Body odor isn't sweat. It's what happens after you sweat, when the bacteria on your skin break sweat down and release the compounds we smell. Once you understand that, every deodorant on the market falls into one of a few buckets, and you can finally tell them apart.
The four ways to fight odor
There are really only four approaches, and each has a tradeoff:
- Block the sweat with aluminum. That's an antiperspirant. It works, but it stops your body from doing something it's supposed to do.
- Mask the smell with fragrance. That's most conventional deodorant. It covers odor rather than stopping it.
- Neutralize with baking soda. The classic natural approach, and what our Tea Tree + Mineral uses for people whose skin has always done fine with it. It's also the most common cause of underarm rash, because it dissolves fast and delivers all of its alkalinity at once.
- Capture the odor molecules themselves. That's where Zaffré's BioShield™ formulas live.
The zinc works alongside magnesium hydroxide, a mineral that barely dissolves. As bacteria produce the acidic compounds that smell, the magnesium neutralizes them, releasing only as acid arrives. Steady and reliable.
Sensitive skips magnesium and uses triethyl citrate, a plant-derived ester split by the same bacteria that cause odor. Splitting it releases a little citric acid right at the surface, which slows the process that makes the smell. There's no alkaline active in it at all.
So which is better?
They're built for different skin. If a natural deodorant has ever burned you, start with the interrupt path, Sensitive. If your skin has always been fine with minerals, choose on your day: Core for every day, Max for the long ones. All three BioShield formulas are Dermatologist Tested.
Not sure which fits you? Use the quick buyer's guide, or read the full science on how zinc stops body odor.