While both of the products are very popular, it seems like antiperspirants are more common. It is crucial. to be aware of the fact these products have different purposes. If you understand them well, you will be able to choose a better product for yourself.
While deodorants and antiperspirants can have absolutely the same packages, they are very different.
Deodorants
As a rule, deodorants are based on alcohol. Alcohol is good at killing bacteria, however, it has no impact on the sweat production. For some people having deodorants is absolutely enough and many people prefer them for their seemingly natural content. Actually, there are many believes about the harm of antiperspirants which were not necessarily proved by researchers, albeit many people are still aware of their existence and prefer to keep such products at bay.
One more positive side of using deodorants is the fact they do not leave stains and marks on your clothes which are by the way, rather difficult to deal with. Unfortunately, clothes can be literally spoilt by antiperspirants. This will not happen to your clothes with deodorants. There might be stains developed with time, however, they will be the stains of sweat itself and they are usually visible only on white fabric.
On top of that, deodorants tend to be cheaper than antiperspirants and, if you are ready to pay more for them, you can also get deodorants based on your favourite perfume.
Finally, it is a way easier to find deodorants in glass packages which are more ecologically-friendly.
Still, besides all of these benefits, deodorants are not a perfect choice for everyone.
First of all, they do not decrease the amount of perspiration, so they are definitely not a good choice for people looking for a possibility to minimise sweating. The second disadvantage is the direct result of the first one. The more a person is sweating, the more pathogenic bacteria are growing on one’s skin. As a result, the smell is becoming worse and for people suffering from excessive sweating, deodorants might not be effective in dealing with unpleasant smells.
Antiperspirants
If it is difficult for you to remember the difference between antiperspirants and deodorants, you should just keep in mind the first term which is certainly coming from the mixture of the words anti and perspiration. Basically, it means the product is supposed to be fighting against perspiration.
In reality, antiperspirants are not thus powerful as it might appear. When it comes to the mass-market products, their maximum efficiency is 20% reduction of the level of sweating whereas for special medical antiperspirants this level can reach 30%. Still, there is no sense to expect any of these products will just turn off the function of sweating at all. By the way, this would also not be healthy.
The functionality of perspiration reduction comes with the content of various salts in antiperspirants. These are salts of aluminium or zirconium. These salts are getting into the sweat channels partially blocking them. As you can imagine, people who are particularly concerned about natural products are not necessarily happy knowing some cosmetic products can interfere into their bodies thus much. At the same time, people suffering from excessive perspiration might not have any other choice than to use such products.
So which one is better?
As far as you can see, deodorants are more natural than antiperspirants, however, they are not able to reduce perspiration. At the same time, they do not have such an effect on fabric and do not create any permanent stains.
Still, if you are suffering from extensive sweating, deodorants might not be enough for you. In addition to it, if you are one of the people with rather delicate skin in the armpit region, you might also suffer from inflammation and irritation that can be caused by alcohol present in deodorants.