Excessive sweating is an uncomfortable condition that comes with the experience of pit stains, ruined clothes, and even increased anxiety. To stop this sweating, you need aluminum-based antiperspirants — and you can find these sorts of antiperspirants that are also deodorants.
If you’re looking for deodorant-only products to help you with your sweaty underarms, you’re operating under a common misconception. While deodorants serve an important purpose — to help mask body odor — they don’t have anything to do with preventing or reducing the amount you sweat.
The problem is finding an over-the-counter antiperspirant deodorant that helps you manage your excessive sweating because if you’re dealing with hyperhidrosis (the medical term for excessive sweating), normal antiperspirants simply won’t cut it.
In this post, we quickly explain the differences between deodorants and antiperspirants. Then we review some leading antiperspirant deodorants that are marketed to help excessive sweaters, including our own, Duradry, which is proven to be highly effective.
Try Duradry’s 3-step solution that works to stop excessive sweating. Use Duradry PM at bedtime, Duradry AM in the morning, and Duradry Wash to deep clean and prepare your skin for total protection against hyperhidrosis. Get started for just $20.
Deodorant vs. Antiperspirants: Key Differences Explained
There are a variety of deodorants on the market, from all-natural deodorants to spray-on clinical strength deodorants. But the key takeaway here is that deodorants don’t do anything to stop you from sweating.
Instead, deodorants offer odor protection. Sometimes, this means they’re using ingredients like baking soda that can — as a secondary feature — absorb sweat at the surface of your skin, but that doesn’t stop you from sweating and is especially useless for excessive sweaters.
Effective antiperspirants work by using aluminum compounds to plug your pores and stop you from sweating. Yet if you’re dealing with the debilitating condition of excessive sweating, you’ve likely tried various antiperspirants from the drugstore with disappointing results.
Excessive sweaters actively produce more sweat than your conventional antiperspirants can handle — imagine a dam of sticks holding back a body of water. If you sweat the average amount, you’re dealing with a small stream of water that this dam can handle. If you’re dealing with hyperhidrosis, you have a full-blown river on your hands and need something stronger.
Duradry: Your 3-Step System for Stopping Excessive Sweating
I made Duradry after personally struggling with excessive sweating for years.
I tried everything, including the expensive (and painful) step of paralyzing my sweat glands with Botox injections. Nothing worked the way I wanted — everything was either ineffective (like the majority of clinical-strength antiperspirants) or effective but impractical (to keep sweating at bay with Botox, you’ll need injections every few months so that your glands remain paralyzed).
So, I developed my own solution.
Duradry is a 3-step system that stops excessive sweating by using the finest ingredients (sourced from high-quality European suppliers) at the right concentration. 97% of our customers who use our 3-step system report full dryness within one week.
Step One: Apply Duradry PM Before You Go to Bed
Duradry PM is an antiperspirant, not a deodorant. It’s an unscented gel that plugs your pores, blocking your excessive sweating.
We made Duradry PM as a gel because gels can be applied more effectively to your skin than a liquid or spray.
With liquids, you have to splash on the antiperspirant, and with sprays, you can either use too little (not realizing you missed some key areas) or too much, leading your antiperspirant to run out more quickly.
Duradry PM works so well because it contains Aluminum Chloride, one of the most effective compounds for treating excessive sweating.
Aluminum Chloride’s molecules are so tiny that they get deep into your pores, stopping sweat at the source. What happens is Aluminum Chloride molecules thicken when they come into contact with moisture. By thickening, these molecules now plug the sweat ducts that’d normally secrete sweat.
You only need to use Duradry PM two to three times a week, and you apply it before you go to bed so its active ingredients can work while the body is mostly inactive.
Is Aluminum Chloride Safe?
Aluminum Chloride is a safe ingredient that is commonly used in the best antiperspirants. It can be found in many different brands, some of which we go over below.
But if you’re using a 20% (or higher) concentration of Aluminum Chloride, you’ll need a prescription from your dermatologist or primary care physician. The good news is that studies have shown a 15% Aluminum Chloride concentration is just as effective as 20%. Plus, by using a 15% concentration, you reduce the risk of dry skin, which can lead to significant irritation.
That’s why we use a 15% concentration of Aluminum Chloride in Duradry PM. It’s just as effective as prescription-only antiperspirants, plus it’s easier to buy (Duradry is available directly through our website), and also less likely to cause any irritation.
Finally, we go the extra mile and use Salicylic Acid in Duradry PM. Salicylic Acid removes dead skin cells, leading to less irritation by reducing inflammation. And, studies have shown Salicylic Acid helps increase the effectiveness of aluminum-based antiperspirants.
Step Two: Clean Your Skin with Duradry Wash
The second step to achieve dryness is using Duradry Wash. Duradry Wash cleans off any bacteria or residue oils.
By cleaning your underarms (or back, or legs) with Duradry Wash, you prime your skin for Duradry’s antiperspirant. Suppose you're applying antiperspirant on an area clogged with residue oils or bacteria that conventional soap doesn’t get.
In that case, the antiperspirant is blocked from doing what it's supposed to do — seep into your pores and stop your sweat from exiting your skin.
You can use Duradry Wash every day.
Step Three: Start Your Day with Our Antiperspirant Deodorant
The third step is applying Duradry AM. Duradry AM is our antiperspirant deodorant.
It uses a pleasant, neutral scent and can be applied to your underarms every day. For its active ingredient, Duradry AM uses a 20% concentration of Aluminum Zirconium Trichlorohydrex Gly.
Keep in mind: while Duradry AM helps boost the effectiveness of Duradry PM, it isn’t sufficient on its own to treat hyperhidrosis. That’s why it’s part of our 3-step system that, when used together, is highly effective for sufferers of excessive sweating.
Plus, because Duradry AM is also a deodorant (i.e. it masks body odor), you can use it every morning, so you can feel fresh (and dry) as you go about your day.
Try Duradry’s 3-step solution that works to stop excessive sweating. Use Duradry PM at bedtime, Duradry AM in the morning, and Duradry Wash to deep clean and prepare your skin for total protection against hyperhidrosis. Get started for just $20.
Other Antiperspirant Deodorants
Duradry is unique because we offer a 3-step system that works together to help you achieve dryness. Other brands rely on a single stick antiperspirant (or spray or dab-on liquid). Here are some of the more common brands you’ll see when looking for an antiperspirant deodorant to help with your excessive sweating.
Certain Dri
Certain Dri has several different products, but you don’t use them together. Instead, you look at what Certain Dri offers to see how they can solve your problem.
If you’re dealing with excessive sweating, you’re going to want Certain Dri’s Prescription Strength Clinical Antiperspirant. This roll-on antiperspirant uses Aluminum Chloride, but at a 12% concentration (compared to Duradry’s 15%).
But if you want an alternative to Aluminum Chloride, Certain Dri offers its Extra Strength Clinical antiperspirant deodorant. It replaces Aluminum Chloride with Aluminum Sesquichlorohydrate. A different, lower cost, and less effective active ingredient.
A quick explanation about Certain Dri’s claim that it’s the “#1 doctor recommended” solution for excessive sweating. On Certain Dri’s website, the company explains that what the doctors are recommending is not Certain Dri, but its active ingredient, Aluminum Chloride. And as we covered above, other brands (such as Duradry and SweatBlock) contain more Aluminum Chloride than Certain Dri.
Vanicream Clinical Strength Antiperspirant Deodorant
Vanicream Clinical Strength Antiperspirant Deodorant is available online on third-party retailers such as Amazon or at drugstores and pharmacies. It’s a fragrance-free antiperspirant deodorant.
It’s marketed for sensitive skin because it doesn’t contain Aluminum Chloride. But instead of using the right concentration of Aluminum Chloride and pairing it with moisturizing and soothing ingredients like Salicylic Acid, Vanicream uses Aluminum Zirconium Trichlorohydrex.
That’s the same active ingredient we use in the third step of Duradry’s 3-step system (Duradry AM), but it’s not being paired with the highly effective Aluminum Chloride in Duradry PM or something like our wash, which helps prepare your skin for aluminum compounds to work.
SweatBlock’s “Motion Activated” Antiperspirant
SweatBlock, like Certain Dri, has several different products to help with sweating. Their deodorant antiperspirant is $9.99 for an individual dry stick.
However, this option is meant for moderate sweaters, not excessive sweaters. SweatBlock recommends you buy their antiperspirant wipes if you’re suffering from excessive sweating.
Their antiperspirant wipes do contain Aluminum Chloride (though at a lower concentration than Duradry PM, and nor are they aided with extra ingredients like Salicylic Acid).
You get 10 wipes for $20, and while a wipe can give you cover for 7 days, some customers have reported having to use a wipe every two days to control their sweating. If you’re using both SweatBlock’s antiperspirant deodorant stick plus its wipes, you’re spending over $30 a month for an incomplete skin-care and sweat protection system.
With Duradry, you can get our 3-step system, which includes our antiperspirant that blocks your pores, our body wash that cleans bacteria and oils off your body, and our antiperspirant deodorant, which keeps you fresh and clean for just $20.
Final Thoughts: How to Control Your Excessive Underarm Sweating
Deodorants don’t do anything to stop you from sweating. Instead, they often use a combo of essential oils, lotions, and moisturizers to soothe your skin and mask body odors.
To stop excessive sweating, you need aluminum-based antiperspirants, specifically Aluminum Chloride, which is fine enough to penetrate deep into your pores where it can block sweat. But you also need a complementary routine that works to promote long-term dryness.
With Duradry, you get:
- Our antiperspirant gel uses ingredients proven to stop excessive sweating;
- Our body wash that keeps your skin clean, fighting body odor and oils and residue, and;
- Our antiperspirant deodorant with a pleasant, neutral scent that helps keep you dry and fresh throughout the day.
By using all three together, 97% of our customers have achieved full dryness within a week. Click here to get started.
