Carpe Diem?

My sweatiness completely rules my life.

Throughout my upbringing, I’ve gotten teased for having pit stains on all of my shirts whether it was hot outside or not. Don’t even get me started on gym class.

Eventually, in high school, I started wearing all-black clothing just to hide the sweat and yes– that technically worked, but completely removing color from my wardrobe wasn’t fun for me.

As an adult living in an apartment of my own, I made SURE to find a spot that was close to transportation– not because I’m too lazy to commute farther, but because I didn’t want to arrive at my office like a soaking wet disaster. If I haven’t made it abundantly clear, my sweatiness is drowning me… pun intended.

My mother offered to get me botox in my armpits to solve the problem. That didn’t seem cool to me. Though I’ve recently gotten over my fear of needles and wouldn’t totally mind the upkeep, I tried to seek out other ways of managing this issue in more natural ways. I researched what impact my hormones could have on my sweatiness. I was diagnosed with PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), a menstrual syndrome wherein the “normal” PMS symptoms start earlier in my cycle and are way more severe, in my early twenties. It’s common for women to have hormonal imbalances when living with this disorder, and a common side-effect of estrogen dominance is hyperhidrosis or sweaty-AF-ness. After discovering this, I started taking supplements to balance my estrogen levels and see if that would do anything for the moisture of it all. No dice.

I first heard of Carpe in college and really the only two things that deterred me from trying it were the price and the aluminum content. I’ve heard rumors about aluminum being a highly toxic substance that penetrates the blood-brain barrier and could contribute to mental decline, and the idea of that is obviously terrifying. I think I’d rather be a sweaty person than a person with cognitive decline at any stage in my life, but I still wanted to see if it was something I could use for major events like weddings where, especially in the summer, I’d like to (for once) not wear black. Also, as an 18-year-old, I could NOT justify a $50 deodorant purchase. I don’t even know if I can justify that kind of purchase now, but desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess!

So I ordered it.

Carpe is a deodorant and antiperspirant that comes in various forms: body lotion, hand cream, and underarm cream. The underarm cream is what I bought, and despite what you may be thinking, it still comes in a stick form, which is better than the idea of applying deodorant with your hands and having to wash off a sticky mess when you’re done. There’s also a nice level of discretion you get by avoiding some weird prescription lotion or deodorant that your friends might tease you for having if they see it in your carry-on bag. In the future, I’d love to review the body lotion, because HELLO, BOOB-SWEAT! But for now, let’s explore just one aluminum exposure at a time.

First impressions

I was disappointed to read the packaging and find out that in order to really see and feel the results of Carpe could only really be seen by using the product in the morning and evening every day for FOUR WEEKS. I didn’t like the sound of that, mostly for the aluminum concerns I expressed earlier. The idea of consciously allowing a substance to build up in my skin and block my sweat kind of skeeved me out – not because sweat is gross, but because I don’t want to screw up my body’s natural detoxification systems. I feel like a bad person when I mess with my chemistry like that. Anyone else? Idk…

I was also disappointed by the smell of the product itself. I was hoping that when shopping for this deodorant I would be able to select from at least a narrow range of scents. Even two would have been nice. But they only offer one scent and I can only really describe it as “industrial Vic’s Vapor Rub.”

Not cute!

When I applied it, it was so damn viscous and sticky that I would have to wait about 15 minutes for it to dry before I put clothes on. I still have one bra that has Carpe stains after I hastily threw a shirt on too soon after application. Not entirely sure how I plan to fix that, but I digress…

Nevertheless, she persisted! I committed to the 4 week trial and have compiled the following analysis.

The truth

Overall, Carpe is an effective way to block underarm sweat– but don’t stop here. I can’t decide how I feel about this deodorant because yes, it did the job, but the production was a hassle and I still can’t reconcile with the feeling that I may have absorbed harmful chemicals for four whole weeks on purpose.

Interestingly enough, when I stopped using the product twice a day and only applied at night or in the morning, it was just as effective. This is likely due to the buildup of the product overtime. I also noticed that I stopped having underarm odor after about 3 days of use, and I still don’t have odor now that I’ve stopped using the product for 2 weeks. I can get down with that.

The weirdest part is the itch I felt in the evenings. I would apply the product in the morning and evening, as directed, but only experienced the itch at night. By itch, I mean I would go to bed and be scratching FURIOUSLY at my underarms in bed for no fewer than 10 minutes. That was bizarre and was one of the biggest contributing factors to stopping use.

Honestly, it does the job but at WHAT COST? Why do we need aluminum in our deodorant, anyway? The government is trying to kill us. Was this helpful?