[unpaid/sample] I think if I’d have known the founder story, I’d have featured AKT a very long time ago. The brand was founded in 2015 by two actors performing in the West End – Ed Currie and Andy Coxon – whose deodorants were not hitting the spot. I mean, I know from being at the theatre you have to pray if you’re sitting in the front row that no actor or dancer does a twirl front of stage because you’ll end up splattered (or any shouting because it’s not unknown for a bit of spit to fling your way *shuddering*). They work hard! Under hot lights! My husband loves a front row seat but I need the safety of second or third. Andy and Ed didn’t like the traditional men’s deodorants that made them smell like teenagers and they didn’t get along with natural deodorants because, let’s face it, the acclimatization period can be pretty stinky. So, they made their own. Or, I should say, they worked with cosmetic scientists to create their own – they weren’t whipping it up in the interval of Les Mis.
The rest has followed and these are fragrance combinations that I can fully get on board with. As you can see, I have the AKT Body Wash Concentrate in Halcyon Summers which is a combination of mint, pomelo and tomato vine. It’s lovely. Other options are Orange Grove, a blend of petitgrain, mandarin and neroli, or The Onsen which is lavandin, citrus and vetiver – plus two more fragrance variants. The AKT Body Wash Concentrate is, as you will see in the title, a concentrated mix so you only need a very small amount when you wash. That being said, concentrates are tricky because we are so used to sploshing our shower or bath products – it takes a bit of a brain bend to use less than you think you need. I’d suggest that you use with a sponge to get the maximum coverage and fluff. Halcyon Summers smells like freshly washed man – sorry, but it does. In traditional terms, it’s masculine with the pomelo notes quite hard to pick out but the other notes doing the heavier work of being fresh and cologne-like in nature. If I met a chap freshly washed in this, I’d have to break my no hugging rule just to get a whiff of that delectably scented neck.
Aside from the shoe-horning in acting references dotted all over their website (which I love by the way), take note too of the packaging – aluminium, endlessly recyclable and including an aluminium cap. The compromise there, because technology has not caught up with desire, is that you’ll need a pen to pierce the top of the tube. I would 100% gift the men in my life this body wash – my immediate thought is that my brother would love it but then I would feel awkward about sneak sniffing his neck. Good job he lives miles away 😊 Find AKT The Body Wash Concentrate HERE which is on offer for £22 instead of £26. Oh, I forgot to mention ingredients – olive squalane and Vitamin E are headlining (see what I did?).