THE LABEL FILES · Deodorant / Antiperspirant
What's Actually in Your Deodorant
The scariest thing about your antiperspirant isn't the ingredient everyone warns you about.
For three decades the internet has told you aluminum in your antiperspirant causes breast cancer and Alzheimer's. The EU's own scientific committee looked at the evidence and found no reliable link to either. That's the headline nobody runs, because being scared sells better than being right. Here's what the labels actually say once you stop panicking about the wrong thing.
The myth we're killing
Aluminum zirconium is the active ingredient in every antiperspirant on this list, and it is the single most fearmongered substance in your bathroom. We read the regulatory science so you don't have to: the SCCS concluded systemic aluminum from cosmetics is safe, with no reliable association with breast cancer or neurodegeneration. We clear it. If a wellness influencer tells you otherwise, ask them for the study, they won't have one.
What's actually worth watching
The real flags are quieter. Cyclopentasiloxane (D5), the silicone that gives the stick its glide, is being phased out across the EU by 2027, though for the environment, not your body. BHT, a synthetic antioxidant, got flagged by the EU for possible endocrine effects and restricted in the UK in 2024; it's unrestricted here. Neither is a five-alarm fire. Both are things the rest of the world decided to act on and the US didn't.
The black box on the back
Every one of these products lists a single word, 'Fragrance', that can legally hide dozens of undisclosed chemicals. In Europe, the same brands must name their fragrance allergens on the label. Here, they don't have to tell you anything. That asymmetry, not the aluminum, is the story.
The teardowns
Old Spice High Endurance Pure Sport →
The cyclopentasiloxane carrier the EU is phasing out sits right behind the active, and the only reason it is still legal here is that the US never passed the regulation.
Secret Outlast Advanced Invisible Solid →
20% aluminum zirconium sits well above the EU's precautionary aluminum cap; the cyclopentasiloxane carrier is being phased out abroad by 2027.
Degree Men Sport →
BHT in the inactive list is a synthetic antioxidant the EU's own scientists flagged for endocrine effects and the UK formally restricted in 2024, it sits unrestricted in this formula.
The ingredients, graded
Editorial analysis of publicly listed labels and regulatory/peer-reviewed sources. Not medical advice. Verdicts are evidence-graded, we flag what the data flags and clear what it clears.