User post: Hand sanitizer as emergency deodorant! Who knew??



So a week or so ago I was on my way to work for a 6 am (ugh!) global teleconference. Major bummer. Halfway there on my 20 minute drive, it dawned on me that I forgot to apply my trusty Secret Clinical Strength. On a side note, I'm surprised that stuff isn't illegal--it works so well!

Having only budgeted an extra 10 minutes into my schedule and not wanting to show up late to this meeting, I pressed forward, hoping I could just get by for the day with some wipes or a paper towel and some soap in the bathroom. Unfortunately, I failed to remember the long walk from the parking lot to my office on the second floor and by the time I pulled my winter coat off, I had some dreaded BO. Not acceptable at a meeting in the office! I didn't have any wipes in my office and all I could find was my hand sanitizer. With only a couple minutes to go before my meeting, I decided I would rather smell heavily of the hand sanitizer alcohol than of body odor.

I (discreetly) took a little dollop of Purell and started rubbing it into my pits. It vaporized pretty quickly, so I wasn't soaking wet under my shirt. The alcohol smell died pretty quickly and I was worried that I would smell gross when it faded. I did a sniff test, and lo-and-behold! my odor was gone! I didn't smell like anything! No alcohol smell, no BO, no perfume-y deodorant, no deodorant covering BO and failing, not. a. thing.

Throughout the day, I periodically sniffed and couldn't detect much of anything. I reapplied once for good measure in the afternoon, but I could have gotten by even without that!

I love this unexpected beauty discovery and while I will continue wearing clinical strength deodorant, I feel great knowing I have this odor-fighting secret weapon in my office!

Has anyone else tried this trick or discovered some other unexpected use for a health and beauty product?