Sweet Pitti is a cream deodorant from Drunk Elephant’s new body care line that is free of baking soda, aluminum, fragrance and essential oils. This claims to soothe the underarms and keep odor at bay.

Ingredients: Water/Aqua/Eau, Mandelic Acid, Maranta Arundinacea Root Powder, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Isononyl Isononanoate, Glycerin, Tapioca Starch, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Cetearyl Olivate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Sorbitan Olivate, Sclerocarya Birrea Seed Oil, Adansonia Digitata Seed Oil, Schinziophyton Rautanenii Kernel Oil, Sclerotium Gum, Panthenol, Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Seed Extract, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Citric Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin, Sodium Hydroxide

Mandelic acid is an AHA that kills odor-causing bacteria. Arrowroot powder absorbs wetness from sweat. Shea butter is an emollient that provides skin barrier protection.

Directions: Only needs to be applied once a day and “always” to clean dry skin. Can be applied with fingertips. I find the instruction “always” apply to clean and dry skin odd; what if I want to reapply after a workout or being in hot weather because of underarm odor or wetness or does it not work well unless it is applied to clean skin. Getting further instructions from Instagram comments, one application is a 1/4 turn of the dial, which dispenses 1.2 mL of product. Using it this way, there are 50 single underarm applications (or 25 uses applying to both underarms).

Other baking soda-free deodorants I’ve tried use magnesium for underarm bacteria odor rather than mandelic acid. This is a cream formula; like a thin face cream. There are no essential oils or added fragrance; the natural scent of this product is sweet almond, like the other body products from Drunk Elephant. It smells like the almond extract used in baking. The scent lasts only minutes. With no added fragrance, I can get a sense of how well this works without a fragrance to just mask the odor.

I like that this deodorant comes in a twist container rather than a jar; less messy that way. One application is a 1/4 turn of the dial. I feel like this is way too much. Using this amount takes a long time to rub in until the deodorant creates an invisible layer. I use a bit more than a pea size for each underarm; usually with cream deodorants, I’ll see instructions that say to use a pea size. I tried applying by rubbing the container under the arm; that does not work well. Rubbing in with the fingers works much better. This does create an invisible protective layer that is felt under the arm once it dries. It is not sticky. I like the cream formula rather than the paste-type deodorants I have used, but it does take longer to rub into an invisible layer than these formulas. It felt nice and a bit moisturizing under the arms.

Wearing the deodorant just around the house, it lasts all day (9 to 10 hours). Applying at night to help with wetness and odor while sleeping worked somewhat. The underarms were less smelly, but not completely free of odor. I applied 3 hours before a workout. After my workout, I had quite sweaty underarms and I am not sure Sweet Pitti absorbed much sweat while working out (it had, by that point, likely absorbed as much as it could). There was a slight odor, definitely much less than not having worn deodorant. I wanted to try this after already sweaty considering this should “always” be applied to clean dry skin. I applied after my workout and was surprised it absorbed quite a bit of the wetness, but there was still a slight odor. I applied one morning after waking up stinky and sweaty and some sweat was absorbed, but none of the odor. I applied before going for a walk in warm weather for about 30 minutes. There was no odor after getting home, but a few hours later my underarms were relatively stinky. I was thinking that maybe this deodorant does not work as well without applying the large amount as directed, so applied the deodorant as instructed, with the 1/4 turn, with the same scenarios above, and got the same results.

Overall, Drunk Elephant’s Sweet Pitti is not too bad; other deodorants I’ve used performed better when doing activities and when already stinky (I think a good deodorant should be able to diminish odor already there), though instructions do say to apply to clean skin. I might consider a repurchase just for using at home or at the office, but would probably use a different deodorant for working out or going out in hot weather.

Thank you for reading.