and started making natural deodorant for his family.
He said: "They said that it worked better than regular deodorant for them. So I thought, ‘No one’s doing this in Ireland right now and there’s an opportunity here’.
"So I did a test run for Vico Deodorant in April 2021 which went really well. People loved it. I was blown away with the amount of people who were interested."
Ben found himself inundated with plenty of orders and great reviews and he finally decided to take the plunge and work on it full-time.
He quit his job in the HSE and now dedicates all his time making Vico Deo in his parents' kitchen at their Walkinstown home with his girlfriend, Marie.
He said: "My parents are great. They’re actually so supportive. Sometimes I would start making it and my dad would take over.
"They both enjoy doing it because there’s been times when we needed to make a few batches and I just wanted to do two or three but they were like, ‘No! Let’s do five or six!’
He added: "I would be screwed if it wasn’t for my family. Especially when I was working crazy hours in the last job.
"When I was stuck in meetings, they would run down to the post office and post the items for me. They still do that sometimes without me even asking. They’re massively helpful."
You can find out more about Vico Deodorant on their website.
Read more: 8 ways other cities are cutting plastic waste that Dublin could learn from
Read more: 'Superblocks' and other ways cities are transforming their streets
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
