Best Women's Natural Deodorant For Sweaty Armpits

We all struggle with sweat and use deodorants, but we are also growingly worried about what’s in our food and beauty products. So I did some research on what makes a deodorant natural and healthy to use (and I’m picky!), and then found the 8 best natural deodorants for women that met these criteria. Not many did!

Table of Contents

What is the difference between deodorants and antiperspirants?
Why use a deodorant over an antiperspirant?
How to choose the best women’s deodorant for excessive sweating? 6 criteria look for
The 8 Best Natural Deodorants for Women

What is the difference between deodorants and antiperspirants?

The difference is in their names:

A deodorant (de-ODOR-ant) prevents or hides body odors but won’t prevent sweating
An antiperspirant prevents perspiration/sweating

Why use a deodorant over an antiperspirant?

Since antiperspirants prevent sweat, why not just use that instead of a simple deodorant that only hides body odor? For safety reasons. Let me explain.

The active ingredient in antiperspirants, which prevents sweat, is aluminum. It has been rumored it might lead to breast cancer, kidney diseases, allergies, etc. But there is no clear scientific evidence this is true.
According to the American Cancer Society: “For many years, rumors have circulated online suggesting that underarm antiperspirants might cause breast cancer. While the research on this topic is limited, most studies have not found a link between antiperspirant use and the development of breast cancer.”

But since the research on this topic is limited for now, and there are conflicting studies on the safety of aluminum in antiperspirants, we might as well be cautious, right?

We should still be OK using antiperspirants for ad-hoc events when we’ll be more at risk of sweating excessively (a big presentation at work, a ceremony, etc.) but stick to a basic deodorant for the day-to-day/ our regular routine.

Our bodies need to sweat things off anyway, and hiding body odors is great already. And there are other old-school and simple tricks we can use to hide sweat (wearing larger clothes, wearing black and white, etc.).

How to choose the best women’s deodorant for excessive sweating? 6 criteria look for

There are thousands of deodorants out there, so how do we cut down the options? How do we pick the best natural deodorants for excessive sweating?

By applying a list of clear criteria to our search:

No Aluminum: it is unclear whether aluminum increases risks of cancers and other diseases or not, so to be safe let’s avoid it.
No Baking Soda: it’s often used in natural deodorants for women or in do-it-yourself deodorant recipes but it’s actually quite irritating if you have sensitive skin (it gave me rashes).
No Alcohol/Perfume: alcohol in deodorants can also cause irritations, dryness and discolor your skin if you have alcohol on your skin in the sun.
No stains: some deodorants (usually the sticks or spray ones) can leave white stains on clothes and are tough to remove.sticks often make more stains than roll-ons or balms.
Natural Ingredients: look for natural plant-based ingredients in deodorants (such as cornstarch instead of baking soda, essential oils instead of perfume, etc.).
- Read the labels: as I was researching deodorants for this article, a lot of deodorants are advertised as ‘aluminum free’ in amazon, with no list of ingredients in pictures or in the listing page, but when you do some digging you then find out they do include aluminum, or alcohol, etc. so don’t just trust the titles of the products online, but check the ingredients list!
Great reviews: finding the right deodorant for YOU takes a lot of trial and error. But trying deodorants that have the best online reviews and work for most women is a great way to pick the few finalists to try. You’ll need to experiment, but it’s easier when others already tried first! We want deodorants with ratings close or at 4.5 out of 5 stars.