ask a beauty editor
By Jennifer G. Sullivan, a Cut contributor and author of the “Ask a Beauty Editor” column. With over ten years of experience in beauty and wellness journalism, she is the host of Fat Mascara, an award-winning podcast that takes a closer look at beauty culture. Previously, she was the beauty director and features editor at Marie Claire.
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Dear Beauty Editor,
I want to use natural deodorant, and I’ve been seeing more underarm detoxes and underarm bars, like the one from Kaia Naturals. Are they a replacement for antiperspirant or deodorant, or necessary to use before natural deodorant? What can you tell me? —Kenna
You’re not the only person interested in natural deodorant. Their use has exploded in the past decade (and the market is currently growing at about twice the rate of the traditional deodorant market, according to reports from Verified Market Research). But the underarm bar you mentioned, from Kaia Naturals, and products like underarm-detox scrubs and soaps aren’t deodorants. They’re cleansers designed to help control odor for people who are making the switch from traditional antiperspirant to natural deodorant.
Why might you want that kind of product? “Many people find they’re smellier or sweatier for a period of time after they stop using traditional aluminum-salt-based antiperspirants,” says Mary Futher, better known as Madame Sweat, the founder of Kaia Naturals, to her 965,000 TikTok followers. You may need time to adjust (more on that below) before natural deodorant works as well as it should. During that period, you can deal with your body’s natural sweat and odor, or you can use an underarm bar or scrub so you’re slightly less smelly during the transition. Read on and I’ll explain.
What’s the difference between traditional antiperspirants and natural deodorants?
Most body odor isn’t coming from your body; it’s coming from the hundreds of different types of bacteria living on your skin. The little guys love moisture and enjoy the slightly acidic pH of bare skin. As they live, die, and chow down (on fats and proteins in sweat), they emit pungent volatile compounds. Traditional antiperspirant works by changing the pH of your skin slightly and creating gel-like plugs in your pores that prevent the excretion of sweat. Result? You’re drier and you’re less friendly to bacteria, so you (well, they) smell less.
So do underarm bars or detox scrubs actually work?
Yes. Anything “with potential antibacterial activity could help with odor,” says Jeremy Fenton, M.D., board-certified dermatologist at Schweiger Dermatology Group in New York City and Long Beach — but it won’t necessarily inhibit sweat. Some people may want to use underarm bars only during the wash-out period (or detox, if you must) after using antiperspirant, and some may like the way they work in conjunction with natural deodorant, so they keep using them even after their bodies have adjusted. It’s going to take some experimentation to figure out what works for you.
What can you do for sweat or odor while your body readjusts after wearing antiperspirant?
You don’t have to do anything, but if the extra sweat and change in body odor bothers you, it’s worth trying a bar or soap designed specifically for your pits. Some of these products are made with charcoal, with the implication being that the charcoal will draw out the aluminum-salt plugs (“toxins” in marketing-speak), speed up the transition period, and get you smelling better faster. But that’s not exactly true. Most of them work simply because they kill bacteria and/or change the pH of your skin so it’s less friendly to bacteria. “And you wash thoroughly with them, which also helps remove bacteria — think about how a surgeon washes before operating,” says Futher. Many of the formulas contain ingredients that rebalance your pH so your skin isn’t too alkaline or acidic, which can be irritating. The Kaia Naturals Underarm Bar, for example, has sea salt and pH-balancing apple cider vinegar. “Bacteria do not like salt — think about how meat is cured or salted to preserve it and prevent bacteria growth,” Futher says.
Other products like Megababe’s Space Bar, the Good Fill’s Underarm Detox Bar, and Pacifica’s Underarm Detox Scrub rely on different ingredients but ultimately do the same thing. It’s interesting to me that almost all of these types of products use charcoal as part of their formulas and sales pitches, but I think that’s because the charcoal-as-purifier story is more interesting and simpler than a story about fluctuating bacteria strains and dissolving gel plugs.
$11
Why are you smellier when you stop using a traditional antiperspirant?
When you stop using antiperspirants, you don’t sweat or smell more because your body is “purging toxins” or your “lymph nodes are backed up,” as some natural-deodorant companies and influencers on social media would have you believe. And it does not take weeks for your body to expel the ingredients in traditional antiperspirants or flush out backed-up sweat. “That doesn’t make sense from a physiological perspective or chemical perspective,” says Fenton.
However, it could take a few showers for the gel-like plugs in your pores (from the aluminum salts) to dissolve completely and wash away. And once the plugs are gone, the salad of bacteria on your skin may need additional time to adjust (up to eight days or more, according to one study). Some strains are dying, others are growing, and the balance of bacteria in your microbiome changes — and may smell different — as it returns to its new normal.Some people refer to this process as a purge or detox, but I think it’d be more accurate to call it a wash-out period. “These ebbs and flows are different for everyone, but the whole adjustment period can take a few weeks — and if you were to start using a natural deodorant during that time, you might think it doesn’t work,” says Futher.
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