Experts in Functional Fragrance

Review #24 - Salt & Stone 🫧

Today I learned there’s no normal way to take a selfie with deodorant

Answering the age old question: can a natural deodorant actually work? This one gets slightly intimate and strangely heady. You’ve been warned.

Review #24 - Salt & Stone 🫧

What Is It

Salt & Stone makes “skincare and self-care” for “a life lived in motion.” A combination of active ingredients from “the sea and the mountains,” their products are not only skin and planet-supportive, they’re also a “celebration of the all-consuming power of scent.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you most likely know them for their natural deodorants with elegant scent profiles, so let’s see if they can beat the oxymoron allegations.

Brand / Aesthetic

I get asked about Salt & Stone a weird amount, with questions resembling one of the following two options: Have you tried this deodorant? or Are you related to them? In the past when I’ve responded in the negative to both of those inquiries, I’m met with the same answer every time: well, they look like a very you brand. And to that I say (genuinely) thank you.

It’s true. I’m a sucker for minimalist design and powerful product photography (see: Nécessaire, Soft Services). I gravitate towards neutral tones any time a color choice is required and I love a sans-serif font.

confirmed Katie-bait

I won’t deny my attraction to thoughtfully-crafted products with an air of luxury (particularly of the Goopy variety). But how boring would it be if my analysis ended there? It’s more interesting to ask the question: what does this say about me as an individual?

The communists in my comments section didn’t like this one, but I stand by it: the brands we buy make up our identity, and the purchases we make say a lot about who we are as people. That’s not a novel idea for people in the marketing industry, or anyone who’s viewed a short-form video of mine for that matter, but it’s not one we sit and think about often either.

Branding and self-identity is two-fold: the brands we buy make up our identity, and if a brand is doing its job right, we want to identify as one of its consumers. I’ll use Patagonia, an obvious one, as an example. The brand attracts eco-aware do-gooders who appreciate a high quality garment for their outdoor adventures. On the flip side, these people want to buy Patagonia for that very reason: to be perceived as environmentally-savvy and enthusiastic about nature, someone who wears Patagonia. It’s a symbiotic effect, and it’s not necessarily conscious.

From a consumer perspective, I like to think of buying into a brand as adding a badge to your Girl Scout sash. Often times I’ll admire a brand on an aesthetic level for a while before making the decision to hit buy, when I effectively sew the patch onto my sash. (This is simply the analog version of Ty Haney’s TYB platform.) If you were to look at my sash, with badges representing Nécessaire and Soft Services and Moon Juice, it makes perfect sense why Salt & Stone would theoretically fit into the mix.

can you believe I made this

When I’m told Salt & Stone is “such a you brand,” it creates a strange mindf**k where I now have to think about the way I’m being perceived in terms of my purchasing behavior. Logically, I know that I wanted to buy their deodorant because of the aesthetic reasons I stated above. But if I were to think about it on a deeper level (I’m doing a strange bit of self-therapizing for you all, enjoy) because I want to be someone with luxe self-care practices that aren’t too prissy. Because I want to be someone who straddles the line between chic and fit. Because I want to be a person who invests in high quality products and has a well-curated bathroom cabinet. Zooming out, that’s how I’d describe a Salt & Stone user if I were to generalize.

I realize this self-reflection isn’t common—or even necessary. Perhaps my friends who suggest I buy it just see me as mildly Goopy. Or a sans-serif apologist. I have no rebuttal to either.

I will say, I’d like to think I opt for brands with a stronger tone of voice on their website. I guess my friends aren’t scrutinizing every paragraph on the brand’s about page (unlike some weirdos I know).

Nothing but respect for an em dash

I see that the end goal is that ethereal, sensual experience, it’s just slightly clunky in its pursuit. I got over this pretty quickly after I got more involved in their caption writing, though — they’ve got that nailed down. Which reminds me…

Marketing

If the role of good branding is to make us reconsider our self-identity, then the role of good marketing is to make us feel something. A feeling that ultimately culminates in desire, a desire so strong that it bridges our gap between our current self and the self we want to be perceived as. And so we make a purchase.

Think about it: the last time you bought something, utility aside, was because of a feeling. Sure, that feeling could be desperation for more toilet paper so you picked up the first one you could find at CVS. You felt a kinship with the woman selling bread at the farmer’s market, so you proudly bought a loaf as you supported a local small business owner. You bought Seed Probiotics because you felt invigorated to take care of yourself, along with a deep sense of trust in their science.

That feeling, whether desperation, camaraderie or trust, will ultimately culminate in a desire so strong that you bridge the gap between your current self (the one with a mediocre microbiome) and your ideal perception of self (the one who endures a gut health journey, like the rest of the hot girls on your feed).*

I know, I sound like Gary V over here, and for that I deeply apologize, but I do mean it when I say that all brands want to evoke a feeling with their marketing, which is no easy feat. Now try to do it with subtlety. Wait! One more challenge! Now try to do it for a product completely reliant on scent, a sensorial experience that is quite literally impossible to provide digitally.

This all being said, Salt & Stone crushes it. Instagram is their predominant channel and they’ve crafted their profile to essentially be a mood board. There’s an emphasis on texture, performance, and experience. Sensuality, ethereality. I did so many weird metaphors already, all I have left in my vocabulary is adjectives.

Also, perhaps a strange observation, but I really appreciate the cadence of their posts. A brand simply does not need to post on Instagram 7 days a week, despite what the self-proclaimed algorithm wizards on your FYP want you to believe. I’m an avid consumer, and I’m telling you that I do not want to hear from a business entity of any kind every single day.

That’s not to say they have no strategy—in fact, quite the contrary. They’re investing in high quality videos for reels and TikTok that satisfy our desires for both aspirational and deeply soothing content. This video was a fun watch.

On top of that, they’re also using video to tell the story of a scent. I’m sorry, do you know how impressive that is? They’re essentially creating the social media equivalent of Charlize Theron’s Dior campaigns that get people to buy natural deodorant. Again, natural deodorant. One of the least sexy product categories on the market, period.

And while the web copy is not my favorite, it doesn’t actually matter. Their Instagram presence is much stronger, which from a creative marketing perspective, is a really intelligent investment for a fragrance-based company. They already understand that conversions aren’t the main goal here, meaning they’re not expecting their customers to make a (first) purchase of a highly personal, sensory-specific product on their website. All of this is just an awareness play, and a very well-executed one at that.

BTW, this is the instagram caption excellence I promised earlier. Really good. Makes more sense to have their tone of voice come through on this channel over the site (if you had to choose one).

All of their marketing seems to say, “come try us if you want.” That laid back confidence in the quality and efficacy of their products comes through best on Instagram, like I said. It reminds me (once again) of Soft Services — a through-line I’ll credit to Courtney Brunson’s beauty copywriting eloquence.

There are plenty of things that I didn’t cover (like the fact that they used to have SPFs and now they don’t, which to me is a smart way to lean into their strength of scent as the category is currently booming), but as per usual, this is where the seconds on the clock start ticking and I end up leaving you all with bullet points of fun collabs they’ve done. At least I’m consistent!

• Talk about evoking a feeling. This partnership with Leon Bridges, a musician I adore particularly for his gift of striking an emotion, is so special.

• This limited-edition collection with Outdoor Voices could be the activewear brand’s last gasp as they attempt their fabled cool factor of yesteryear. To me, this solidified Salt & Stone’s dedication to products that actually perform while “doing things,” so it’s a win in their book as well.

• Not a partnership like the rest, but dropping their fragrance exclusively at Sephora is a bold move. I’m here for it.

• They also did partnerships with Stussy and Brain Dead. I don’t care about those as much personally, but I could be convinced.

Efficacy

Once aluminum near my lymph nodes became yet another thing for me to spiral in existential panic about, I vowed to make the switch to a natural deodorant. Since then, I’ve tried just about all of them.

I got a rash from Native, I did the weird crystal thing, yada yada. There was a while where I was coasting off a Long Wknd sample I got at a random event, but once it hit summer and I started using this newsletter as an excuse to buy fun beauty items and I read this article in The Strategist and the 8th person associated me with this brand, well, I knew it had to happen.

This one goes out to all the girls who spent their middle school Saturday afternoons smelling all the Bath + Body Works soaps at the store in the mall

The next time I took one of my “market research” trips to Happier Grocery, I decided to go for it. Like I good journalist, I sniffed all the options, and I ultimately landed on the Neroli + Basil because the smell immediately reminded me of my grandmother’s bathroom (not in an old lady way, in an impossibly chic way). I guess their scents really do inspire “unexpected memories.”

I do need to share that I’m not an excessively sweaty person (brag, I know) but a summer in NYC will give me pit stains like the next girl. Not anymore. I feel as though my life has been changed forever.

This is one of my favorite purchases to date. I don’t wear perfume during the day now, and in fact, I’ll probably buy one of their new fragrances when my current perfume runs out. (That’s a funny joke, Katie. We all know I don’t have the patience for that and I’ll probably cave sooner.) While it’s not technically an antiperspirant, it’s still preventing the sweat. Consider my expectations exceeded.

Overall Thoughts

Unfortunately for my personality, I am now obsessed with a deodorant. Before I go down an existential spiral about how I got to this place (talk about self-perception), I will wrap this up here. Just know that it works, it smells great, and it’s worth it.

Random last note here: I love the tubes that the lotions come in — the resurgence of this clinical-adjacent packaging is a trend I’m watching closely. If it’s not the fragrance that gets me, it’ll definitely be a hand cream that functions as my next silly Sephora little treat.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

*This pertains to people with a certain amount of disposable income. I hope that goes without saying.

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In Other News…

• As I’m writing this, it’s come to my attention that the brand has actually announced major investment. Go team!

• Lemme suck on a collagen lollipop. On second thought…

• If you don’t want to try the new Boy Brow Arch on your own, you can get Glamsquad to do it for free.

That’s all for now. If there’s a product you want reviewed or just want to chat, reply to this email or leave a comment. :)