My body odour was the pits, until I found this skincare routine

Easy steps to extinguish the stink

Hitting puberty is an exciting time in a girl’s life. I remember the nervous anticipation of our first period dominating all my conversations with my friends. In breathless tones, we discussed which of us had got ours, all the gory details, and who was still waiting for that biological promotion to womanhood. But what got lost in all the excitement was that other gift of puberty: body odour. It blindsided me. Especially because it appeared I had inherited my father’s strong-smelling genes.

I learnt very quickly that it was manly for men to have a strong personal scent, but a girl couldn’t smell like anything other than fresh breezes and dainty florals. I did feel the urge to rebel by stinking proudly, but in the end my teenage self-consciousness won and by my 20s, I realised that smelling good—or at least not smelling bad—would be a form of social service to those around me.

So I got to work looking for a solution to my BO. I asked my parents how to deal with this generational wealth they had bestowed upon me. I began getting painfully waxed frequently to avoid build-up. I even tried using my dad’s Old Spice aftershave as deodorant because men’s products are supposedly more effective and cheaper (yay, pink tax!). But nothing worked efficiently. I still stank.

I started devising gymnastic moves to check if I was stinking in public and bought travel-sized perfume bottles for frequent, on-the-go touch-ups. It got tiresome really quickly, but I knew I had no choice—my smell was holding my social life to ransom. I felt like, at any time, I was just one smelly waft away from getting a new nickname or group chat named after me (on the contrary, I ended up becoming the sought-after friend who always had a rotation of scents in my bag if anybody needed a quick spritz).

Next, I went down the internet rabbit hole of beauty influencers and their ‘hacks’, Reddit product reviews, and doomscrolling on Nykaa. Endless trials and errors later, I had a BO-decimating routine that my underarms (and my shoulders, tired from carrying a bagful of perfumes everywhere) thank me for. And now I’m sharing it here for all my stinky sisters.

This armpit care routine battled my BO and won

Physical exfoliation

Manually sloughing off your dead skin with grainy products or tools sounds positively archaic now that we all know about AHAs, BHAs and PHAs such as glycolic acid, salicylic acid and lactic acid. But it is effective when fighting stubborn body odour. It was through an interview of Sex Education and Barbie star Ncuti Gatwa, whose smooth, flawless skin makes him look like a real-life Ken doll, that I discovered sapo, a net towel commonly used in West-African communities for daily gentle cleansing.

When I combine it with my desi staple Mysore Sandal soap, it works a charm. For best results, wet the towel with warm water, rub soap on it till it lathers and use a gentle, circular motion to exfoliate your pits. You can also use a shower gel that has mild exfoliants, like Chemist At Play’s Lactic Acid Exfoliating Body Wash or the Be Bodywise 5% AHA Exfoliating Body Wash. It helps tackle the initial layer of dead skin and product build-up that leads to bacterial growth, that in turn causes odour. Bonus: with the layer of dead cells gone, waxing is smoother and far less painful, and I also saw a reduction in in-grown hair. Win-win.

Regular masking

I came across the armpit detox on skincare Pinterest, a popular trend driven by East Asian beauty influencers, which involves using pore and pollution-clearing clay masks on your armpits. The bad odour comes from bacteria on the skin feasting on apocrine sweat. The supposition (it isn’t proven yet) is that the BHA, charcoal and kaolin or bentonite contained in clay masks take the feast away, and then it’s only a matter of time before the odour-causing bacteria clears up as well.

I had initially added this technique to my routine to help with hyper-pigmentation on my under arms. While it didn’t give the results traditional bleaching does, I found it did even out my armpit skin texture and helped a little with the odour as well. Innisfree’s Volcanic Pore Clearing mask is my holy grail for deep-cleansing, but those with sensitive skin can try Innisfree’s Volcanic BHA Pore Cleansing Foam. I’ve also found Dot & Key’s Anti-Acne Salicylic Clay Mask to be a cooling alternative. Apply a generous layer of the mask or foam, let it sit on your skin for five minutes and then rinse well using warm water for soft, clean skin. I do this routine once a week, typically on the weekend but if you have sensitive skin, doing it once every two weeks should work as well.

Gentle drying

Post my shower routine, I take care to dry my armpits thoroughly. Any residual moisture can speed up bacterial growth, and also block the efficacy of your deodorant, which needs completely dry skin to really latch on. I’ve found using a thin, cotton towel—the likes of which our parents and grandparents used with utility in mind—to pat-dry the area to be the most gentle and effective. Softer, fluffier towels may feel more luxurious but often times need more force to get every bit of moisture, and even then don’t do the job as well.

Picking the right deodorant

It’s rare to find deodorant options that work for Indian skin, can withstand our climate, and offer a desirable fragrance range too. I’ve tried the eco-conscious and vegan-based deodorants that often fade in 10 minutes and I’ve also tried heavy-duty deodorants, which left behind waxy-white stains (caused by active ingredients like aluminium salts that act as antiperspirants). Or then you have to resort to overpowering men’s deodorants that will clash horribly with your body sprays and perfumes.

For me, I needed something that could battle the sun yet submit to my perfume. I needed to keep the BO away, while still smelling like a vanilla-cinnamon roll with a hint of coconut. And thus a fan of Chemist At Play was born. Their scented roll-ons are long lasting but subtle, and if you have sensitive skin—or need a milder option for when you shave your underarms—their no-fragrance option does the job without stinging or blocking your pores. Other products that have worked for me are Minimalist’s Nonapeptide + AHA Underarm Roll On and WishCare’s Aqua Fresh Underarm Roll On Serum which contains AHA and kojic acid.

Sealing it all in

As with makeup, ‘setting’ the deodorant after letting it dry is where the real magic is. A dusting of an anti-bacterial powder from your downstairs pharmacy store will seal in your deo so you don’t have to worry about frequent reapplication or times when you don’t have access to scent (I’ve been to enough outdoor events that do not allow perfumes inside the venue, no matter how sweltering the heat). So, borrowing a tip from the OG himself i.e. my dad, I dust my armpits with Abzorb or Candid, but you could just use your mom’s favourite Yardley talcum powder too. It locks in all my efforts and lets me step out without breaking into a sweat thinking about my BO.

For added benefit beyond my skincare routine, I also try to stick to wearing natural fibres like cotton or linen just to let my skin breathe. Synthetic fibres like polyester, especially on newly exfoliated skin, can exacerbate odour as it ends up trapping more sweat. And due to friction, they can also cause itchiness, redness and rashes causing further discomfort.

For the first time in years, I don’t feel like my body odour introduces me before I introduce myself. But if your struggle with it persists after these steps, there is no harm in consulting a professional who can help you sniff out the problem. I tend to forget it myself sometimes, but having BO is not a personal failure or something to be ashamed of. Our bodies are designed to give us alerts when something needs our attention, and your body is just holding up its end of the bargain.