Could Aerosol Deodorants Catch On Again In The United States?

Do you have difficulty applying your deodorant and/or antiperspirant without getting it on your clothes? Unilever thinks that you do. After spray-on personal care products applied to the armpits faded from the United States market in the ’80s when aerosol propellants were shown to be harmful to the planet. They’re still on the market, but Americans prefer our gels and sticks. For now.

The new “dry spray” products will hit stores at the beginning of next month, marketed alongside their brand counterparts in stick form. Unilever’s senior director of antiperspirants and deodorant, which is an actual job title, told the Wall Street Journal that stick deodorant causes a problem: users have to do a “chicken dance” of sorts to put on our shirts or dresses without befouling them with the substance. Apparently this is a thing: We will defer to the expertise of armpit-slathering executive.

One market-research firm says that spray deodorants actually account for about half of all sales worldwide, but only about 25% of all sales in the United States. Unilever wants to make the sprays popular again, and they’ve introduced products that fit with its existing lines (Dove, Axe, and Degree) but apply as a spray-to-dry formula. While the aerosols are more costly than a comparable amount of stick deodorant, they last longer: the dry spray formulas are supposed to last for 48 hours.

Unilever Pushes the Deodorant Spray Can [Wall Street Journal]

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