Did you know there’s a difference between deodorants and antiperspirants?
Until a few years ago, I thought they were the same thing. Duh! Hey, in my defence, they’re both supposed to make you smell nice. But, as it turns out, they work in two very different ways:
What Are Antiperspirants?
What they do: They stop yhe body from sweating, reducing underarm wetness.
How they do it: They use ingredients like aluminium salts that close the body’s sweat ducts. No sweat = no wetness = no body odour.
Side effects: some folks think that closing the body’s sweat ducts is dangerous. But, we use antiperspirants only on the tiny underarm area, so the sweat can still come out from any other area of the skin. No harm done.
What Are Deodorants?
What they do: They reduce or mask underarm odour.
How they do it: They use antiseptic ingredients like Triclosan that can prevent and kill the bacteria that cause bad body odour. But, they can’t stop you from getting wet. With deodorants, you still sweat. It just doesn’t smell bad anymore.
Side effects: Not really, unless you are allergic to something in the formula. This applies to antiperspirants, too, by the way.
Antiperspirants VS Deodorants: Which One Should I Choose?
If you sweat A LOT and this makes you very uncomfortable, go for an antiperspirant. Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe. For anyone else, a simple deodorant will do.
Do you use an antiperspirant or a deodorant? Leave a comment and let me know.
There are very few deodorants available for women. I usually end up buying one from the men’s section of the pharmacy.
Mary, that’s a shame. There are quite a few here, although most of them don’t work too well based on my experience. I don’t think men’s deodorants are all that different from women’s though. The main different is probably the more masculine packaging.