Olay

About Olay

Olay was created in South Africa in 1952 by Graham Wulff, a former Unilever chemist from Durban. It was first sold as Oil of Olay, a name chosen as a play on lanolin, one of its key ingredients. Procter & Gamble acquired the brand in 1985 through its purchase of Richardson-Vicks, which owned Olay at the time. Today Olay is mainly a face care brand – moisturisers, serums (including retinol and firming products), eye creams and cleansers.

The Olay formula pattern

All 32 Olay products we list – face creams, serums and eye creams – contain GLYCERIN (32). DISODIUM EDTA (28), NIACINAMIDE (25) and DIMETHICONE (23) follow, so the vitamin B3 compound NIACINAMIDE is one of the brand's most consistent features.

Silicones appear in 24 formulas (75%), fragrance in 15 (47%) and parabens in 3 (9%). None contains denatured alcohol (ALCOHOL DENAT.).

Serums, creams and parabens

Moisturisers, retinol serums and eye creams are built for different jobs, so compare a serum with other serums. The three paraben-containing items are easy to pick out by names ending in -PARABEN, e.g. METHYLPARABEN or PROPYLPARABEN; silicones end in -CONE or -SILOXANE.