There are between two and four million sweat glands covering the human body—and they aren’t all in your armpits. So why do those two small patches of skin get all the deodorant attention? It’s a question that many personal-care brands have suddenly decided to answer with new lineups of something called “whole-body deodorant.” They are designed to go everywhere, including the soles of your feet, under your breasts, between your thighs, and, yes, around your crotch.
brands, namely Lume and Hume, began offering deodorant sticks, creams, and wipes for every inch of our skin. Now, the big guys—most likely one of the brand names printed on your current stick of deodorant—want in on the head-to-toe approach.
Unilever (the parent company of brands including Dove, SheaMoisture, and Axe) says their research found in a survey that 15% of Americans are looking for a whole-body deodorant—a finding the internet seems to support. Spate, which analyzes consumer search trends, reports that searches for body deodorant were up over 4,000% from March 2023 to March 2024. In 2024, those inquiring minds can find a full range called Dove Whole Body Deo that can be used “from pits and thighs to toes,” and nearly identical offerings under the SheaMoisture brand name. “We developed this new line to meet the needs of those consumers and help them feel fresh, comfortable, and most importantly, confident—no matter where they are experiencing odor or friction,” says Diane Keenan, associate director of R&D at Unilever.
Secret and Native are also on board to meet Americans’ whole-body deodorant needs. “When creating Secret Whole Body Deodorant, we asked nearly 4,000 people about their body odor and we found that 50 to 60% are concerned about groin odor, 20 to 30% are concerned about chest or under-breast odor, and 30 to 50% of people are concerned about foot odor,” says Maiysha Jones, PhD, a principal scientist, North America personal care at Procter & Gamble.
Anywhere on the body where there are folds, there can be sweat, friction, irritation, and sometimes, a funky, musty scent. Most of these new products are being marketed as confidence boosters. “In my 20-plus years practicing dermatology, I’ve found that many of my patients suffer, often silently, with body odor beyond their armpits and take extreme measures to control body odor, like showering multiple times a day, changing clothes, or keeping their distance from others, which isn’t addressing the odor at the source and can impact self-confidence,” says Corey L. Hartman, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, founder of Skin Wellness Dermatology in Birmingham, Alabama, and a former spokesperson for Old Spice. He also stresses: “Body odor is a normal part of being human, regardless of your gender or size.”
To some, the rise of this new category feels a bit like “feminine hygiene” 2.0; the majority of these new products are being marketed to women. Do men not need their groins and thighs and stomach folds deodorized too? Is this new category perhaps born out of unrealistic societal standards, not science? And is it even safe to slather on deodorant more like body lotion?
We went in search of answers. Here’s everything you need to know.
Meet the experts:
Diane Keenan is associate director of R&D at Unilever.Maiysha Jones, PhD, is a principal scientist for North America personal care at Procter & Gamble.Corey L. Hartman, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist and founder of Skin Wellness Dermatology in Birmingham, Alabama.Mona A. Gohara, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in Branford, Connecticut, and an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine.Shereene Idriss, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in New York City.Cari Casteel, PhD, is a historian at the University of Buffalo.Shannon Klingman, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and the founder of Lume.Kelly A. Dobos is a cosmetic chemist.Kavita Mariwalla, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in West Islip, New York.Shieva Ghofrany, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist based in Stamford, Connecticut, and cofounder of Tribe Called V, a women’s health-care platform.Hilda Hutcherson, MD, is a professor emerita of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Kameelah Phillips, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist based in New York City, and a spokesperson for Dove.
The science of sweat
Also known as perspiration, sweat is how your body keeps its cool. When your temperature rises, the nervous system signals your sweat glands to secrete fluid to the surface of the skin. Sweat glands can be found all over our body, but there are four main areas that can smell: “armpits, genitals, buttocks, and feet,” says Mona A. Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Branford, Connecticut, and an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine. Why? Because the groin and armpits are where our apocrine sweat glands are concentrated. Those sweat glands, associated with hair follicles, don’t start to function until puberty and release a thicker, milkier type of sweat that’s about 80% water and 20% proteins and lipids. This particular sweat formula reacts with the bacteria on our skin to produce body odor. The other type of sweat glands—eccrine—secrete a liquid that’s 99% water, and unless they come in contact with a lot of bacteria, the way the soles of the feet do, won't contribute to any type of odor. So, fun sweat fact for you: Sweat itself doesn’t actually smell.
To prevent the body odor created by bacteria feasting on yummy sweat, you can reach for a deodorant or an antiperspirant. Sometimes the word “deodorant” is used interchangeably for the two, but they don’t function the same way. “Antiperspirants are regulated by the FDA and contain an aluminum salt to help reduce underarm sweat,” says Dr. Jones. Those aluminum salts form a plug inside sweat glands to slow or stop sweat from being released. Most antiperspirants have only been tested for underarm use and are not intended to be used all over the body.
Deodorant, on the other hand, does nothing to stop sweat. It does, however, contain antimicrobial agents that inhibit the growth of the microorganisms in the armpits that interact with sweat to cause body odor.
The birth of body-odor marketing
The first commercial deodorant, called Mum, was introduced in Philadelphia in 1888 and was marketed solely toward women for use under the arms, on the soles of the feet, and even on sanitary napkins. The name was a play on the saying, “Mum’s the word,” meaning “done in secret.” The first deodorant designed for men, Top Flite, didn’t appear in America until nearly 50 years later, according to Cari Casteel, PhD, a historian at the University of Buffalo. In between, the first product to market itself as specifically an antiperspirant, called Everdry, was launched in 1905, followed by Odorono (get it? Odor! Oh no!) a few years later.
It was Odorono that really changed the game, with advertisements designed to create insecurity around sweat: It’s not just annoying, it will make you undesirable and shunned by your social circle—at least if you’re a woman. Early deodorant and antiperspirant ads targeting men were more likely to caution that they could be passed over for a new job if they didn’t buy something to address their body odor. By this century, for most American women and men, swiping or spraying deodorant or antiperspirant under our arms had become as routine as brushing our teeth.
In 2024, the concept of preventing body odor is being taken further, with the arrival of mass-brand, whole-body deodorants and a new frontier in body-odor marketing. The words “protection,” “freshness,” and “control” appear often, as do themes of confidence and freedom. “All body odor is normal, and while armpit odor is an expected part of being human, odor on other parts of our body has historically been deemed abnormal—and I am determined to change that narrative,” says Shannon Klingman, MD, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, who was a pioneer of the whole-body deodorant category as the founder of Lume. Lume’s marketing leans heavily on first-person perspectives and experiences with body odor, from the videos of satisfied customers on the brand’s Instagram page to a photo of Dr. Klingman herself on the website, smiling from between the legs of a patient in the stirrups.
How whole-body deodorants work
Most whole-body deodorant formulas do not contain aluminum salts—they are true deodorants and will not stop sweat. (Lume Cream Tube Deodorant + Sweat Control is a rare exception. It contains aluminum salts and the brand says the formula is for use on the armpits, privates, underboobs, belly buttons, butt cracks, and more.) What they will do is target odor-causing bacteria, many of them with alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), like lactic, glycolic, mandelic, and malic. AHAs can reduce the pH of the skin and “higher skin pH has been associated with a higher concentration of odor-causing bacteria,” says cosmetic chemist Kelly A. Dobos. This is how many of the armpit deodorants launched in the last few years—by Nécessaire, Drunk Elephant, and Kosas—are also formulated.
The majority of the lines—like Secret, Dove, and Ban—include a lightweight, “invisible” cream and antifriction stick that guards against chafing. Other collections also include a full-body spray and wipes for touch-ups in between showers.
The risks and benefits of whole-body deodorants
Okay, but do we actually need to put deodorant in every crevice of our bodies? Absolutely not, said every independent expert we spoke with.
For one: "Your arms, face, legs, stomach… they don't smell," says Dr. Gohara. The eccrine glands on, say, your forearms or the backs of your knees will release sweat, but it generally won’t interact with enough bacteria on the skin to create odor. Sweat secreted under your boobs or in the folds of your stomach won't smell unless yeast or bacteria is building up. And if that's the case, then you should make an appointment with a dermatologist.
Shereene Idriss, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City, told us that bathing daily is all you need to keep normal body odor at bay. "If you have good hygiene and are experiencing an excessive amount of body odor from head to toe, I would see a local board-certified dermatologist," she says.
Shieva Ghofrany, MD, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist based in Stamford, Connecticut, and cofounder of Tribe Called V (a women’s health-care platform), raised the fact that even the concept of undesirable body odor is, well, subjective. “We have agreed that the natural smell of what we call ‘body odor’ is kind of unpalatable in our American culture—and in many Western cultures—but there are many cultures where they're very comfortable walking around with that sweat,” she says.
Some of the doctors we spoke with have health-related concerns about putting deodorant on larger areas of the body. Dr. Mariwalla points to research that has shown that people who apply deodorants or antiperspirants to their armpits daily change the microbiome of their skin in that area. “If we extrapolate that to the rest of the skin, is it possible that using whole-body deodorant daily can change your microbiome? Yes,” she says. “Will that be a bad thing? Unclear.” Some brands, like Ban, include prebiotics in their whole-body deodorant formulas to help balance out the AHA ingredients that could be disruptive to the skin’s microbiome. (Dr. Mariwalla confirms that prebiotics could potentially help protect the microbiome.)
“Whole-body deodorants are theoretically safe, but there are not any long-term studies on them,” says Hilda Hutcherson, MD, a professor emerita of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. While Dr. Jones, the scientist who works for P&G, didn’t speak directly to long-term studies, she notes that their range of products has been “tested by multiple internal and external labs to ensure gentleness and effectiveness under the intended and reasonably foreseeable usage conditions. Overall, these studies found that Secret Whole Body deodorant stays where you put it and is gentle on skin, including sensitive skin, when used as directed.”
Dr. Ghofrany sees value in these products in “specific circumstances where people, men or women, might find that there are certain cracks or crevices on their body that feel sweaty by the end of a 24-hour cycle.” She thinks that sparingly applying one of these formulas could be a confidence boost, but in the absence of long-term studies, also offers a note of caution: “I think it’s valuable for each of us, especially when we’re talking about younger people, to consider how many products we are putting on how much of our skin daily across our entire lifespan.”
Is this a feminine hygiene rebrand?
“From your pits to your bits.” “Down there and everywhere.” “Pits, privates, and beyond.” For anyone who had access to a television in the 1980s, this might sound a bit reminiscent of a mother and daughter lamenting that “not-so-fresh feeling” as they stroll down the beach.
“There is a long history of products and procedures that have led to increased shame, embarrassment, and insecurity of women regarding the way their genitals look and smell,” says Dr. Hutcherson, who worries that this new trend is feminine hygiene under a different name. “They increase insecurities and shame that women have about their natural scents. The vagina is a self-cleaning organ and does not need douching or deodorizing.” The non-brand-affiliated experts we spoke with all concurred in cautioning against the use of deodorant in the genital area.
Dr. Klingman, founder of Lume, agrees that douches aren’t necessary, but still sees a need for whole-body deodorants that can be applied around the vulva. (Lume, like most whole-body deodorant brands, includes the groin among the areas of suggested use.) “The vagina has been wrongly blamed for centuries. In most cases, odor forms externally, not internally, and so, to control unwanted external odor, we needed an external solution.” She adds, “Women deserve an effective all-over solution that makes all body odor optional for those who may choose to control it better than soap alone can.”
A quick anatomy lesson here: “People often interchange the word vagina and vulva, but the vulva is external,” says Dr. Ghofrany. “These products should only be used externally, at most.” Dr. Kameelah Phillips, MD, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist based in New York City, and spokesperson for Dove, emphasizes the importance of avoiding the application on “the mucus membranes of the vulva, or private parts, with any product. This would be considered internal use.” This goes for all deodorants, soaps, and lotions. Dr. Phillips continues, “It is well known that products can migrate from this external area and come in contact with your private parts, which is why ingredients are so important to consider for any products used in this region.” It’s the reason she stands behind Dove’s range of products, noting their formula is “pH balanced with lactic acid, which is naturally occurring in the vaginal microbiome.”
One of the inspirations behind Lume was an observation she made during her ob-gyn residency, says Dr. Klingman: “I recognized that doctors were overdiagnosing women with vaginal conditions we didn't have and overtreating with antibiotics we didn't need as a way of triaging concerns about day-to-day odor below the belt.” She references a study published in 2006 that found that bacterial vaginosis is overdiagnosed and overtreated 61% of the time and yeast vaginitis (yeast infections) 77% of the time.
Dr. Ghofrany emphasizes that there’s a difference between a “fishy odor” and a “not-so-fresh, end-of-the-day” smell. “When people have a distinct ‘fishy odor’ it is almost always bacterial vaginosis and can be treated with oral or vaginal antibiotics,” says Dr. Ghofrany. She notes that overprescribing antibiotics can further throw off the balance of the vaginal microbiome and lead to other infections like yeast, for example, so it’s important to be very clear about your symptoms when consulting with your doctor.
Another concern is the high potential for skin irritation when using deodorants—especially fragranced ones and especially in a spray format—in the very sensitive groin area. In addition to the risks of allergic reactions and skin irritation, Dr. Ghofrany says using deodorants around the genitals, even formulations that claim to be milder, “may still alter the microbiome, and that can lead to an overgrowth of bacteria that can cause bacterial vaginosis or an overgrowth of yeast.” These infections can also increase the odds of a urinary tract infection (UTI) or sexually transmitted diseases.
Dove stood by the safety of their whole-body deodorant line when we reached out about these concerns: “The Dove Whole Body products have gone through extensive clinical testing and have been determined suitable for use on all skin types,” says Keenan. “Both the cream and stick have been dermatologist tested, and while our products were designed for all-over use, we formulated the cream in particular to be suitable for use on private parts.” If you do experience irritation, the brand says to stop using the product and consult your doctor.
When we asked Procter & Gamble to comment about these products sounding like “feminine hygiene products,” Dr. Jones responded on behalf of the company saying, “Since our founding nearly 70 years ago, Secret has been a strong advocate of empowering women with odor protection to help them have the confidence they need to take on any challenge.” And they also noted that they had “consulted with hundreds of gynecologists and dermatologists to review their formulas and safety research and learned that four out of five of each specialty would recommend whole-body deodorant.”
The gynecologists and dermatologists we spoke with, however, were not advocates of whole-body deodorants, especially when used in the genital area. Everyone sweats and everyone can be smelly—we are human. “Places like our armpits or groin or anywhere where there are folds of skin mixed with a small amount of sweat will lead to the release of odor from the interaction with the bacteria on the skin,” says Dr. Ghofrany. “This is normal.”
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