INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — I’ve worn deodorant and antiperspirant since fifth grade when my gym teacher made the speech to the guys in class that we needed to start wearing it.

In all those years, I’ve never thought much about it.

Full disclosure, I buy original Old Spice deodorant and antiperspirant and don’t pay much attention at all to the ingredients. Maybe I should?

For my wife, it’s a big deal. She buys organic, all-natural deodorant and all kinds of different brands: Native, Megababe, Lume, Myro, Lavanila and on and on.

She’s concerned about the ingredients in many popular deodorants and antiperspirants, mostly the aluminum-based compounds that help block your sweat glands so you don’t perspire as much. Sounds simple.

The fear is though, that with those compounds close to the chest, it could lead to breast cancer or bad diseases. Maybe you’ve even heard this?

It’s being talked about, despite any strong evidence to support that claim.

Despite the lack of that verifiable proof, it’s not stopping my wife and millions of other women and men from being cautious about what they wear under their arms. That’s why the organic all-natural deodorant market is growing and fast. You can tell by the growing shelf space at most drug stores and big box stores.

So we asked three working women what they thought. Marcy, Stephanie, and Ashley all live in Indianapolis and had used “traditional” brands of deodorant and antiperspirant before.

Marcy

Stephanie

Ashley

Putting them to the test

Remember, these are deodorants, not antiperspirants. So “performance” is subjective.

They may not contain the same strength in sweat-protection as say a Secret, although they have a line that’s paraben and dye-free, so they can still contain aluminum-based properties found in antiperspirants.

Deodorants help reduce the bacteria in sweat, which hopefully reduces the bad smell. So after some time wearing the all-natural options under one arm and the normal antiperspirants and deodorants under the other, what did the women think?

Marcy said she can’t tell the difference between the two. Stephanie was having a similar experience at the half way point of her day. Ashley put hers to the test with a full day of activities in Denver and was liking how the all-natural deodorant was working.

Even my esteemed co-Anchor Julia Moffitt agreed to give another popular natural deodorant a test run: Native deodorant. But, how would it compare to what she normally wears — Secret Original Antiperspirant/Deodorant?

The results

Marcy, who also teaches Pure Barre part-time, gauged public opinion on all-natural deodorant’s strength after an invigorating workout. She asked the other women at the studio if they could smell her after.

“‘Can you smell me?’ They said no! So, it seems to be working!” Marcy said.

Marcy said she enjoyed the Schmidt’s All-Natural Rose and Vanilla deodorant so much, she’s going to keep using it.

Stephanie isn’t sold just yet.

She’s staying with her Degree Motionsense antiperspirant.

As for Ashley, she gave her trial run with Love, Beauty and Planet a solid “B+.”

“I was pleasantly surprised!” Ashley said.

She still really thinks her Lady Speed Stick Invisible Dry antiperspirant/deodorant performs really well though.

As for Julia, after a workout, she was pretty impressed with the Native brand.

Now, being an unbiased journalist, she’s undecided about what she’s going to stick with.

If you’re interested at all in trying an organic, all-natural option, Women’s Health put together a nice list of popular options.