sweatSTOP

sweatSTOP is a Swiss brand of antiperspirants and related products for people with heavy sweating and hyperhidrosis, the medical term for excessive sweating. It was started by two friends from Basel, Stefan Menzi and Brice Ulich, and its first two products reached the market in 2006 [2]. The brand belongs to Functional Cosmetics Company AG, the small company the two founders still run from Muttenz, near Basel. The company itself styles the name SweatStop®.

What began as a pair of underarm sprays has grown into a range organised by body area and degree of sweating, from hand and foot formulas to an aluminium-free medical antiperspirant, iontophoresis devices and absorbent textiles. The brand is sold mainly through pharmacies and online, and remains active.

According to the company's own account, the idea took shape on a hot summer day in 2005 on the terrace of the Restaurant Post in Basel. During the conversation, Brice Ulich described his fruitless search for something that would actually stop underarm sweat. In the founders' telling, many pharmacy products were expensive but did not work. Over the following weeks the two decided to develop their own. Their stated aim was products that would be effective, gentle on the skin and inexpensive.

A period of trial and error followed. The founders say they studied how skin and sweating work, and the first laboratory samples were made with aloe vera and dexpanthenol, a moisturising form of vitamin B5. Friends served as early testers, and the pair consulted dermatologists and commissioned skin tests before the first formula went into production. The business started at home, with stock kept in a private garage, and soon needed a larger rented storeroom as sales grew.

The founders give two dates for the company behind the brand. The "Our values" page says Menzi and Ulich founded Functional Cosmetics Company AG in 2006 [4], while the milestone list on the history page places the company's founding in 2007 [2]. Both pages agree that the first sweatSTOP products were on sale in 2006.

Today the two men share the management. Menzi, who holds an MBA, leads marketing and sales; Ulich is responsible for logistics and key accounts. The company's team page lists seven people in total.

The brand launched in 2006 with two products. Two years later the company added sweatSTOP Instant, a skin-coloured lotion for the hands that it describes as a world first. A paid announcement in the German pharmacy trade outlet apotheke adhoc in May 2008 gives a snapshot of the range at that time: the Forte and Forte Plus+ sprays, the Aloe Vera Forte Plus+ spray, an Aloe Vera Lotion Plus+ for the head and forehead, the new Instant lotion, an Aloe Vera Basic roll-on and "Upside Down" spray versions with a pump designed to reach the back [11]. The same notice listed the company at an address in Basel, before its later move to Muttenz.

From early on the company paired its products with a usage rule that set it apart from ordinary deodorants. Antiperspirants, it advised, should be applied in the evening before bed, when the body sweats less and the active ingredients can work on dry skin; the 2008 notice already explained this to pharmacists [11]. The founders write that studies confirmed the approach and that, together with a 30-day money-back guarantee, the evening routine helped push their product return rate below 0.5 percent [2]. They also believe they were the first maker of high-strength antiperspirants to communicate this method.

In 2011 the brand introduced powder sticks for the feet, again presented by the company as a world first. The most significant later launch came in 2017 with sweatSTOP IXAL, which the company calls the first topical product against hyperhidrosis made without aluminium [2]. In 2021 it added the duo DRY N'FRESH Power-Set, a combined antiperspirant and deodorant, and began a tree-planting partnership. The most recent milestone the company lists is a redesign of its online shops in 2025.

sweatSTOP is an in-house brand of Functional Cosmetics Company AG, headquartered in Muttenz in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft [6]. The company is owned and managed by the brand's two founders, so the brand has never changed hands. It keeps an office in Muttenz and a shipping warehouse in Lörrach, just across the border in Germany.

Over time the company has built a small portfolio around its first brand. Its own brands include sweatSTOP, the IXAL line, EVERDRY, a-per and Funvital [4]. The history page records the addition of a-per in 2008, the acquisition of distribution rights to EVERDRY in 2021 and the full takeover of the EVERDRY brand in 2023 [2].

The company also distributes third-party brands. Because antiperspirant sales peaked in summer, the founders say they looked for products in demand during winter and won distribution rights for OTOSAN, a maker of nasal sprays, ear drops and other ear, nose and throat products. The history page gives two dates for another partnership: its milestone list records exclusive representation of the ahc brand from 2022, while the text of the same page says ahc and bromex products have been distributed exclusively since 2024 [2].

The brand's tagline, "Starke Produkte gegen starkes Schwitzen" ("strong products against heavy sweating"), sums up its focus. sweatSTOP does not present itself as an everyday deodorant brand but as a specialist for people whose sweating is heavy enough to affect daily life. The company says its mission is to give those people the tools for a confident and comfortable life, and it lists its values as efficacy, trust and responsibility.

The original goal of effective, skin-friendly and affordable formulas still shapes how the range is described. Rather than one product for everyone, sweatSTOP sorts its antiperspirants by body area, including underarms, hands, face and forehead, the bald scalp, back and body, and feet, and by how strongly a person sweats. The company describes its assortment as the most comprehensive of its kind; that is the brand's own characterisation.

The company also offers a large library of guidance on sweating, covering topics such as hyperhidrosis, night sweats, menopause and sweating during sport. It says this content is written by an editorial team that includes the two founders, a marketing specialist and outside experts, among them Dr. Raffaele Migliaccio, founder of Again Life.

The best-selling product on the brand's website is the sweatSTOP Aloe Vera Forte underarm spray in a 100 ml bottle. Like the rest of the classic antiperspirant line, it combines its active ingredients with moisturising additions such as aloe vera and dexpanthenol. The company also says it uses a special process to optimise the formulas' pH so that they protect while caring for the skin. According to the brand, a single evening application controls sweat for one to five days.

Several products target areas that standard antiperspirants do not. sweatSTOP Instant Lotion is meant to dry the hands right after application, and its skin-coloured tint keeps it from showing; the company says competitors have copied it several times since. The sweatSTOP powder stick applies powder precisely without leaving the residue of loose powder, and the founders say its complex manufacturing process makes it hard to imitate.

sweatSTOP IXAL is the brand's medical antiperspirant for severe underarm hyperhidrosis. Unlike the classic range, it is aluminium-free and built around F.A.G.® (Fatty Acids Group), a fatty-acid active ingredient that the company says is patented and normalises excessive sweating and odour. IXAL was developed in cooperation with AgainLife, a pharmaceutical biotechnology company. The current version is marketed as a third-generation formula. The brand describes IXAL as clinically tested, suitable for sensitive skin and safe to use after hair removal.

Beyond creams and sprays, the range takes in hardware and clothing. The sweatSTOP Iontophorese DE20 is a tap-water iontophoresis device for treating sweaty hands and feet, which the company presents as a non-invasive treatment for hyperhidrosis. The brand also sells anti-sweat shirts with built-in underarm pads, separate ultra-thin underarm pads, socks and insoles.

On the question of skin tolerance, the company says all sweatSTOP antiperspirants have been dermatologically tested by Dermatest and rated "very good" for skin compatibility [10]. This is a tolerance test rather than a third-party certification, and no independent certifications for the brand are documented. The company states that it does not test on animals, and it describes its antiperspirant formulas as vegan-friendly.

The company says its products come mainly from Germany, Switzerland and Italy, a choice it explains as a way to shorten transport routes [4]. Since 2021 it has planted trees in Germany together with the PLANT-MY-TREE® Foundation [5]. Other measures it lists are reusing shipping cartons and filling material, selling some products without outer packaging, using recycled paper and sending invoices by e-mail.

sweatSTOP is active. Its products are sold mainly through pharmacies and online, and pharmacies can order them either through wholesalers or directly from the company, which ships from Switzerland and Germany. Functional Cosmetics Company AG says its own brands are also distributed in numerous countries through local partners. The company's most recent recorded milestone is the 2025 redesign of its online shops, and its websites carry a 2026 copyright notice.