AKT London, the natural, vegan, cruelty and plastic free deodorant 🌱

Born to perform, tried, tested and approved by London’s West End performers; we are proud to partner with AKT for our latest giveaway collaboration. Find out how to enter here:

As part of working together, we got chatting to the founders Ed and Andy, who met on the West End back in 2015. The Deodorant Balm was born from needing a deodorant that could keep up with their training and provide the protection they needed while being a planet-friendly, sustainable option.

Read on to find out more about this amazing story…

- AKT is a seriously impressive product, with raving reviews - how long did it take from conception to reality?

“Ed started cooking up formulations on the hob in 2018 when we were in Beautiful the musical on the West End. This wasn’t to make a deodorant business (where we are now was never the plan haha!). It was purely to fix a problem of no deodorant working with our lifestyles. I was living with him at the time so I became the guinea pig for new formulations, as did cast members and family members. 

After fellow cast members requested to purchase some from us because of how well it worked, we began to explore making it into a business. Cut to May 2020 after a few years of branding and designing reworks, AKT was born!”

- Do you still perform in the West End, or is AKT your full-time focus now? What do you prefer?

“So, Ed stopped performing in 2019. I was watching him struggle with what to do next and we had this amazing formulation sitting there, which is when I suggested handing it to casts and seeing if it's worth working on as a business - it was! I was still performing up until Covid hit. I was on day 2 of rehearsals returning to play Tony in West Side Story when all the theatres shut. Thank goodness for having AKT because it gave us a focus and has obviously paid off. I have since returned to do a few shows but AKT is getting so big and is such an amazing opportunity. I may return to tread the boards one day but right now I’m all in on AKT.”

- What are your favourite shows you performed in on the West End?

“Beautiful the Carole King Musical, where we met, was SUCH a special year and show. We had the best time and the amazing cast have gone on to do incredible things, which is wonderful to see. Personally it was playing Tony in West Side Story at The Royal Exchange. It was not easy but it was rewarding. Ed played Bobby in A Chorus LIne at the London Palladium which was always his dream so I know that was his favourite.”

- Do you have any closing tips for entrepreneurs in starting out in the world of business?

“Don’t try to do it all but have the energy and drive that you want to do it all! Sounds confusing but we at AKT are such a driven team with so many ideas and possibilities that we can do with the brand, but we just can’t do it all at once. It seems like there’s always a 1000 things to do, and there are, but park the ideas and do a few well, and focus. You can do the rest later!”