We worked out, socialized, and sweated in new-to-us deodorants from Salt + Stone, AKT, and others to see which ones are best at combating odor
Almost everyone needs a good deodorant. We found some really effective ones.
By Angela Lashbrook
There dwell among us those lucky folks who don’t stink when they sweat. I am not one of them, especially after the birth of my first child, when my hormones went haywire and what had been the manageable warm-weather body odor status quo became a year-round situation. The situation has not improved now that I’m pregnant with baby No. 2.
So I was thrilled to get the assignment to try the best deodorants, but I was skeptical as well. The deodorants in this test don’t contain aluminum, the ingredient in your typical deodorant that stops sweat in the first place. Instead, they rely on other ingredients, such as baking soda or alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), to neutralize odor through various mechanisms rather than stop armpit sweat entirely (or almost entirely, anyway).
And yet! Our small but mighty team of evaluators—a man and a woman who regularly exercise and a pregnant person (me) with a fun new hormone cocktail rendering me somewhat stinkier than ever before—bravely ditched the products we’d previously come to rely on in order to uncover something that might be better.
For me, at least, there was: I was sold. Read on to learn which deodorant persuaded me to leave behind my antiperspirant and which one smelled so terrible I don’t know how it passed quality control.
A note about our partnership with SkinSafe, a partner organization that uses Mayo Clinic data to assess the number of allergens in many personal-care products: Although we didn’t factor this into our results, we included data from SkinSafe. It awards “scores” to products according to how many of the 11 most common allergens they contain. Higher scores align with fewer allergens. This information is most relevant to people with allergies or sensitive skin, such as folks with eczema. If you don’t have any allergies and don’t tend to react to skin care products, you don’t need to worry too much about this score.
Meet the Testers
Your fearless evaluators: Lisa Fogarty, César Carroll, and Angela Lashbrook.
Photos: Lisa Fogarty, Cesar Carroll, Angela Lashbrook (Consumer Reports)
César Carroll is a senior market analyst at CR. He typically wears aluminum-free deodorants and works out most days of the week.
Angela Lashbrook is a senior writer at CR. She isn’t loyal to any one deodorant type (or wasn’t before working on this article, anyway), though she does swipe her underarms with Noxzema Anti-Blemish pads daily. She does yoga several times a week and goes on long walks most days.
Lisa Fogarty is a senior writer at CR. She usually wears antiperspirant (with aluminum) and goes to the gym six times a week. She also stars in videos below in which she discusses all the deodorants from this evaluation
AKT The Deodorant Balm
I didn’t think the incredibly annoying method of applying this deodorant—which Lisa addresses in the video below—would be outweighed by a powerful performance, but it was. The AKT Deodorant Balm comes in a tube, and you squeeze a pea-sized amount onto your fingers. That means you’ll probably want to at least rinse, if not wash, your hands after use. But it’s worth it because it really works. “This kept me smelling good right through my lifting session and well into the night,” said César, who tested the brand’s SC.03 Vetiver, Lavandin, Citrus scent. “Smells really, really good to me. Fresh citrus top note, probably due to the yuzu content, and a eucalyptus finish. It’s crisp and clean in a nonartificial way, and smells very high-end.”
Lisa and I tried the SC.00 Unscented and SC.04 Mint, Pomelo, Tomato Vine varieties, respectively. “The only fragrance I feel I picked up was the slight scent of salt. It smelled a bit like the beach, but not in any way that was intrusive,” Lisa said. “I think this one did a really good job. I’m curious to try their scents now.” I found my tube’s subtle green scent inobtrusive (I barely noticed it, frankly), but this apparently had zero effect on how well it worked. Despite an active day walking around with my toddler in high-70s sun, I didn’t stink at all.
The AKT deodorant didn’t leave any residue on our clothing. The packaging is entirely plastic-free, according to the company, and its proprietary key for squeezing every ounce of the product out of the tube was our winner in our evaluation of tube squeezers. (This may help to make this deodorant’s luxury price easier to stomach.)
We all loved the AKT deodorant. I’m keeping mine close at hand despite my mild annoyance at having to apply it by hand (and the admittedly exorbitant price).
SkinSafe: This product has a SkinSafe score of 91. It obviously contains fragrance, as do most of the products in this article, and soy. That applies even to this brand’s unscented deodorant; it contains calendula officinalis extract, which SkinSafe considers a fragrance ingredient.
Salt & Stone Aluminum Free Deodorant
Salt & Stone’s Black Rose & Oud deodorant is my new go-to. Though I’m keeping the AKT in my medicine cabinet for occasional use—it works brilliantly, after all—the Salt & Stone in Black Rose & Oud smells incredible and works just as well as AKT. (My experience with this deodorant mirrors César’s with AKT: Both are fantastic products, though, because we tried different scents of each, our experiences diverged slightly.) Black Rose & Oud isn’t subtle. It’s a woodsy, dry, gender-neutral scent that announces itself for about a half hour after applying, after which it pipes down and competently does its job of protecting others from the assault of its wearer’s BO (speaking for myself).
“I tried the Black Rose & Oud scent. It was heavenly. I kept wanting to sniff myself,” said Lisa, who also found that it stopped BO in its tracks nearly as well as the AKT. “The packaging is elegant, too.”
The product itself is quite soft; I worried I’d get through it quickly, which wasn’t ideal given the product’s relatively high price ($20). It has a lightly grainy texture and looks shiny on the underarms when applied, but it isn’t wet and didn’t stain my clothes. (César noticed a slight residue on tight black T-shirts.) He tried Salt & Stone’s Santal & Vetiver scent and was unimpressed with its projection. “Love the scent of santal and vetiver, and overall it is a great scent, but it was a bit too weak for me,” he said.
SkinSafe: This deodorant has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains fragrance, gluten, and coconut.
Saltair Skincare Deodorant
Saltair Skincare Deodorant is unique in a couple of ways. It comes in reusable packaging, so if you like it enough to buy another, you can pop an $8 deodorant refill into the plastic cartridge to reduce your overall plastic use. And the product formula uses salicylic acid to fight odor and smooth underarm skin.
“This kept me odor-free for the entire day,” Lisa said. “I loved how dry it was upon application and hours later.” I also found it to be quite dry, with minimal transfer onto clothing.
But Lisa didn’t much like the vanilla, sea salt, and sandalwood fragrance she tried. “At first it smelled like a happy childhood spent frolicking at amusement parks by the sea,” she said. “But as the hours went on, I became aware of how artificial the vanilla tones started to smell. Vanilla is a difficult scent to get right, and this smelled slightly too much like Play-Doh.”
César and I were lukewarm on the scents we tested. He tried Santal Bloom (sandalwood, amber, and musk) and found both scent and performance to be decent but weak. “Initially, it does a pretty good job, but it did not last very long for me, and I found myself having to reapply,” he said. I evaluated Exotic Pulp (orange, guava, and passionfruit) and thought it was a little sweet, although that’s not going to be a deal breaker for everybody. That said, it wasn’t up to the task at hand, and I could detect a (thankfully faint) BO smell by late afternoon.
SkinSafe: This deodorant has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains fragrance, coconut, and salicylic acid, which may be irritating for some people.
Secret Aluminum Free Deodorant
Secret’s Aluminum Free deodorant is a perfectly serviceable option if you’re on a budget (the winner AKT costs four times more) or simply don’t want to spring for one of the more niche brands recommended above. I tried it in Rose, and although I didn’t love the scent—it was powdery and generic, and reminiscent of the deodorants I wore when I was 14—it excelled at blocking odor. César found it competent at odor-blocking as well. “The scent is fabulous,” he said about the Cotton fragrance. “For the most part, it kept me smelling fresh throughout at least 3/4 of the day.”
Its primary downfall? Its texture. “It leaves a chalky finish on armpits,” Lisa said. “It can be messy. The side of the applicator got a little chalky after I turned the knob at the bottom to raise the deodorant bar before applying it.” We all noticed some residue on our clothes, so you’ll want to be careful when pulling a shirt over your head when wearing this one.
SkinSafe: This product has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains fragrance, gluten, and propylene glycol, which some people are allergic to.
Other Deodorants We Tested
Lume Whole Body Deodorant
Lume Whole Body Deodorant is fine—depending on scent, that is. César and I tried Fresh Alpine and Clean Tangerine, respectively, which César loved and I liked well enough. (It has that orange candy sweetness that’s less my vibe, but as stated above, that’s personal and not going to be a deal breaker for every person.) And it works, too. “Love the scent; it’s long-lasting and kept me smelling fresh well into the day,” he said. “On ’off’ days (no gym), I still smelled great well into the following day.”
But Lisa, who tried the brand’s Vanilla Bliss, had a different experience. “I tried the vanilla scent, and it is so sickly sweet that I couldn’t stomach smelling it. It reminded me of the scent of Play-Doh,” she said. “I actually reapplied the Lume and felt like the nasty vanilla scent was the thing trying to mask my scent. I didn’t feel like my scent was being neutralized; just covered up.”
Choose your scent with care—maybe with covert sniffs at a store—and you’ll be well served by this deodorant.
SkinSafe: The scented versions of this product have a SkinSafe score of 91. They contain fragrance, propylene glycol, and mandelic acid, which some people may find irritating to their skin. The unscented version is SkinSafe 100.
Native Deodorant
We found Native Deodorant messy and, more importantly, ineffective. “It has a clumpy, gritty feel. The package came with some deodorant clumped up and packed to the roof of the cap,” César said. “Pulling the cap off and putting it back on can release edge residue, leading to some messiness.” He had to reapply it halfway through the day and noted that it left some white marks on his black tees.
Lisa didn’t like the bar itself, which she thought was awkwardly wide. Plus, it didn’t effectively combat odor after her workout, and a late afternoon reapplication failed by morning despite limited activity in the interim. “It was fine for a few hours. But when I woke in the morning, I kind of smelled,” she said. “I never smell in the morning. I don’t sweat in my sleep. I have to infer that this deodorant didn’t hold up its end of the bargain.”
The scents weren’t bad, though! César tried and “loved” the Sea Salt & Cedar fragrance, and Lisa found Coconut & Vanilla to be “pleasant and not overpowering.”
SkinSafe: Native Deodorant has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains coconut and fragrance. The unscented version has a score of 100, though it does contain coconut and gluten.
Mando Whole Body Solid Deodorant Stick
I had high hopes at least for the scents because they’re all very much my thing, but Mando in Cedar Grove didn’t smell like a cedar grove. It was more reminiscent of a cologne a teenage boy might wear, or more generously, a rather generic men’s deodorant. Lisa tried Cedar Grove as well, which she thought was too strong and too masculine. (Although Mando is—as evidenced by the name—marketed toward men, the scent of cedar isn’t necessarily a gendered one.)
It did actually work at blocking odor for Lisa and César, however. “It does an excellent job of stopping odor, and lasts long,” said César, who loved this deodorant in Bourbon Leather, although he noted that some people might find it a bit sweet.
SkinSafe: This deodorant has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains fragrance, propylene glycol, and mandelic acid, which some people may find irritates their skin.
Old Spice Aluminum-Free Deodorant for Men
Who needs BO when you’re wearing a deodorant that smells this bad? César, who tried the Raptorstrike scent, said: “The smell is very intense and artificial. I felt like I was putting on some serious detergent under my armpits.” Lisa, who tried Nightpanther, said: “It smells like I’m trying to steal your girlfriend at a bar.” I also tried Nightpanther and thought it smelled like a generic man fragrance, akin to Mando, which made me worry that men aren’t being marketed and sold the same level of carefully crafted deodorant scents that women are.
Both César and I found that it irritated the skin, the only one in this article to do so.
SkinSafe: This deodorant has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains fragrance, dye, and propylene glycol.
Nécessaire The Deodorant Gel
I tried this high-end deodorant in Eucalyptus, and was so revolted I wanted to trash it. It smelled like black pepper, not generally a fragrance one wants to boldly sport. I gave it a couple of tries. Perhaps I was having an off day? Alas, each attempt left me feeling like I was cosplaying the Duchess, the pepper-obsessed royal from “Alice in Wonderland” who makes everyone in her vicinity sneeze violently.
Lisa’s experience with the unscented version, while less dramatic, was nevertheless a failure. “I went for a run. I sweated through this deodorant, and let’s just say I didn’t smell like a garden of roses afterward,” she said. “I would not trust this one to get me through any kind of stressful or active day.”
The Nécessaire deodorant gel is a roll-on that applied wet and stayed that way, as Lisa said, “for at least 20 minutes. It has a wet, gooey application. I detested the way it felt when I applied it to my skin. It was cold, wet, slimy. Ugh.”
Yeah.
SkinSafe: This product has a SkinSafe score of 91. It contains fragrance, as well as citric, lactic, and mandelic acids, which can be irritating for some people. Though the company has an unscented version, it contains chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower extract and hamamelis virginiana (witch hazel) water, which SkinSafe considers fragrance ingredients.
How We Tested
Our testing for this article was relatively straightforward. We wore the deodorants for at least two days, and made sure to put them to the test by engaging in moderate or vigorous activity on at least one of those days. We considered the following criteria:
How well does it seem to stop odor?
Does it stain clothes?
How does the deodorant smell?
Is it easy or messy to apply?
Does it irritate the underarms?
Does it dry quickly after application, or does it remain wet for a while?
What’s the Difference Between a Deodorant and an Antiperspirant?
Although we might refer to both antiperspirants and deodorants as “deodorants,” they’re a bit different. Antiperspirants reduce the sweat coming out of your underarms, typically with aluminum salts, which block the sweat glands to prevent sweat from escaping them. This keeps you dry and, because sweat reacts with the bacteria on your body to create odor, typically odor-free. Deodorants don’t stop sweat itself but rather reduce odor with ingredients that neutralize odor-causing bacteria. They also use fragrances to cover up odor.
Why Use a Deodorant Instead of an Antiperspirant?
This one’s personal. Some people worry that the aluminum in antiperspirants could cause breast cancer, but the American Cancer Society says there are no strong studies linking the two. Others are concerned about a possible link between dementia and aluminum, but according to the Alzheimer’s Society, “no convincing relationship between aluminum and the development of Alzheimer’s disease has been established.”
So that leaves preference. I dislike how cakey antiperspirants feel on my underarms, and I find it difficult to scrub them off in the shower. Others might not mind the dampness of sweat. Or perhaps there’s a deodorant that you love that reduces body odor without aluminum.
But you don’t need to worry about antiperspirants causing cancer or dementia. So if you prefer to be dry and odor-free, an antiperspirant might be a better option for you.
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