Rexona

Rexona is a personal-care brand best known for antiperspirants and deodorants, created in Australia in 1908 [2]. It has been owned by Unilever since around 1930, when Lever Brothers, one of the companies that would soon form Unilever, bought it to expand the brand beyond Australia [2][3]. Today it is sold worldwide, and under several different names depending on the market: Sure in the United Kingdom, Ireland and India; Degree in the United States and Canada; Rexena in Japan and South Korea; and Shield in South Africa.

Because it operates as a Unilever brand rather than an independent company, Rexona's history is closely tied to that of its parent. It remains commercially active across body and deodorant categories, with recent product innovation and sports sponsorships, but it is no longer an independent business.

Rexona was created in 1908 in Australia by Alice Sheffer, described by Unilever as an Australian physician and by Wikipedia as the wife of Samuel Fuller, who ran the Sheldon Drug Company [3]. The original Rexona product was a personal-care ointment, which according to Unilever quickly became the founding firm's top-selling product.

The brand's own Swedish "about" page tells the story differently, saying that "in the 1960s the world met Rexona antiperspirants," which later became Sure in the United Kingdom [1]. That date refers to the launch of the antiperspirant line and its international rollout rather than the company's founding: independent sources place the founding in 1908, while Unilever describes Finland as the first market for the antiperspirants in the 1960s, followed by the rest of the world in the 1980s [2].

Around 1930, Lever Brothers acquired Rexona; the company became Unilever after merging with the Dutch firm Margarine Unie [2]. Unilever has owned the brand ever since and used it as the basis for a family of regionally named deodorant brands. Within Unilever, Rexona sits alongside personal-care and beauty siblings such as Dove, Vaseline, Lux, TRESemmé, Clear, St. Ives and Dermalogica.

The regional naming reflects local market history. In India, for example, Hindustan Unilever already used Rexona as a soap brand, so the deodorant was sold under the Sure name instead when it launched there in 1947.

Rexona sells antiperspirant deodorants in a range of formats, including aerosols, pumps, roll-ons, sticks and creams. Manufacturing is split across regions: according to Wikipedia, aerosol sprays are made in Australia while roll-ons and other formats are produced in the Philippines [2].

The brand's signature technology is MotionSense, which it describes as a patented system exclusive to Rexona. The company explains that microcapsules sit on the surface of the skin and burst as the body moves, releasing bursts of freshness in response to friction under the arm. Rexona markets products offering up to 48 hours of sweat and odour protection, with some advanced formulations claiming up to 72 hours [4]. One example promoted on its Swedish site, Rexona Invisible On Black + White Clothes, is described by the company as giving 48-hour protection without leaving marks on clothing [1]. More recently the brand has extended into a "whole body" deodorant line reaching beyond underarm care.

Rexona positions itself around the idea of movement. In campaign materials it states that its purpose is to inspire people to move more in their own way, and that it wants to challenge narrow ideas of what "an acceptable mover" looks like in order to make movement inclusive [5]. Its #MoveYourWay campaign is framed as an effort to break down barriers and make sport accessible to a wider range of people, and a related "Movement for Movement" project launched an app addressing mobility challenges for disabled people in Indonesia. The brand's long-standing tagline is "It won't let you down".

In a 2022 "Behind the brand" feature, Unilever described Rexona as "the world's No.1 antiperspirant" and recounted its 1908 Australian origin and later global expansion [3]. As this account is published by the brand's owner, the No.1 description is Unilever's own claim rather than an independent assessment. In 2024, the trade publication Cosmetics & Toiletries covered Rexona's work on 72-hour deodorant protection technology [7].

The brand has also invested heavily in sports sponsorship. Its associations have included Formula One teams Lotus (2012–2014) and Williams (2015–2019), English football clubs such as Southampton, Chelsea, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester City, La Liga in several regions, and partnerships around the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 and 2027 Women's World Cups.

Rexona is an acquired brand rather than an independent company: it has been part of Unilever since around 1930. Commercially it remains highly active worldwide, sold under Rexona and its regional aliases, with continuing product development such as the 72-hour protection and whole-body deodorant lines and sponsorship activity extending to the 2026 FIFA World Cup.