The Best Men’s Hygiene Products of 2023
Proper hygiene is grooming’s sensible side, but that doesn’t mean the products have to be boring. Coifing mooses and $80 candles are great and all, but every guy also needs a go-to body wash for darker crevices. We groom to take care of ourselves and also to not smell bad. The following products remove smell and add something a little extra too.
Ursa Major Hello Hinoki Spray Deodorant
Picking a natural deodorant for this category winner may seem far-fetched, but this brand is worth the potential eye roll. We’re picking a deodorant, rather than an antiperspirant, so we were mainly focused on odor control rather than moisture management. Many uber-natural deodorants are either ineffective or equally as irritating as synthetic ones, but Ursa Major’s soothing vegan recipe is powerful against odor. Almost unbelievably so, given the simplicity of its ingredients.
Hello Hinoki calms skin with hinoki cypress and sage extract and defends against odor accumulation with lemon tea tree oil and ferment extract. It isn’t designed to mitigate moisture buildup as much as other alternatives (including Ursa Majors’ own roll-on sticks), but this one is great at controlling odor without causing a rash or clogging pores.
Basic Maintenance Lab The Body Wash
Basic Maintenance Lab focuses on simple but effective formulas, and is one of the best new collections of products from the past year. This body wash is exemplary of that entire roster — with soothing aloe, allantoin, chamomile, moisturizing and antimicrobial jojoba oil, plus nourishing Vitamin E — among a handful of other actives. One pump builds a generous, cushioning lather, and leaves skin better than it was found in the first place. It’s also that’s just one of the brand’s top-tier foundational offerings.
Axe Green Geranium Body Wash
Let’s be clear, Axe has earned its reputation as the noxiously over-applied grooming brand of pubescent boys and frat guys. Their scents are strong and marketing even more exorbitant. But their Green Geranium body wash, tested recently by SPY editors in a routine revisit to a medicine cabinet staple, was restored to its former favorite position. It has a rich lather and thick consistency that’s satisfying to scrub with but doesn’t leave a film on the skin after a rinse.
And to top it off, the scent is long-lasting — thanks to notes of Moroccan spearmint, French lavender, and Canadian Fir Balsam.
Jack Black Cool Moisture Body Lotion
Sure, smooth skin feels great, but with Jack Black’s body lotion, it also means you get a tingly menthyl-powered buzz all around the body. Spidey senses that are also moisturizing sent this product over the top in our book. And since we’re doing our due diligence, the ingredients are top-notch as well. It deploys macadamia nut oil, soy protein, jojoba oil, and Vitamin E for heavy-duty nourishment.
The lightweight lotion won’t suffocate pores and remedies everything from cracked heels to ashy elbows and even enflamed nailbeds overnight. A product that actually works all over the body is rare, and Jack Black’s option is a tier above basic drugstore brands without getting too fancy. It’s best applied in the evening after a shower, before a relaxing scroll or novel chapter. It’s also great to carry in a backpack for applying to slightly damp, freshly-washed hands so it can lock in moisture.
Anthony Sea Kelp Body Scrub
A shower exfoliant is not a necessary product in a grooming routine, but a decadent product should still be made with high-performing ingredients. We weren’t just looking for any old volcanic ash concoction that would scrape calves for this award, we wanted a product that felt worth the extraneousness. Anyone who’s tried scoop-out body scrubs knows how easy it is to waste the product; what costs $50 can disappear in three applications. Not with Anthony, though. For 30 bones, this one is easy to portion, prolong, and massage across large areas of skin for maximum use. Its water-gel base cools with aloe and nourishes with kelp extract, while pumice and sea salt crystals slough away dead skin cells from shoulders to toe. Our editors also found it effective on target problem areas — callused feet, dry hands, or buildup around the ankles.