A 24 hour odor protection claim means a deodorant has been clinically tested by trained odor judges and proven to statistically reduce malodor underarms for 24 hours compared to untreated (no deodorant applied) underarms. We will dive deeper into what "statistically reduces malodour" actually means and why numerous brands that have a similar 24 hour odor protection claim may differ in their efficacy.
How Do I Know My Deodorant Works?
You can feel confident that a deodorant will work and provide a degree of odor protection when there is an hourly claim associated with the product. An hourly claim requires clinical testing to back up the claim. Testing should be performed at a 3rd party testing facility that specializes in odor testing with trained odor judges.
What Does Clinically Tested Mean?
Clinically tested means the product was evaluated on humans under lab or clinical conditions with a set protocol and established parameters under the supervision of a qualified principal investigator. It is quantitatively driven with data collected by experts and then analyzed with statistics.
Does Antiperspirant Reduce Odor?
It is important to know the difference between an antiperspirant claim and a deodorant claim. Antiperspirants are drug products and have to undergo clinical testing to show sweat reduction by an established threshold noted on the monograph. Antiperspirants are tested for sweat production but do not need to be tested for odor protection. On the other hand, deodorants are considered cosmetic products and are not required to be clinically tested for odor protection. When they are tested, it is for odor protection and not for sweat production. It is actually possible for a deodorant to provide greater odor protection than an antiperspirant.
How is a 24 Hour Odor Claim Established?
Before beginning any type of clinical testing, the brand dictates to the testing facility the odor testing time points or the hourly time points for the odor judges to check the efficacy of the deodorant. Every time point has significant costs so brands often pick a minimum time point they know they will achieve the desired results, such as 12 hour odor protection. Then they pick the time point they want to claim on the package, typically 24 hour odor protection. That means a deodorant may have potential to reduce odor for longer than 24 hours but if the brand only selected up to 24 hours for a testing time point the deodorant will not be evaluated for further hourly odor protection.
What Does the Testing Process Entail?
After selecting the testing time points, a minimum of 30 participants are selected. Exclusion criteria are established so that participants reflect the general population and results can be generalized to the population. Trained odor judges then evaluate axillae or underarm odor to establish a baseline odor for each participant. Then, after supervised washing, a staff member applies the deodorant to one armpit and leaves the other armpit untreated. Participants return to the facility the next day and the process is repeated. On the 4th day, having repeated the washing and application of deodorant to the same armpit 4 times, the clock begins. The odor judges evaluate the treated and untreated armpit using a 10 point malodor scale with 0 being no odor and 10 being extremely strong malodor. The judges rank the perceived malodor on the treated site and untreated site at the designated time points. If the treated side scores statistically lower than the untreated site at a specific time point the product can claim that hourly time point for odor protection. Consumers might be surprised to find out that a 24 hour odor protection claim doesn’t necessarily mean 24 hours of no odor but 24 hours of statistically reduced odor compared to not wearing deodorant.
Do All Deodorants that Claim 24 Hour Odor Protection Have the Same Efficacy?
Since the product just needs to be statistically significant compared to the untreated site, not all 24 hour deodorants are created equal. Some deodorants may have lower average malodor scores than other tested deodorants while having the same hourly claim because they both reduced malodor statistically compared to the untreated armpit. Also, because of the previously established testing time points, some deodorants may have been able to achieve greater than 24 hour odor protection but cannot claim without retesting, at a significant cost, with extended hourly testing.
Saltair Skincare Deodorant Testing Results
Our clinically tested skincare deodorant has a 24 hour odor protection claim but we pride ourselves on the fact that our malodor score was very low compared to the untreated after 24 hours. While the average untreated underarm malodor scored above 8 on the malodor scale, strong malodor, our skincare deodorant scored around 2, very slight malodor. The results were statistically significant as well as demonstrating exceptional performance. This leaves the potential for further extended hourly testing in the future. The principal investigator, a veteran in the industry, was even impressed by the results. From these test results we were able to claim all day protection, 24 hour odor protection, and non-irritating as there were no significant skin reactions during the study.
What Else Can a Deodorant Do Besides Reduce Odor?
Our Saltair Skincare deodorant goes above and beyond simple odor control. We had the participants take the product home for a week and use it as they normally would to provide their subjective opinions. We wanted both quantitative data as well as qualitative and subjective data to support our odor control claims. After a week we found 97% of the panelists agreed that the deodorant left them feeling fresh and confident all day, 100% saw an improvement in skin discoloration under the arms, 85% saw a visible difference in smoothness under their arms, and 100% of panelists said they would recommend this product to a friend.
We encourage you to try our clinically tested Saltair Skincare Deodorant. You might be surprised to find that your experience surpasses the results on paper.