Wednesday 2 November 2011

How to beat the stink this summer

I am a bit of a smelly person, unfortunately. I am not so stinky that you assume I am on a personal quest to replenish Sydney's dwindling water supplies by going on a shower ban, more like if you get a whiff of you think 'oh, poor woman. She mustn't have had time to shower today'. My slight stinkiness, however, is made more noticeable by the fact that my husband has absolutely no body odor - that's right - he has a 0% stink factor rating. His feet don't smell, he never gets BO and, even after a super sesh at the gym he comes back smelling salty and manly but still not stinky. It's actually quite annoying because it then makes him hyper-aware of any stinkiness in his vicinity. We will be in the car and he will suddenly, not so subtly exclaim 'I smell BO'. We both know who he is referring to...

When the opportunity to trial Rexona Clinical Protection anti-perspirant deodorant came up I jumped at the chance. I had to know whether it would work as well as they claimed. Well, it did. It is amazing...but I will get to that in a minute!

Image courtesy of Beauty Directory

 
The official blurb on the Rexona Clinical Protection, from BeautyDirectory is;

Rexona Clinical Protection Anti-Perspirant deodorant prevents heavy sweating everyday. Formulated with trisolid body response technology this deodorant protects against wetness and tries to encapsulate odour. Dimethicone is a skin moisturising ingredient in the formula that works to help reduce skin irritation



 
To use, you twist the ring at the bottom two clicks and then enough product squirts out the holes in the top of the stick. Apply it as you would any other deodorant. For some reason I always used 3-4 clicks. This was way too much product but I just couldn't help myself - my fear of being stinky was too strong! It doesn't take long to dry at all. I would apply it before brushing my teeth and moisturising and it was always dry by the time I was ready to get dressed.

They recommend that you apply the product before bed. The reason for this is that it sort of water proofs the arm pits so you want it well and truly dry and sunk in by the time you have your shower in the morning. I did try doing it this way - and it worked perfectly, no stinkiness at all, but I only shower in the mornings so I felt a bit weird never washing my arm pits. I ended up switching to using it after my morning shower. My arm pits always felt funny when I would first try to wash them as they were genuinely water proofed - they would repel the water. I had to use soap or shower gel to remove the deodorant and this left them feeling normal again.

Rexona also recommend that you can go 48 hours without reapplying deodorant. I took this for a test drive and they weren't far off the mark. By the end of day two - probably around the 45 hour mark, I started noticing the first whiffs of BO. It was very faint, and others probably wouldn't have noticed (well my husband might have, but normal non-hyper-sensitive-to-any-odor people wouldn't have noticed). I tended to use it daily as I loved the protection that it offered, plus I am in the habit of applying deodorant daily and that's a hard habit to break! But it is relieving to know that if you ever did forget to apply this for one day you won't suddenly become a stink bug again.

As well as not being at all stinky, I was absolutely bone dry all day. There was never any wet patches under my arms. In fact, it never even felt humid under there, only completely dry. The was seriously amazing for me!

The was one tiny issue that stopped this from being perfection in a bottle and that was white marks on black clothing. Unfortunately, it left them. This was perhaps because I was applying too much product and I suspect that if you applied it in the evening like the instructions recommended then this wouldn't be an issue for you at all. The white marks were easy enough to remove, though, so it really wasn't much of a hassle at all. Quite frankly, the most important thing to me in a deodorant is to banish the stinkies and wetness - if it can deliver on that then I can deal with any other issues that arise. So, the white marks would not be enough to stop me from buying the deodorant.

The RRP is $13.99 for 45ml which is not cheap for a deodorant. However, if you are sensitive about your stinkies then it is money well spent as you can guarantee you will be BO-free all day. The deodorant lasted me about 6 weeks, though I was over using it. It said to apply 2 clicks worth of product but I always used 3-4 so you probably should get at least two months out of it. So, a tube doesn't last overly long, especially for the price paid (I think I was getting at least 4+ months out of my $5 Mitchum); however, no deodorant I have ever used has performed as well as this one so it honestly is money very well spent (if you are somewhat sensitive about your stinkiness). Would I repurchase it? Absolutely! I will not use anything else this summer and it seems quite unlikely that I will ever go back to standard deodorants after having just experiencing 6 weeks of having a 0% stink factor rating!

Are you a bit on the stinky side or do you have a 0% stink factor rating?

If you are on team stinky, what have you discovered that actually works to banish your BO?

All opinions stated in this blog are my own. I have no affiliation with Rexona and received no remuneration for my comments. This product was provided to me to review by Beauty Directory.