Tussy Cream Deodorant Original Fresh Spice (1925) {The Drugstore Lottery} {Retro Beauty}

The cute pot of cream deodorant called Tussy Cream Deodorant in the Original Fresh Spice scent has been around, believe it or not, since 1925. It's a Flapper-era deodorant that will have met with the flared-up nostrils of a Fitzgeraldian character. You can spot it sometimes on the bottom shelves of US drugstores today packaged in its uncommon jar container - uncommon that is by contemporary standards for this type of beauty product.

If you like retro beauty as in retro gestures (see 1947 advert on the left), you might be attracted to the idea of scooping up the deodorant cream with two of your fingers and applying it in an old-fashioned swiping motion...

You can always use a small plastic spoon it that's a problem for you however.

A 1959 Tussy Deodorant Advert

The deodorant works! And it smells good! The "fresh spice" scent (in the red pot) smells in fact of a powdery floral: it is a retro carnation scent with clovey accents. It is produced and manufactured by K-Suite, which also take care of the Alexandra de Markoff perfumes.

People with sensitive skin often point out that it's one of the rare deodorants that do not do a number on their skin.

Shopping-wise, it's one of those drugstore products which you can call paradoxically enough "scarce". Your best chance of finding it is at online marketplaces like nationwidecampus.com where a pack of 3 x 1.7 oz retails for $5.07.

Personally, I've enjoyed emptying a pot, but I see it more as a romantic break in terms of deodorant use, as the fast pace of life pushes you irresistibly it seems towards more glide-on options to save time.

It is very nice however to know that that little jar is still around and from time to time, to go back to it when you want to slow down time.

If you love the scent of carnation, then it's actually a rare, throwback scent to find in a deodorant nowadays, so it's definitely worth giving it a try.

You can also read this passage on Deodorants in the 1930s in Slummming in Avonland and Encountering Odors, in a Good Way