Since this thread has been reopened, I’ll update with the info that I now use Sweat Block wipes.
They still contain aluminum, but you don’t use them every day so you aren’t exposed as much. Although the instructions don’t tell you, you can easily get 3-4 uses out of each wipe. I supplement with deodorant and do fine, at least when it’s not super hot outside. Walmart sells them.
During summer, I use regular antiperspirant. It seems to take several months of daily antiperspirant use to give me a rash, so all is well.
That makes some sense. From what my scientists told me when I worked in the category, anti-perspirants work by the aluminum salts forming little plugs in your pores. If you’re “starting from scratch”, it takes a number of days of using an anti-perspirant for a substantial number of the plugs to form. When we would do clinical testing on new anti-perspirants, we had our test subjects avoid using any anti-perspirant for 17 days before the test, to give their bodies time to “flush” out the plugs from their regular product.
Just wanted to drop a note of thanks on this topic. I’ve understood there’s a difference between anitperspirants and deodorants but didn’t get the aluminum distinction. I’ve been using tom’s of maine for several years in order to avoid aluminum (because I don’t want alzheimer’s not because I get rashes.) Unable to find it in the grocery store recently, I bought a Dove Men +Care product because it didn’t have aluminum. I was perplexed that this was the only one on the shelf that didn’t have aluminum; now I understand the two reasons why; 1) it’s a deodorant and 2) in order to be called an “antiperspirant” it needs to have aluminum. Since I’ve clearly been making due with “deodorant” for several years without issue, you’ve helped me radically expand the anti-stink options available to me Thanks!
The absolute best 100% natural deodorant is fresh lime juice. Cut a lime in half, give it a squeeze as you apply it to your underarms. Keep cut limes in a ziplock or plastic and store in the refrigerator. One application is good for 48 hours. Very effective.
I could be wrong, but I believe that it is the aluminum in antiperspirants that actually keeps you from sweating. Those without aluminum are just deodorants.
Anyway, try giving your body a rest from aluminum by only wearing antiperspirants during warm months and when engaging in sweaty activities, otherwise wear deodorant (natural or OTC).
I am one of those lucky people who do not stink when I sweat, (and yes people have been telling me all of my life that I smell good) but I still do not like the feeling of wet underarms, so I buy antiperspirants not deodorants.
I have been on the hunt for a natural alternative for years and am not at all interestested in scented variations.
I do occasionally worry about blocking my body from sweating but then figured I sweat enough from my head and between my breasts that I doubt blocking this area is doing all that much harm, but of course I do not know that for sure.
I am however still interested in a non-aluminum affordable version of an antiperspirant (meaning that it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg).
As I noted when this thread was originally active, if you’re in the U.S., antiperspirants are considered to be an OTC drug by the FDA, and the only active ingredients which the FDA allows for antiperspirancy are aluminum salts. So, unfortunately, it’s a fruitless hunt for you, unless and until someone develops a new sort of product and gets it approved by the FDA.
In reading the label on the Old Spice Swagger Deodorant active ingredients are:
Dipropylene Glycol; Water; Propylene Glycol; Sodium Stearate; Fragrance; PPG-3 Myristyl Ether; Tetrasodium Edta and Blue 1
Could this be Aluminum free or is in included in one of the above?
Speaking as someone who worked in the industry for years: you’d be very surprised. An awful lot of people use the terms interchangeably, and don’t stop to think about the fact that the terms describe two different functions.
It’s just a deodorant, not an antiperspirant. Plain ol’ deodorants don’t need to have aluminium. (Other than the crystal deodorants, which are alum and work reasonably well, IME.)
Thanks!