Vananners asks…What do the Beauty Brains think about the new Dove Visibly Smooth Deodorant that supposed to minimize hair growth? I’ve been using it about 3 weeks now and feel like I’ve noticed a difference. The hair seems to grow slower, is softer and easier to shave.

The Left Brain replies:

As I pointed out in the Forum, hair growth minimizers are more marketing than anything else.  If the product actually worked to slow down hair growth then it would be considered a drug and require much more extensive testing.  In fact, if you check the claims that Dove’s website makes about Visibly Smooth, you’ll see that they do NOT claim that it does reduces hair growth.

Dove Visibly Smooth claims

• Conditions your underarm skin from the first time you use it
• Minimizes the visible appearance of underarm hair over time
• Within weeks you’ll notice hair feels softer, finer and easier to remove
• Hair should be less noticeable between shaves and you may need to shave less often.
• Hair growth is not slowed down

How does ProEpil Complex work?

The “reason to believe” ingredient in Visibly Smooth is Dove’s “ProEpil complex.” According to the website, the complex  is a mixture of ingredients including sunflower oil and Dove’s “1/4 translucent moisturizers” what ever that means. It sounds like these conditioners make the hair softer and less likely to “stick up” so razor stubble is less noticeable.

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Dove Visibly Smooth doesn’t claim to reduce hair growth, it only claims to make underarm hair look and feel less noticeable. How does the product accomplish this? None of the information from Dove makes this perfectly clear, but it appears to be by conditioning underarm hair.  Still, it’s not surprising that you think you notice a difference after using the product.  Marketing messages are extremely powerful persuaders.

Do YOU worry about underarm stubble? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Kitten divine from the forums says…I’m having a little trouble finding a deodorant that I like. The problem is that they all leave white marks in my t-shirts. I’ve tried different brands and I always pick the one that claims to leave no white marks, so I really don’t get it. So what I wanted to ask is what causes the white marks? Does it make a difference whether you use a spray, a roll-on or a stick formula? Are they’re certain ingredients you have to avoid to prevent them? And is they’re a difference between regular deodorants and antiperspirants when it comes to white marks?

Left Brain’s residual retort
The solution to this problem is simple…wear white t-shirts. Of course, this will severely restrict your fashion options and totally ruin any Goth look you might be going for so let’s see what else you might try.

First, see this link for a quick primer on the differences between antiperspirants and deodorants.  Essentially, AP stops you from sweating, Deodorants stop you from smelling.

What causes the white marks?

There is a variety of things that can be causing the white marks. Let’s start with antiperspirants. The primary ingredients that make antiperspirants work are aluminum salts including aluminum chlorohydrates, aluminum zirconium chlorohydrates, and aluminum chloride. In the United States, these have been deemed by the FDA as “generally recognized as safe and effective” and are the only ones allowed for use in stopping perspiration.

The exact mechanism by how they work has not been definitively determined, but the leading theory is that the aluminum salts form a layer that blocks and closes the sweat gland. Unfortunately, these aluminum salts can also form the white, chalky marks when they dry out.

To reduce these white marks, AP/DO makers use hydrating solvents in their formulas. However, they can’t completely eliminate the residue because the more solvent they use the less effective and aesthetically appealing the products become. No one wants to put a product under their arms that feels “wet”.

While deodorants don’t have aluminum salts, they do have other ingredients that can cause residues. These are the white, waxy materials used to deliver the active ingredients such as sodium stearate, stearyl alcohol or glyceryl stearate.

Does the type of product matter?

All AP/DO have the potential to produce a residue, but some are more likely than others. In general, dry sticks and powders will be the most likely to exhibit the problem. (They’re also the most effective at stopping wetness). Creams can also be problematic but less so than sticks. After that, roll-ons, aerosols and lotions all have about the same whitening potential.

What ingredients should you avoid?

It’s not a simple matter to just avoid specific ingredients. Whether a product causes whiteness or not depends also on the way it is manufactured and the way your body is designed. However, the following guidelines can help.

Use a deodorant

If wetness is not your problem, avoiding antiperspirants and using a deodorant is a good option.  Look for a stick like Adidas Absorbent Deo Deodorant.

Look for clear formulas

But if you can’t get away without using an antiperspirant, then try a clear formula like Mitchum Anti-Perspirant & Deodorant. This should work for most people. Ultimately, you’ll have to experiment with different brands to find what works best.

Keep your shirts clean

And if you feel like your typical washing habits aren’t removing the underarm build-up, you can try a product like Clarsskin which is supposed to do a better job of removing residue.

Beauty Brains bottom line

White residue is a natural property of antiperspirants and deodorants. It is something that cosmetic chemists continue to try and improve and things have gotten much better. Whether you get a white residue depends both on the ingredients, the way it’s manufactured, and your own person body design. To avoid the whiteness, your best bet is to keep trying different products until you find one that works.

Do you have a problem with white stains from your underarm deodorant / antiperspirant? What product have you found to stop the problem? And how do you remove the stains from your shirts?  Leave your comment below.

Mid Brain muses:

We recently blogged about how women are better than men at detecting body odors. So it makes sense to follow up with this story from Science Daily that explains how you’ll soon be able to pick potential dates based on their smell.

Scent on site

A company called Basisnote is exploring ways to capture and profile the body odor of potential partners and then upload them to online dating sites. So before you even meet Mr. Right you can tell if he needs to use Right Guard. The trick to this technology is a saliva test that let’s you classify your own body odor and enter it as a code in a database. You can then search for potential partners who have complimentary body scent profiles.

According to a researcher for Basisnote, the technology works based on genes that determine the Major Histocompatibility Complex. These protein receptors  are part of our immune system and they also determine the compounds that are transmitted to our skin to create our own unique body odor. The Basisnote researcher says “the stronger the difference in immune system between the potential partner and yourself, the more pleasant you will find their smell.”

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Based on the information in the article, the science didn’t fully make sense to us. For example, there’s no real mechanism to explain how MHC is related to body odor.  So we’d need additional background information before we could comment on the validity of this body odor coding technique. But the idea of matching the scent of someone digitally is certainly an intriguing notion!

What do YOU think? Have you ever used an online dating service? Would you want to know what a potential date smells like? Leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Mid Brain muses:

The latest issue of of the Flavour and Fragrance Journal reveals that women are better than men when it comes to sniffing out body odor. According to researchers at the Monell institute, it’s tougher to block a woman’s sensitivity to body odor than it is for men. How do scientists know this? By sniffing vials of underarm sweat collected in the laboratory from volunteers, of course!

Sweaty sniffing

The researchers had both men and women rate the strength of underarm orders to get a Body Odor baseline. BO was rated equally strong by both sexes. Then they added different fragrances to the underarm extractions to mimic the effect of deodorants. For men, 19 of the 32 scents did a good job of covering up the body odor. In other words, it was pretty easy to fool men’s sense of smell. The women, on the other hand, were only fooled by 2 of the 32 fragrances. You go girl!

Also intriguing was the fact that women reacted differently to male and female body odors. Males scents were harder to block than female odors. Less then 20% of the fragrances could block male odors while over 50% decreased intensity of female underarm odor. So not only are women better able to detect quantitative differences in body odor, but they’re able to detect qualitative differences as well. (Hmmm, I wonder if they tested the odor of boob sweat.)

What does this mean?

The researchers theorize that women’s sense of smell has evolved to help us pick a mate by extracting biologically relevant information from sweat. According to the head researcher, “Taken together, our studies indicate that human sweat conveys information that is of particular importance to females. This may explain why it is so difficult to block women’s perception of sweat odors.” Does this means that Axe Body Spray is wasting their money on those silly ad campaigns?

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Forget what all those online dating services tell you, when it comes to choosing a mate, the nose knows!

What do YOU think? Are you sensitive to body odors? Does it bug you when a guy (or gal) skimps on the deodorant? Leave a comment for the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

It’s time again for another Beauty Science or BS quiz. This week’s theme is antiperspirants. We all know about them but there is lots of misinformation about their use. (And don’t feel bad if you don’t know don’t know the difference between an antiperspirant and a deodorant. That confuses a lot of women!)

Sweaty Secrets

Can you figure out which of the following headlines are based on science and which one is FAKE?

1. Antiperspirants inhibit the release of toxins from your body
2. Antiperspirants are not a significant risk factor for breast cancer
3. Sometimes it’s better to use an aerosol deodorant than an antiperspirant
4. Men are 100 times less likely to get breast cancer

When you’ve thought about your answer, head on over to the right side of the Beauty Brains and enter your vote.

When we get enough votes and can get an OK from “She-Who-Never-Sweats (aka Sarah Bellum), we’ll post the answers letting you know how you did.

In the meantime, feel free to leave a comment and let us know your choice. Also, what’s your favorite sweat-stopper?