There used to be deodorant/antiperspirant; then there were ‘24 hour’ offerings. Then it was 48 hours and now it’s 72. I don’t need it to last six times longer than the time until my next shower.
Also I don’t even want it to last that long, or to be as potent and persistent as it presumably needs to be to last that long.
I can’t use the stuff any more without feeling like my armpits have been varnished over with some astringent glue. 72 hour antiperspirant makes me itch and burn. 72 hour antiperspirant makes me stink, because I can’t use it.
Why does this exist? Is there some future in which we will be offered spray products that one supposedly only needs to use once and they last forever? Where’s the profit motive?
I’ve never used them, so this is pure speculation based on commercials. (Checks thread not in FQ)
Deodorants are different from anti-perspirants. The items you are talking about are, I believe, deodorants, which are now aimed not at covering up perspiration-related odors but at preventing them. They do this (again, I surmise) by killing the bacteria that feed on sweat and in turn cause the smell. Apparently, they can kill bacteria for up to 72 hours, I don’t know how, but it’s probably some chemical concoction. The claim is that they prevent odor better than soap and water alone.
Why they exist is that people will apparently buy them based on that claim. (Note: this is always the answer.)
If you need a deodorant (instead of an anti-perspirant) and if the chemicals in this new generation of deodorants irritates your skin, surely there are still old-style deodorants that you can choose from without that problem? Maybe go to the “natural” products aisle, and try Tom’s of Maine or one of that ilk.
My Mid-dau has had some recent succes with Degree brand new-age deo. in her boys sneakers.
The smell was ok. If it smells anything “baby powdered” scented the boys won’t have it. The Degree smells fresh.
It’s helped.
Like said above, obviously you are sensitive to the newer brand offerings. Pick a milder underarm treatment. Secret brand(the regular stuff)seems to be less complex, in my mind. I haven’t used it in a few years.
The new type deodorants have taken over the market. Thanks Lumé. ( yeah, I blame them.)
I think it’s an advertising technique. They want your internal monologue to be “There’s no way it actually lasts the entire 72 hours, but it must definitely last 24.” You’re no longer considering if the product can do what you need, but instead if it can actually exceed it.
I see this technique used with a lot of obvious fraudulent ads for things that won’t work. Exaggerate the claims so the ‘savvy’ consumer is still convinced.
If the main problem is that they’re irritating your skin, look for the products that advertise “for sensitive skin” or “contains no aluminum” [or aluminium for you Brits]. I was having the itching problem until I switched to these products.
I think marketers sometimes use the most inane points in their advertising in the hopes that it just sticks in your mind. Lucky Strikes used to advertise their tobacco was toasted, which was true, but meaningless because everyone toasted their cigarette tobacco. I’ve seen some products with labels proudly proclaiming its gluten free status even though it wouldn’t normally have gluten. So you see an antiperspirant touting it’s 72 hour lifespan and will just automatically think it’s a good product. Never mind if other products made by competitors have that same lifespan.
Odds are good that if I’m ever doing something for 72 hours I’m not going to give a good god damn how much I sweat or even stink. Obviously I’m doing something pretty intensive.
Disclosure: I worked in the personal-care products industry at my first job, and specifically worked on deodorants for four years.
All anti-perspirants are also deodorants – even if they are labeled as “unscented,” they will likely still have some sort of masking fragrance to cover the chemical scents of the base product.
However, not all deodorants are also anti-perspirants. In the U.S., an anti-perspirant is an over-the-counter drug, and by law, must contains one or more different aluminum salts in order to be labeled as an “anti-perspirant.” The aluminum salts essentially “plug up” the sweat pores in your underarms; the salts also have an anti-microbial function, which kills off the bacteria which are responsible for underarm odor.
Deodorant-only products contain fragrance, as well as an anti-microbial agent, typically triclosan.
All of that said, there is a lot of confusion among consumers, who use the two terms interchangeably, and who don’t understand the difference between the two types of products. Very common is something like this:
“I don’t want to use something with aluminum in it.” (Maybe they feel it irritates their skin, or they’ve bought into the scare tactics around aluminum.)
“OK, then you want to buy a product that is only labeled ‘deodorant.’ Those don’t have aluminum.”
(Later) “This aluminum-free deodorant sucks! My armpits are wet all the time!”
This is exactly it. Hell, 35 years ago, when I was working in the category, Mitchum used the tagline, “so effective you could skip a day” – and it was an effective-enough tagline that consumers widely thought that Mitchum was the strongest anti-perspirant on the market. (It wasn’t any stronger than anything else out there, but hey, advertising does work.)
Honestly, there is huge money in the “fragrance houses” which supply fragrances to personal-care product companies; they test the hell out of new fragrances, and I can guarantee you that the new ones which are introduced are popular with their target audiences…which is probably not us “people of a certain age.”
I first encountered the 48 hour version of spray deodorant about 12 years ago while traveling somewhere in the Austrian Alps.
My deodorant had disappeared so I needed to locate a replacement.
Found a little general store where I came across the Dove 48 spray deodorant.
At the time considering the difficulty transporting such products to this locale must present and the equally difficult experience that residents might encounter getting to the store regularly I thought that perhaps Austria had a contract with Dove to manufacture this particular long lasting version.
Color me surprised a couple months later when I went to purchase the same product at my local Walmart and found it be the same.
A standard for most conventions is the “6-2-1 Rule”-Each day the minimum should be six hours of sleep, two full meals and one bath or shower. I don’t know what is worse, the damn Axe Body Spray or “72 hour” deodorant.
I am with you on this. I was purchasing some body wash recently and encountered some pumpkin pie versions which were absolutely cloying. I did find a simple peppermint scented one that has worked out OK for now.
