I love going for yoga and I do so everyday. Generally, every class is enjoyable but sometimes the session can be not as pleasant as it would have otherwise been if I happen to take the mat next to somebody which doesn’t smell so good. Let’s be practical here – would you rather have an odourless yoga practice or one which you are constantly intruded with an odour whenever your neighbour raises her/his arms?

Firstly, let’s understand the scientifically the reason behind body odour and why it only occurs on the armpits. You need to know that not all sweat glands around the body produces the same kind of sweat. There are 2 kinds – eccrine glands and apocrine glands. Eccrine glands produces sweat all over your body when body temperature rises, and the main components are salt and water (and this is why it is important to replenish the salts after a dripping Hot Flow yoga session!).

Apocrine glands are present only in areas with androgenic hair like the underarms and groin region and the sweat secreted contains protein, lipids and steroids, under the influence of emotional stress. This sweat on it’s own is odourless, but life happens and when there’s microbial activity due to bacteria naturally found on your skin, the bacterial breaks down the proteins and lipids causing the smell which we all know as body odour. This happens more often with men because they have higher androgen levels in their body (which in turn creates more apocrine glands present), and having body hair on the areas of the apocrine glands can collect more bacteria.

After knowing the science behind body odour, it is quite obvious that EVERYBODY can develop it at some point in their life, unless you do not have apocrine sweat (possible with botox) at all.

Thankfully, this problem can be easily solved by using deodorant! You cannot control what other’s life choices are, but you can play your part by not being the smelly one. Personally, I do not understand why some people do not use deodorant during yoga. It is so affordable, quick, simple and makes everybody’s air fresher.

Deodorant, also an anti perspirant, works by covering the pores and reducing the amount of apocrine sweat secreted. It also has anti-bacterial properties which will reduce the microbial activity on the skin. This double action prevents body odour from happening. Personally I swear by deodorant and use it even for normal daily life. In hot, humid and fast paced Singapore, sweating due to the weather or stress is inevitable. Sweat patches on clothes are unsightly too, so I’ll apply deodorant to reduce sweating and avoid having any odour when I least want it (it’s way more embarrassing to smell bad in normal situations compared to during exercise!).

Now aside from smelling bad, the next worst thing about raising arms during yoga or anytime in life is when your underarms do not look nice. Or perhaps you were the unlucky one that had to come face to face with a not so pleasant looking underarm. First and foremost I strongly encourage everybody to at least shave/ pluck/ IPL away the auxiliary hair. There are no excuses not to do so. If you already have your hair removed so but suffer from a darkened underarm due to various reasons, you’ll be glad to know that you can actually whiten it to make it look way more pleasant!

Introducing NIVEA Whitening Happy Shave:

NIVEA Deodorant Whitening Happy Shave contains provitamin B5 and vitamin C which will lighten and smoothens skin within 2 weeks, prevents darkening of underarms caused by hair removal and provide 48-hour protection against body odour and sweat. It’s like a deodorant and underarm skincare all in one.

When selecting a deodorant, the fragrance is also important because you do not want to smell too masculine if you’re a girl or smell too feminine if you’re a man. NIVEA Deodorant Whitening Happy Shave has a fruity floral scent of green apple, peach, lily of the valley and jasmine and is ideal for women.

I haven’t been using it long enough to see the whitening effects but so far I like the smell of the deodorant and it works well to reduce sweat and odour! With a good deodorant I can confidently lift up my arms throughout my yoga practice daily.

Here’s me in mermaid pose, one of the many occurrences where my arms have to be lifted and underarms exposed in full glory.

This is available in a roll-on format at $4.90 for 50ml, and in a spray format for $9.10 for 150ml at Guardian, Watsons, Cold Storage, NTUC FairPrice outlets and other major retail stores.

You may redeem your FREE sample of NIVEA Happy Shave on SampleStore.com here: http://samplestore.com/catalog/product/view/id/2213/0/name-nivea-whitening-happy-shave and you’ll receive a 35ml travel size Whitening Happy Shave spray and the above card.

You can stand a chance to win $400 worth of shopping vouchers by instagramming your photo with the hashtags #NIVEAsg #NIVEADeoSg #HappyShave!