The Case for Putting Acid on Your Armpits
I’m a sweaty person. And, naturally, I can get a little self-conscious about it. Not really the sweat part, but the smell part. Any bit of body odor is of ZERO interest to me. A normal human body that sometimes smells less than ideal? NO THANK YOU.
This is all to say: I’m very into antiperspirant and deodorant. I was an antiperspirant devotee, and would only buy ones with 20% aluminum because, again, I’m sweaty, but then my armpits became discolored and I switched to deodorant, blah blah, I wrote about it here. I was sticking with all-natural deo for awhile, then I missed my dry, dry underarms, so I started alternating deodorant and antiperspirant, THEN I’d forget what I used last… it was just a complicated system that was not serving me. Plus there’s that thing with deodorant where you sweat and your deodorant can’t always handle it, so you smell like sweat fighting with deodorant. (I hope to GOD you know what I mean and this isn’t just something that happens to me.) Then I read this:
I no longer regularly use deodorant. I use my chemical exfoliants under my arms 95% of the time now.
— Your Skincare Fav ✨ (@caveofbeauty) March 13, 2021
My armpits literally smell like *nothing* constantly because lactic acid is antibacterial . What makes sweat smell is bacteria. Also my armpit hyperpigmentation is nearly gone.
This tweet is part of a longer thread, and it was all fascinating to me, and a quick Google showed that the acid-on-armpits approach has been making the beauty rounds for years. And lucky me, I HAD some chemical exfoliants in my medicine cabinet, so it was an easy experiment to undertake. I started swiping a Glow Tonic To-Go Pad under my arms each morning, and wouldn’t you know, I had ZERO smell. I smelled like NOTHING. NARY A SCENT TO BE SENSED.
I should mention that any chemical exfoliant works to keep your pits odor-free. Lactic, salicylic, as long as it’s an AHA or BHA you’re good to go. I love the convenience of the glycolic pads, but they are too expensive and wasteful for me to use on my armpits every day, and the only other pads I could find used salicylic acid, which I have had bad reactions to in the past. I like glycolic, my body likes glycolic, so I bought a big bottle of The Ordinary Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution. I initially thought I would put it on one of my reusable cotton rounds and then use that to apply to the ol’ pits, but I just use my hands. It’s not nearly as messy as I would have imagined - it doesn’t get on my clothes or the floor, and I just wash my hands afterward.
There are AHA/BHA deodorants out there - the one I’ve seen the most is from Kosas - but this big bottle of glycolic acid is only $8 - and if you really wanted to search, I bet your could get a better product/value at a beauty supply store. I am lazy and want something I can get at Sephora, so The Ordinary it is. This bottle is a bit bulky, so I think for traveling I’d just use the Glow Tonic To-Go I already travel with for my face.
Another caveat is that this will do nothing for physical sweat. You’re still doing to get wet pits. BUT, there is no smell, which I find, for me, is 90% of my discomfort with sweatiness. If you try to mop up sweat with a paper towel or hanky or whatever, it doesn’t work that well because the smell is still there. When there’s no smell, a quick dab to take care of excess moisture and you feel absolutely refreshed. Plus, you can use a scented product on top - I still keep some Megababe Rosy Pits around for when I want to be nice-smelly. This is such a game changer for me, I truly do not know if I will ever return to my old ways. Plus, saying you combat BO by rubbing acid on your armpits sounds so dramatic.
