Toxic Odours: Do You Know All the Chemicals Hiding in Your Deodorant?

What is in a regular, off-the-shelf anti-perspirant or deodorant? Spoiler alert – it’s not a pretty list.

Aluminium to stop your sweat glands from working, parabens as a preservative, triclosan to kill bacteria, phthalates to help it all stick to your skin and artificial fragrances to create a strong masking scent. 

And this is a just a few of the cocktail of things you might find in one of those little bottles!

What’s the problem?

Well to start with, blocking your pores to stop you sweating isn’t a good idea and neither is putting metals (aluminium) too close to your breast tissue as studies suggest most breast cancers start in the upper part of the breast near the underarm.

Triclosan messes with hormones, parabens mess specifically with estrogen levels and phthalates can cause problems with testosterone levels. Scientific studies suggest that low-dose, long term exposure to either of these can be linked with cancer cell activity, reproductive dysfunction, asthma, lowered IQs and a host of endocrine and hormone issues.

Not worth it.

Why Choose Natural Deodorant?

Natural deodorants don’t block sweat glands and so, while they don’t completely shut down the sweat-smell cycle, they do offer a far better alternative for your health. In a natural deodorant you can expect ingredients like baking soda, mineral salts, witch hazel, hops and essential oils, all of which are designed to limit bacteria growth, shrink pore size, absorb wetness and neutralise odour - but gently.

You may have to apply them more often and you will still sweat, but you won’t be disrupting your natural body functions or adding anything toxic to your body.