Olay

Olay is a skincare brand founded in South Africa in 1952 and owned since 1985 by the consumer-goods company Procter & Gamble [8]. It began as a single pink moisturizer and grew into a global, mass-market range built around anti-ageing and accessible "science-backed" skincare. The brand is active: it is sold in more than 80 countries, runs ongoing advertising campaigns, and its products continued to collect industry awards through 2025.

Because of its origins, sources describe Olay in two ways. Wikipedia records that it "originated in South Africa as Oil of Olay," while also referring to the present-day company as "an American skin care brand owned by Procter & Gamble" [8]. The two framings reflect different facts: South Africa is the brand's birthplace, and the United States is the home of its current owner.

Olay was created in 1952 by Graham Wulff (1916–2008), a South African chemist from Durban who had previously worked at Unilever [8]. According to the brand's heritage account, Wulff developed the original pink "Beauty Fluid" for his wife and other women who wanted deep hydration without the thick, heavy creams common at the time. He named it "Oil of Olay" as a play on the word lanolin, one of its key ingredients.

The product launched under names that varied by market. Beyond "Oil of Olay," it was sold as Oil of Ulay in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Oil of Ulan in Australia, and Oil of Olaz across France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The company says the brand expanded internationally through the late 1950s and 1960s, becoming known in the United States for its hydration and distinctive pink packaging.

The business behind Oil of Olay changed hands twice in its rise. In November 1970, Richardson Merrell Inc. — later Richardson-Vicks Inc. (RVI) — acquired Adams National Industries, the company running the brand [8]. In 1985, Procter & Gamble (P&G) acquired RVI, bringing Olay into the P&G portfolio, where it sits alongside brands such as Pantene, Old Spice, SK-II and Gillette [8].

The disparate regional names were eventually unified. Olay's heritage page states that "'Oil of Olay' officially becomes 'Olay'" during the 1990s [5]. One editorial history instead dates the dropping of "Oil of" to 1985 [9]; that date appears to conflate the rename with P&G's 1985 acquisition of RVI, which the brand and Wikipedia treat as a separate event. Under P&G, the brand grew into a major commercial property, and Wikipedia notes that Olay "became P&G's 13th billion dollar brand in 2013" [8].

Olay positions itself as accessible, science-led skincare, summed up in its tagline "Science, in Your Hands." The company states that "true beauty begins at the cellular level" and frames its products around visible results from working on skin cells over time. A second slogan, "Exclusively for Everyone," reflects a stated aim to serve a broad, multi-generational audience. Editorial coverage echoes this, noting that the brand's advertising features models of different ages and backgrounds to promote the idea that "great skincare is for everyone" [9].

The brand's range centres on anti-ageing moisturizers and serums. Its signature line is Olay Regenerist, including the Micro-Sculpting Cream, alongside Total Effects, the Retinol24 night moisturizer, the Super Series and the Whips collection. Recurring hero ingredients include niacinamide, collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, retinol and bakuchiol.

Olay attaches several "first-mover" claims to these launches, drawn from its own history pages. It states it was the first mass-market skincare brand to offer antioxidants with UVA/UVB protection (1991); that Total Effects was "the first mass skincare range to introduce" niacinamide, or vitamin B3 (2000) [6]; and that it was "the first mass skincare brand to use peptides," with Regenerist built around an amino-peptide complex known as PAL-KTTKS (2002) [6]. The 2018 Whips collection introduced what the company calls Active Rush Technology.

On the research side, the brand describes proprietary complexes such as Triple Collagen Peptide and Pro-NAD and cites a patented retinoid combination intended to improve retinoid stability and skin delivery. It also references a partnership with the online-learning platform Coursera on cosmetic-science education.

Olay states that it does not test its products on animals, while acknowledging that some governments where it sells still mandate such testing; through P&G it cites involvement in Humane Society International's #BeCrueltyFree campaign. The brand offers paraben- and phthalate-free formulations and fragrance-free options, and says select products use "100% recyclable box and tray" packaging.

In 2021, the company introduced the Olay Skin Promise, describing itself as "the first mass skin care brand in the US" to commit to zero skin retouching in advertising [4]. It has also set a #FaceTheSTEMGap goal to double the number of women in STEM by 2030, backed by scholarships awarded with partners including Coursera.

Olay products have received recurring beauty-press recognition. Olay Super Cream with Broad Spectrum SPF 30 won the 2025 Allure Best of Beauty award for Best Moisturizer with SPF [10]. Earlier, the Regenerist Daily Regenerating Serum took an Allure Best of Beauty "Anti-Aging Reader's Choice" award in 2011, and People magazine named Olay Regenerist a "Best Moisturizer of all Time." Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar has fronted Olay campaigns, including for the Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream.

Olay is an active, global brand. P&G markets it in more than 80 countries through a multi-channel presence that includes a direct e-commerce site, and the brand maintained ongoing campaigns and product awards into 2024 and 2025. Its most recent recorded milestone in the available sources is the September 2025 Allure award for Olay Super Cream [10].