Best natural deodorant sticks in Australia: sizes, prices and ingredients compared

What is the best natural deodorant stick in Australia?

There isn't one winner for everybody. The best stick is the one whose odour ingredient suits your skin, whose scent you like, and whose price per gram makes sense to you.

So instead of a ranked top ten, we looked at nine aluminium-free sticks you can buy in Australia today and put the facts side by side. Every size, price and ingredient below comes from the brand's own page or a major Australian retailer, opened on 11 Nov 2026. We list label facts only. We haven't tested these products ourselves, and we sell balms, not sticks, so we have no stick of our own in the table.

For the wider field of balms, pastes and roll-ons, see our best natural deodorant guide. This page sticks to sticks.

How do natural deodorant sticks compare on size and price?

Sizes run from 60 g to 80 g, so the shelf price on its own tells you very little. Price per 10 g is the fairer way to compare.

The last price column is our own calculation: the regular price divided by the net weight, times 10. Sale prices change week to week, so we've noted them separately.

On the day we checked, several were on special. Woohoo's page showed A$13.27 for the Wild stick. Woolworths had Two Dudes at A$8.00 and Dr Squatch at A$14.60. Noosa Basics was A$15.99 at Priceline. Schmidt's was listed on Amazon Australia as an import at A$33.72, which is why we haven't put a per-10 g figure on it.

A few takeaways from the table:

• The Australian-made sticks sit close together. At regular price they land between A$2.69 and A$3.16 per 10 g.
• The supermarket imports are bigger. Two Dudes, Dr Squatch and Schmidt's are all 75 g.
• Bigger isn't always dearer per gram. Viva La Body's 80 g stick costs less per 10 g than four of the 60 to 70 g sticks.

For reference, our own 50 g deodorant balm is A$14.95, which works out at A$2.99 per 10 g.

Bicarb or magnesium: which odour ingredient is in each stick?

Five of the nine list sodium bicarbonate. Four don't, and use magnesium hydroxide or other ingredients for odour instead.

That matters more than the brand name. Bicarb dissolves easily on damp skin and works well for most people, while a minority find it doesn't agree with them. Magnesium hydroxide barely dissolves, which is the likely reason some people get on with it after bicarb didn't suit. We go through the chemistry in bicarb vs magnesium deodorant.

Here's what each label lists for odour, taken from the same pages as the table:

• Viva La Body: magnesium hydroxide, with tapioca starch to absorb moisture. Scented with lavender and palmarosa oils in the Lavender Fresh stick.
• Totem Eco: magnesium hydroxide, tapioca starch and kaolin clay. Blue gum, cedarwood and sweet fennel oils in Blue Gum.
• Ethique: magnesium hydroxide, zinc oxide and bamboo powder. Lavender oil plus natural fragrance in Vanilla + Lavender.
• Arluka: magnesium hydroxide, sodium bicarbonate, kaolin and triethyl citrate, plus fragrance.
• Woohoo: sodium bicarbonate, triethyl citrate, zinc oxide, zinc ricinoleate and bamboo powder. Lemon myrtle, eucalyptus and cedarwood in Wild.
• Noosa Basics: sodium bicarb and kaolin clay, with rosemary, eucalyptus and tea tree oils. A magnesium version without bicarb is also sold.
• Two Dudes: sodium bicarbonate, magnesium hydroxide, triethyl citrate and charcoal, with sage oil and fragrance.
• Dr Squatch: magnesium hydroxide, triethyl citrate and charcoal, with naturally derived fragrance.
• Schmidt's: magnesium hydroxide listed first and sodium bicarbonate further down, with bergamot and lime oils in Bergamot & Lime.

Two things stand out. First, "magnesium" on the front doesn't always mean no bicarb. Arluka, Two Dudes and Schmidt's list both. Second, some sticks name every oil in the scent, while others list "fragrance" or "parfum", which can cover many ingredients. If you want to know exactly what you're smelling, look for named essential oils.

What holds a natural deodorant stick together?

Wax and fatty alcohols. A stick has to stay firm in the tube and still glide, so its base is usually built differently from a balm or paste.

Across the nine labels, the structure comes from candelilla wax, rice bran wax, beeswax, ozokerite, or cetyl and cetearyl alcohol, with oils such as caprylic/capric triglyceride (a light oil made from coconut), coconut oil, shea butter and jojoba esters. Starches like tapioca and arrowroot add slip and soak up a little moisture.

That firmer base is what lets a stick sit in a gym bag. It also means sticks soften when it's hot, just as balms do. Woohoo, Totem Eco, Noosa Basics and Arluka all say to store their stick below 30°C. If you've had a deodorant go soft in a hot car, our piece on deodorant balm melting explains why and covers sticks too.

Is a plastic-free natural deodorant stick worth it?

If cutting plastic matters to you, there are good options. Five of the nine describe their tubes as plastic-free, biodegradable or recyclable, and one uses recycled plastic.

Viva La Body, Totem Eco, Ethique and Woohoo all describe their tubes as plastic-free, and Arluka calls its stick biodegradable and recyclable. Noosa Basics uses a tube made from post-consumer recycled plastic that can be recycled again. Two Dudes, Dr Squatch and Schmidt's don't state the tube material on the pages we checked.

Cardboard tubes push up from the bottom rather than twisting. Woohoo and Viva La Body both mention that a new stick can be stiff the first time and loosens after that.

Which natural deodorant stick should you choose?

Start with how your skin gets on with bicarb, then compare price per 10 g, then pick a scent you'd happily wear every day.

• Bicarb suits you, or you've never tried it: Woohoo, Noosa Basics or Arluka from the Australian-made sticks. Two Dudes is the cheapest per 10 g at regular Woolworths price.
• Bicarb hasn't suited you: Viva La Body, Totem Eco, Ethique or Dr Squatch, which list no bicarb. Read the full list either way.
• You want the most product per stick: Viva La Body at 80 g, then the 75 g imports.
• You want no plastic: the cardboard and paper tubes from Viva La Body, Totem Eco, Ethique and Woohoo.
• You want to know every scent ingredient: look for named oils rather than "fragrance". Viva La Body and Totem Eco name every oil in the versions we checked.

Awards can help narrow things down too. The 2026 Clean + Conscious Awards gave gold for best natural deodorant to Totem Eco's Honey Myrtle stick.

Does Freshie Folk make a deodorant stick?

Not yet. We make deodorant balms in jars, and we're working on a stick. It isn't for sale, and we'll only talk about it once it's ready.

Until then, if you like the idea of a short ingredient list where every scent is named, our balms are the closest thing we make. Every one uses shea butter, arrowroot powder, sodium bicarbonate, coconut oil, kaolin clay, sunflower oil, beeswax, vitamin E and a pure essential oil blend, and nothing else. The scent is the only thing that changes:

• Lemongrass Lift leads with lemongrass, backed by tea tree, lavender and cedar wood.
• Classic Botanic pairs rosemary with lavender over cedar wood.
• Wild Awake is our mint scent: peppermint, eucalyptus and tea tree.

Can't pick between the three? Our Scent Sampler Bundle puts a 15 g jar of each in one box for A$21.95. Naturally Effective. Consciously Crafted.

FAQ