Battle of the Deodorants

Aluminum vs Aluminum Free vs Natural vs Clinical Strength

I’ll be honest, I’m a pretty sweaty person. And smell, up until several months ago when I found my winning deodorant, was a problem for me. In the past, despite showering everyday and putting on copious amounts of deodorant, I still would end up smelling bad by the end of the day. This usually only happened on school days, or times that I spent outside my house, because I tended to get nervous around people which caused my sweat glands to secrete nervous sweat which smells bad.

I was so embarrassed by this and I would try to wear jackets to cover up the smell to no avail. Sometimes they even made it worse because they made me hot which caused me to sweat more. I hated lifting my arms to do anything because it would release a whiff of BO and I would cringe inwardly while feeling ashamed because people around me could probably smell it.

Those were the days that I was wearing a normal aluminum deodorant which clearly didn’t work for me. I bounced around a few popular brands, never really feeling satisfied with the results. I even tried men’s deodorant which I thought would work because it had to be stronger, right? Wrong. It worked just as poorly for me as the women’s deodorants.

A couple years after those situations I was taking time off of school because of a brain injury that I had. If you want to learn more about it check out my previous two posts! And one of my doctors had me switch to a natural deodorant because he told me that aluminum deodorant was super bad for you, and could even leave calcium deposits in your brain.

Today I googled this and google said that aluminum deodorant doesn’t cause calcium deposits in your brain. But at the time I believed him and got rid of my aluminum deodorant as quickly as possible and switched to a natural one.

Now, the natural deodorant mostly worked for me since I wasn’t spending as much time around people or nervous sweating. But, when I did spend time around people, usually at church, I ended the time with a bit of a bad smell. I thought this was ridiculous because it wasn’t even a whole day, it was only a couple of hours and the deodorant couldn’t have my back for even that long.

Later, I tried a different natural deodorant brand which I liked the smell of better, but it was the same story with me ending up a little smelly after a couple of hours around people.

I wasn’t satisfied with this outcome and decided that natural deodorants weren’t it for me. But, unfortunately, I was still scared of aluminum and hadn’t yet discovered that it wasn’t as bad for you as my doctor had said. So I switched to an aluminum-free deodorant by Secret that I hoped would be a little more powerful than a natural deodorant.

This deodorant worked for a little while, even when I was working long days in a physically demanding job. I ended the eight to ten hour days with little to no bad smell that I did not think was very irritating or noticeable to others.

This was all good and fine until I started wearing closer fitting clothing that ended up catching the sweat and holding it against my skin for longer instead of letting it evaporate which caused there to be more of a bad smell on me.

I was discouraged because the aluminum-free deodorant that I had been satisfied with had at last let me down. It reminded me of the times a couple of years ago when I had felt shame and embarrassment from my body odor. This is when I considered finally going to the doctor for a prescription strength deodorant.

Before I had a chance to do this though, I heard an ad on YouTube for Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant that was available in stores. As soon as I could I raced over to my local Walmart and found my favorite scent out of the options–which is now one of my favorite scents of all time–and started wearing it. This deodorant had aluminum in it, but I was determined to smell good and leave the embarrassment of the past behind, so I decided to wear it anyways, at first as little as possible, but now I put it on once a day or more.

This deodorant has Aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex GLY in it which is found in some prescription strength deodorants, and is an antiperspirant as well. This powerful deodorant has been the deodorant of my dreams and has 9.9 times out of 10 left me smelling fresh and good. Finally, the battle of the deodorants had found a winner!

No more days spent worrying that I smelled bad, and no more people that didn’t want to sit next to me because of the smell!

The one downside to this deodorant is that I got a mild rash from it for a couple days, but it went away pretty quickly and I didn’t have to stop using it.

I had also gotten over my fear of aluminum, figuring that even if I ended up with calcium deposits in my brain, at least I would have friends and be spared much heart-ache and embarrassment. Luckily, with writing this post and researching deodorant I have found out that very little aluminum from deodorant is absorbed into your skin, and what is is filtered out by your liver. Pro tip: do your research when doctors that you don’t completely trust give you advice.

The only times when I smelled bad despite wearing this deodorant were on a date that I was very nervous for and a bridal shower that I shaved my armpits for before which shaved off the deodorant. I did apply more after that in the morning, but it is meant to be applied at night which can account for the lessened performance.

Battle of the Deodorants winner: Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant!

My favorite scent: Stress Response.

The embarrassment and shame of days of old is gone and now I feel more confident and assured knowing that I smell good!

I wish you all luck on your own journeys of conquering personal battles! I hope this post helped someone that may also be trying to find a deodorant that works! But, whether it be deodorant or something else, I hope you find what you are looking for and grow in ways you never thought possible!

Much love. <3.