Bodysol

Bodysol is a shower and body-care brand that was sold through pharmacies, chiefly in Belgium, with a separate range marketed in Germany. It belonged to the Belgian over-the-counter health company Omega Pharma, which listed it as a line of hypoallergenic body care, and passed to the consumer self-care group Perrigo when that company took over Omega Pharma in 2015 [4].

Bodysol no longer exists as a standalone brand. Its products have been folded into Perrigo's Dermalex brand and are now sold under the Dermalex name [6], while the brand's former web address forwards to Dermalex and from there to Perrigo's Belgian site [14]. The last dated activity under the Bodysol name is a 20th-anniversary press campaign in March 2017.

No founders or founding story are documented for Bodysol. The clearest clue to its age comes from the brand itself: in 2017 it announced that it was celebrating its 20th anniversary, presenting itself as the "ideal partner" of Belgians in the shower for two decades [5]. That timing places the launch around 1997, although the exact year is not stated outright and could fall a year either side depending on how the anniversary was counted.

To mark the occasion, the brand commissioned a survey of Belgian shower habits, run in March 2017 with 4,496 respondents, and published the results as a series of light-hearted statistics [5]. According to the survey, nearly half of the people asked showered every day, and nine in ten regarded the shower as a moment of relaxation and well-being. About half said they bought their shower products in pharmacies, and most preferred small formats to family-size bottles so that they could vary products.

For most of its documented life Bodysol was part of Omega Pharma, a company founded in 1987 by Marc Coucke and Yvan Vindevogel, two former pharmacy students at Ghent University, and headquartered in Nazareth, Belgium. Omega Pharma built a large portfolio of non-prescription health and personal-care brands, with Bodysol alongside names such as Dermalex, Lactacyd, Davitamon, Physiomer and XL-S Medical [4].

Perrigo acquired Omega Pharma with effect from 31 March 2015 [4], and Bodysol moved into the Perrigo portfolio with the rest of the group. A profile of Perrigo Belgium continued to name Bodysol among the group's brands, next to Lactacyd, Galenco, Phytosun and Paranix [13]. In Germany, Perrigo Deutschland GmbH has been named as the supplier of the Bodysol Aroma shower gels [10].

In its 2017 press release, Bodysol describes its products as caring for the skin, intended for the whole family and made with mild, natural ingredients suited to daily use. The company also says the range aims to be pleasant to use and to give a sense of well-being, not only to clean.

Positioning centred on gentleness and the pharmacy channel. The anniversary release describes Bodysol as a brand present exclusively in pharmacies, and its product pages carried a consistent set of claims: hypoallergenic formulas, dermatological testing, a skin-neutral pH and no parabens [7].

The Belgian range was built around shower foams and shower gels. Bodysol Douchemousse Orchidee, a cleansing shower foam for everyday use with orchid extract, and Bodysol Douchemousse Detox were sold in 200 ml sizes. The company described the Detox foam as a silky lather enriched with moisturising and skin-softening ingredients.

Bodysol Gel Douche Detox, a 250 ml shower gel, contained small beads of vitamin E suspended in the gel, and green tea extract appears among its ingredients. The brand stated that its products were formulated to minimise the risk of allergic reactions. The same Detox formula later reappeared as Dermalex Shower Gel Detox, described as a soap-free gel with green tea extract and vitamin E beads that release their contents when rubbed on wet skin.

In Germany the brand took a different shape. There, Bodysol was sold as a range of Aroma shower gels in 100 ml and 250 ml sizes, in scents such as milk and honey, green tea and lemongrass, ginkgo and lime, grapefruit and ginger, and apricot.

Bodysol is defunct as an independent brand. A Belgian online pharmacy states that Bodysol is now part of Dermalex and that its products can be found under the Dermalex name [6]; the date of the change is not recorded. The Bodysol Gel Douche Detox has been marked as withdrawn from the market [9], and Bodysol no longer appears among the brands presented on Perrigo's Belgian and German websites.

The German Aroma shower gels were still listed in October 2026, but the item checked at that point was shown as sold out and currently unavailable [11]. No product launches, campaigns or other activity under the Bodysol name have been documented since 2017.