More Health Conscious Americans are Choosing Functional Deodorants

Cambridge, MA - The functional deodorant market in the US is gliding smoothly upwards. Sales aren't leaving any unsightly stains in the account books, retailers are uncapping store shelves for the most popular brands, and new products are twisting their way to the top with bold scent profiles and visually intriguing packaging.

A man with stage 3 grimp, shown here applying a functional deodorant with 3% Belgian chocolate, 2 grams of CBD, and that smells like a fresh cut lawn after a gentle summer rainstorm

Functional deodorants aren't just packed with pleasant aromas and placed in an exciting dispenser. Manufacturers are also touting the health benefits that their stink and sweat preventing products have to offer, such as minerals, vitamins, medicinal herbs, and even powerful stress reducing adaptogens. But that's just the tip of the proverbial tube.

The market is still in its infancy, but big things are expected by insiders. Industry watchers believe that growth will be turbocharged when major deodorant makers either enter the category, or invest further, through their own product launches or via acquisitions. And one powerful member of President Trump's Cabinet believes that functional deodorants may eventually replace unproven and potentially dangerous treatments for serious childhood diseases.

Demand for healthier options

Rust Trundleson, founder and CEO of the Massachusetts-based Pro-Bio Pit Sticks, which sells an aroma-packed range of probiotic deodorants, explains that the deodorant category was one of the last to be targeted by so-called 'better-for-you' brands.

"Disruptors are common in other industries, especially still drinks where healthier products like Energy Brands' Glaceau Smart Water have practically replaced older and stupider waters," Trundleson explains. "But shelf space for deodorants has historically been dominated by the legacy brands. That's all changing now as brands like ours and Stank-Away Prebiotic Body Blast are entering the market and getting more distribution."

Stank-Away is one of the category leaders and, according to co-founder and chief brand officer Emerson Fitzpatrick, the prebiotic-deodorant brand experienced a nearly 150% increase in revenue and a 250% rise in online sales from 2021 to 2022. The company doesn't disclose annual revenues. However, Fitzpatrick says that the brand's growth has been fueled by continued innovation.

"Whether it was our more streamlined tube, which reduces application time by over a quartile, or the addition of a blend of ancient nutraceuticals, natural substances shown in some studies to be potentially effective in promoting certain health benefits, people are getting really curious about what we have to offer."

Jake Kornsworth, director of stank reduction technology at Gillette, agrees with Fitzpatrick that growth in the category has been driven by an increasing number of consumers who are more focused on "health, wellness, and being proactive when it comes to holistic health."

He continues: "With more attention being put on added health benefits, savvy consumers are seeking out specific ingredients that help them achieve their immediate and long-term goals. These ingredients, from skink oil to otter foreskin, are gaining their own identity and momentum in the public mind-space, and products are going to have to become 'functional and fortified' to keep up."

Young and old boosting sales

In addition to older consumers looking after their health switching from traditional deodorants to functional ones, brands are also discovering a connection with a younger crowd.

Melvis Martini is the co-founder and CEO of Odor Crushers, a brand based in Massachusetts that has recently released the functional deodorant Expressions De Naturale. Expressions De Naturale comes packed with added electrolytes and organic whey protein derived from milk collected only from consenting cows who have experienced love. She says that the audience is still fairly small, but adds: "It is growing quickly as Gen Z becomes more aggressively anxious about their underarm odor, their overall health, and their personal impact on the coming environmental Armageddon."

At Pro-Bio Pit Sticks, Trundleson says that many younger consumers are focusing on health to a greater extent than their parents and are moving away from traditional deodorants, which while effective are full of chemicals that are difficult to pronounce and have been used by people who went on to develop a variety of cancers. He believes that they are looking for a replacement that smells good, keeps their shirts dry, and makes them feel special, which is where functional deodorants step in.

A spokesperson for the Austin-based Nature's Bounty, which uses botanicals like cacao nibs, acai berries, and nanometer thick scrapings from the bark of the only remaining grogan tree, a mysterious plant found deep in the Amazon rainforest and that is believed to have life-sustaining properties, concurs. "Functional deodorant, as a category, is a refreshing and dynamic new frontier with an influx of a number of exciting brands with singular approaches. There is something here for anyone looking for healthier alternatives. Oh, the grogan tree? Yes, it's real. Yes, it is that powerful. And yes, there aren't any more of them."

Consumers that have been drawn to the functional category may have tried natural deodorants like apple cider vinegar underarm douches or Himalayan salt crystals in years past, but didn't find the perfect scent profile for them.

According to Martini, people want to be healthy and to smell good. "I think our products are bringing a generation of people back into the category that abandoned it a decade ago. These newer brands are bringing a deeper and more complex sensory experience to the table, from the in-your-nostrils aroma to the mild burning sensation telling someone that maybe feels a bit tired or wants to optimize their internal vibrational bioresonance that it's working, and that everything is going to be okay."

Those deeper, more complex scent profiles include the use of botanicals like lavender, herbs and spices like basil and turmeric that are often paired with powerful organic juices from fruits like lemons, oranges, and horned kiwimelon, as well as minerals like feldspar and kyawthuite. People can't seem to resist the promise that these ingredients make. They are emotionally invested in these products because the products are emotionally invested in them.

Ingredient innovation

Many of the earlier products in the functional deodorant category promoted fairly traditional ingredient and health benefit pairings like vitamin C and scurvy, but brands like Pro-Bio Pit Sticks are pushing the boundaries of what was believed possible.

According to Trundleson, product development is increasingly driven by "stuff discovered in mysterious faraway lands like Asia, Vietnam, and Africa that are leading to a renaissance of functional ingredients and adaptogens that were just lying around not being used by anybody, like jade or tiger penis."

Fitzpatrick says that Stank-Away listens to consumers and the health claims that excite them. "For example, we just boosted the effectiveness of all our deodorants by adding a few drops of water that had absorbed solar rays during a recent eclipse," he revealed.

From Trundleson's point of view, the functional category has simply returned to the early days of how deodorants were made.

"They were made in the back of a pharmacy, or maybe the basement of a pharmacist's house, or maybe in a lab if the pharmacist was able to afford a standalone facility where he could work, which I guess could have been in the back of the pharmacy or in the basement. Regardless, nobody was telling them what they could or could not put in those early products. That's why I vote Republican. For the science."

Interest from Washington

Given the projected growth of the category, it's little wonder that the people who truly care about the health and well-being of Americans, members of the Trump administration like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are paying attention.

Kennedy, a long time believer in saving the lives of children by scaring their parents away from giving them dangerous vaccines, is dipping his toe in the water by investing $20 million in a functional deodorant treatment for measles that contains 200,000 international units of vitamin A as well as a gram of caffeine and some guarana extract probably. Oh, and some vitamin B.

There is every reason to be optimistic about the future of the industry. According to Kennedy when he was overheard yelling at the carcass of an Andean mountain lion that he was forcing into a sewer drain near Georgetown, the "functional and fortified'" space is "boundless". "The reality is that people need deodorant and there is absolutely no reason that we can't integrate it into a modern healthcare system. And I won't rest until I've got the study to prove it."