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Why Soap and Water May Not Be Enough To Keep You Feeling Fresh and Clean

Why Soap and Water May Not Be Enough To Keep You Feeling Fresh and Clean

by Shannon Klingman, M.D.

I have had some healthy conversations, and even received some criticism when I've suggested that women (and men for that matter) could benefit from a deodorant on their bottom half. I've heard people say, "You don't need deodorant on your private parts! All you need is soap and water." The argument that all we “need is soap and water is, indeed, correct. We don’t need to perform as many acts of hygiene as we do routinely in this country... We don't need to...

  • shave
  • wax
  • brush our teeth with toothpaste
  • use mouthwash
  • floss
  • brush our hair
  • wash our face
  • trim our nails …

Heck, we don't even need to use deodorant! Yet most of these things have become part of our hygiene routine. Would you just use soap and water for your underarms? If you do, everyone knows it, trust me. If you are good with that, then scrub up and let the chips fall where they may. For me, I would smell like a BARN on day one (let alone after skipping a shower). By day two, I would smell like beef stew. By day three, a stinky French cheese. How do I know this?

You don’t want to know the details, but when creating a deodorant, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

This is not about body shaming, this is about the facts Jack. Think about it this way: The two most bacterial-laden areas of our bodies are our mouths and bottoms. As women, our anatomy is down where it’s really close together! The vagina serves as a reservoir for semen, blood, and discharge that finds its way to our peri-rectal bacteria. Bacteria and bodily fluids are always doing their thing down there just as they do in our mouths, our feet, our pits, our skin folds. It’s a jungle down there. Men don’t get a pass either. Heat, hair, scrotal sack are all just a landscape for this chemical reaction too.

Bottom line: Bacteria + Bodily Fluids = Odor

I joke about my theory on why people work to prevent odor in their underarms or to control the smell of their breath, and it’s because our noses are inches away! If you are not doing a little digging around and recognize that you have odor that occurs regularly in your loins as part of being human, then you need a longer nose. Don’t believe me? Next time you hop in the shower, suds up after skipping a shower or two. Or perhaps after you have had intercourse and the bacteria are really cooking down there between your legs and smell the suds. That odor is called the “Amine Reaction.” Why does this happen? When anaerobic bacteria come into contact with more basic fluids (like semen, menstrual blood, soap, body washes, saliva, vaginal discharge) they release a fishy odor as a result of that. Our skin is able to absorb odors, especially when they are constantly exposed to these odor causing reactions. This is why even a shower with soap and water may not be enough to keep you feeling fresh and clean all day. Soap and water are not enough to eliminate those odors or the continuous odor-causing reactions on our skin.

You are only as clean as the moment you step out of the shower!

Life happens and bacteria begin replicating (birthing more baby bacteria) and the colony counts expand exponentially. We sweat, we menstruate, we leak urine when we laugh with friends, we go #poo and add more bacteria to the party. We have intercourse, we wear yoga pants! (Trust me, yoga pants are not your friend. I know you already know this.) How do you determine if your yoga pants are clean enough for another wear? I don't know about you, but I give the crotch a sniff... There. I said it. That odor is partly due to manmade fabrics. It is true of all exercise clothing - they hold on to odors like a dog with a bone. You can pretreat those areas with an enzyme based product like Lume BIOfilm Buster For Laundry which is great at breaking down those odor molecules.
Lume Whole Body Deodorant is the first ever product to block the odor-causing Amine Reactions (or, the reactions that cause BO) on our skin. Not only will you get great odor protection for your underarms, but also your nether regions. If you shower every day no matter what, dry off really well and apply a little Lume externally to your groin-age, making sure a little makes it back up by your tailbone just a few times a week. If you shower just a few times a week, dry off really well and apply a little Lume every day. Just a thin smear is enough. You will be shocked by how well it works. Shocked I tell you!! How do we know this? This is the kind of fun we like to have here at Lume. Find out how many days you can go without a shower and remain odor free... Play along, give it a try. ;) Did you Lume today?

Shannon Klingman, M.D.

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