I used to rely on aerosol deos, I thought it was unnatural how much I sweat.. Over recent years or so there has been publicity about the connection between breast cancer and the lymph nodes (detoxing glands) are under your arm pits; it therefore seems counter intuitive to put something on to such a sensitive place which contains hazardous chemicals (i.e. many mainstream deos). I tried crystal deos, natural roll ons, making my own, you name it I tried it, but I still had to wash 3-4 times a day to stop smelling like the pits!.. Then, a good friend had visited Lush before a dance party, she gave me one of the new samples she had..
Aromaco, by Lush. Every time I wear this with no perfume, I get compliments on smelling nice! Patchouli soft fragrance, easy on the skin but works all day against smell. I have a very active life, this deo has been spot on even since I first tried it.
A Lot easier on the skin than a previous home made version (bicarb of soda wasn’t the best for my sensitive skin ‘sigh’). I’ve been using aromaco for over a year and it’s great! Lush Aromaco
Technicalities
A bit more below about sweating, and why this deo works for me, without feeling compelled to block up my underarm pours with antiperspirants anymore..
How much you sweat depends on a couple of different factors, sweat, or perspiration (as some would rather call it), is the bodies natural way of cooling when one gets hot, heat from exercise, hormone fluctuations (as happens to most women each month), and stress or anxiety levels and the body being in fight or flight mode (sometimes can be a long term issue). I used to sweat a lot; fortunately these days it has dramatically reduced; I put this down to mediation practices intertwined with yoga, which have helped to lower my stress and anxiety levels dramatically. I would be sweating profusely, literally sweat dripping from under my arms (especially if in contact with certain people, even just eye contact) and yet my arms would be ice cold! These days, I can actually wear tops with sleeves and not worry about staining the under arms within 2 minutes!
If your body is hot, i.e. if it’s going through a lot of energy and you’re doing some physical exercise (i.e. running), or fighting off some disease or bacteria, or, if you feel very anxious (then your body is constantly making lots of energy readily available to be able to flight or fight as a response to stresses being felt; imagined stresses through worry, mental stresses trying to meet deadlines or immediate physical threats). Your body is working harder to pump sweat out so that it can cool down as the sweat evaporates from your skin and take some of your excess heat with it. This is one branch of homeostasis, and is regulated by the hypothalamus in your brain.
Your body needs to be able to keep it’s baseline temperature, despite all this energy and heat (usually produced as a byproduct); so that it can continue to work optimally. Enzymes which catalyse reactions in our cells all function at preferred temperatures, if this temperature is too high, it can not only inhibit functioning of certain enzymes and reactions but it can destroy (denature) them too. You see, anyone with a high enough temperature get’s pretty quick medical assistance, your body has to work even harder to keep doing it’s job in extreme conditions (hot or cold) – hence why we sweat when hot and shiver when cold (among many other homeostatic processes)..
On to smell.. How your sweat smells also has different potential causes, of course, the most common reason is due to natural bacteria under your arms, feeding on the sweat and giving off odor as their byproduct, thus is the type which is generally avoidable (yay) by washing or using certain products which have an antibacterial effect. Also, for some of the population it can be affected by what you eat. I happen to be in the minority of the bodies who metabolise foods in such a way that my sweat can take on smells from foods such as garlic, literally, even straight out of the shower, my armpits will have a certain strong odor! Fortunately I’m happy to leave garlic out except for special occasions and the Aromaco deo seems to keep the underarm bacteria in check so this issue doesn’t stand for me. However, one must wash ones pits at least once a day – deo cannot be used to simply mask a smell which is already there.
Thanks and InJoy! 🙂