Why does our deodorant work so well?

Why is our deodorant so effective? It uses magnesium hydroxide. Most antiperspirant and deodorant companies use other ingredients to prevent you from sweating, like aluminum, and most also attempt to kill bacteria on your skin with baking soda. Neither is as efficient as magnesium hydroxide. Some companies do use magnesium hydroxide, but their formulas contain so many other ingredients that there isn't enough to do the job.

Aluminum is used in conventional antiperspirants. Although studies fail to show a link to cancer, many people still avoid antiperspirant deodorants, and it’s probably for the best. They work by blocking your pores with aluminum to prevent you from sweating, and adding a fragrance on top for whatever gets through. They sometimes also use alcohol and other astringents to kill the bacteria that grow in your underarms. This can be very irritating to the skin, and isn’t very effective. 

Most aluminum-free deodorants use baking soda as their active ingredient. While this can work, it doesn’t work nearly as well as magnesium hydroxide. Baking soda frequently irritates the skin as well, causing rashes and breakouts. This happens because baking soda is a very alkaline compound and its pH doesn’t match our skin pH. Because of this, many people turn to aluminum-free and baking soda-free alternatives. 

Unfortunately, many aluminum- and baking soda-free deodorants really just don’t work. Those deodorants use cornstarch or arrowroot powder to soak up sweat, and may contain magnesium hydroxide, but their formulas are so complex that it is just too diluted. This means they don’t do enough to curb the odor. So, as the day wears on, most people need to reapply or deal with the stink. This is where our deodorant comes in! It was important to make it aluminum and baking soda free to give our customers the most comfortable experience for their skin. In that same vein, we chose to use shea butter, coconut oil, and beeswax in our base to add a moisturizing component to the deodorant. We also chose to use arrowroot powder which absorbs sweat and keeps you comfortable. The magic ingredient, though, is that magnesium hydroxide.

Magnesium hydroxide is a naturally occurring compound that kills bacteria that typically thrive in the moist, dark environment of our underarms. These bacteria produce some funky smelling waste that we can all recognize as "sweaty armpit.” When you kill those bacteria, you also kill the stink. The other great thing about magnesium hydroxide is that it matches our skin’s pH so it isn’t irritating. It also doesn’t block pores, so our bodies can sweat naturally. 

So, why is our deodorant so effective? It contains arrowroot powder that soaks up sweat to keep you dry, and uses a shea butter, coconut oil, and beeswax base. These three ingredients are skin conditioning and have mild antimicrobial properties. Then we have that miraculous magnesium hydroxide which is the real star of the show, killing those smelly bacteria and killing the stink. Five simple ingredients (six if you choose to use fragrance). That's it. That's all you need. We encourage you to try our deodorant for yourself! We're sure you'll love it.