Your sweat doesn’t actually smell. What causes BO (body odour) is the bacteria that start munching on proteins in the sweat. They break down the proteins into acids and that’s what smells.
Sweating is normal and healthy. These are just some of the good things that sweating does for your body:
Cooling you down and preventing overheating
May help to expel toxins such as BPA, phthalates and heavy metals
Kills bacteria and viruses than can’t live in temperatures above 37C
Keeps pores clear
Reduces your chance of kidney stones
May help to fight skin infections
So it is pretty cool stuff, and it makes you think “why you would want to stop it?” Especially if you could sweat without the fear of stinky-ness.
Women have more sweat glands than men. But the men’s are more active and that is why they sweat more.
Stress sweat smells worse than exercise sweat. This is because it comes from different glands where the sweat has a higher percentage of proteins and fats compared to exercise sweat. The bacteria go nuts for the extra protein and fats and gorge on it like its Christmas dinner.
Deodorants vs Antiperspirants
Deodorants and Antiperspirants are not the same thing.
Antiperspirants use aluminium salts to either block, close or clog your pores to prevent you from sweating. In Australia they are classed and regulated as therapeutic goods because theyalter your body’s normal function.
Deodorants don’t interfere with you pores or glands. They still let you sweat. Deodorants work by creating an environment on your skin that prevents bacteria from having a wild party stinking up the joint.
The problem with aluminium salts
Aluminium chloride, aluminium zirconium, aluminium chlorohydrate and aluminium hydroxybromide are all commonly used in antiperspirants. Aluminium is not normally found in the body so a big red flag is raised when researchers find it in our tissue. It shows that our body absorbs aluminium.
Aluminium is a neurotoxin and it has links to increasing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It has also been found to disrupt your endocrine system by mimicking the hormone estrogen. Anything that can do this is a massive red flag in the breast cancer world.
It’s also the culprit for staining your clothes yellow!
Reviews
Woohoo! Deodorants have been getting excellent reviews. It's a new product for us, but the formula seems to just work really well for most people. Check out some of the reviews on the Woohoo! page here:
The problem with deodorants that use bicarb soda is the pH is way too high (skin is naturally slightly acidic) so it causes irritation. Woohoo! worked on the theory of trying to lower the pH so you wouldn’t get itchy pits.
Collect to a pea sized amount of deodorant and warm it in your fingertips. Rub it under your arm until it disappears (just like you would a moisturiser).
If you lose your spatula no need to stress :) You can use your fingertip to scoop out your deodorant paste - just make sure your fingers are clean and dry first.
P.S. If you’re used to using an antiperspirant, please remember that this isn’t one! This deodorant works by neutralising odour and keeps you dryer by absorbing moisture, but it DOESN’T block your pores with aluminium to stop you from sweating. It can take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust to this type of deodorant but it’s worth the wait!
