MegaBrands · Soaps and bathing bars

Lux: How a Century of Stars Made India’s Benchmark Beauty Soap

Lux, selected as the Mega Brand for Soaps and bathing bars by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC, celebrated its centenary in 2024. In India it has carried the faces of film stars from Leela Chitnis to Rashmika Mandanna, and its marketer, Hindustan Unilever, reaches more than 9 million outlets.

By WCRC Leaders Editorial · Published October 2026 · 8 min read

At a glance

Lux is the beauty soap and bodywash brand of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in India and of Unilever worldwide. Launched in the mid-1920s, it marked its centenary in 2024 and is sold in more than 100 countries. In India its advertising has been led by film stars for generations, beginning with Leela Chitnis, and Rashmika Mandanna joined that line in May 2026. HUL is led by Chairman Nitin Paranjpe and CEO and Managing Director Priya Nair. Lux is the Mega Brand for Soaps and bathing bars in WCRC MegaBrands.

Lux has spent a hundred years selling a simple idea: that an everyday bar of soap can carry a touch of stardom. HUL describes Lux as a beauty bar “with a 100-year history of glamour.” In India, that promise has been made by one generation of film stars after another.

The brand reached India early. Trade accounts date its official Indian launch to 1929. In time, Lux replaced Hollywood faces in its Indian advertising with Indian actresses, beginning with Leela Chitnis. The idea it set in motion then is still at work today.

WCRC MegaBrands covers 501 categories in India and selects one benchmark brand in each. It looks at brands through five pillars: Brand Positioning & Recall; Consumer Trust & Sentiment; Product, Innovation & Delivery; Sustainability, Governance & ESG; and Digital & Financial Soundness. Lux has been selected as the Mega Brand for Soaps and bathing bars by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting). Here is how Lux’s record lines up with each pillar.

Pillar 1: How Lux Made Stardom Its Signature

Brand Positioning & Recall · weighted 28% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Lux is easy to picture, and the reason is a famous face. Leela Chitnis was the first Indian film star to endorse Lux, in a campaign one trade account dates to 1941. The brand has kept that link with cinema ever since.

The roll call reads like a short history of Hindi film. Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman and Saira Banu came in the early decades. Hema Malini, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla followed. Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt carried the brand into the new century. For the brand’s 75th anniversary, Shah Rukh Khan appeared alongside a group of its leading ladies in a Lux television film.

The format has changed with the times while the idea has stayed constant. In 2021, the “Chand Sa Roshan Chehra” series paired Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli in a film built on the glow of the moon, with region-specific songs in languages including Bengali, Kannada and Tamil. In 2024, Suhana Khan became a face of Lux bodywash for the centenary. In May 2026, Lux announced Rashmika Mandanna as its newest brand ambassador.

Lux also owns a second memory cue: fragrance. In its 2024-25 annual report, HUL describes the benefit space Lux occupies in its skin cleansing portfolio in a single word, “Fragrance”. Séverine Vauleon, then Global Brand Vice-President of Lux, put it plainly at the centenary in 2024: “For a century, Lux has redefined indulgence with its exquisite fragrances, challenging conventional beauty standards and empowering women worldwide.”

Pillar 2: Why Generations of Indian Families Trust Lux

Consumer Trust & Sentiment · weighted 26% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Trust in a soap is earned in the bathroom, day after day, and Lux has had a very long time to earn it. The brand celebrated its centenary in 2024, and its Indian story stretches across most of that century. A former advertising creative director who worked on the brand has said that Lux typically enters a household because the mother buys it.

Lux has worked to prove that its fragrance lasts. For its 2024 “Still There” campaign, run globally, the brand tracked down vintage soaps, some dating back to 1938, after more than 500 hours of searching. Perfumers who assessed the old bars found that their fragrances had lasted. “By exploring our archival soaps and demonstrating their enduring fragrance, we pay homage to a century of excellence,” Ms Vauleon said, as Global Vice President, Lux Bath and Body, Unilever.

The product itself has been tested with Indian users. In 2024-25, when HUL introduced a new soap-bar technology that it used to relaunch Lux, it reported that “the efficacy and benefits of the new soap bar’s formulation has been tested with thousands of Indian consumers.”

Lux has also widened what it stands for. Unilever states the brand’s purpose as “empowering women to find strength in their beauty and rise above the judgements they face.” In India, a 2021 film with Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan showed her choosing to keep doing what she loves during pregnancy, despite the limits others place on pregnant women. “Women are often bombarded with judgements that define how they should live, look or behave,” Ms Vauleon said at the time.

Pillar 3: The Science and Supply Behind Every Lux Bar

Product, Innovation & Delivery · weighted 20% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Lux has kept its range current through steady reinvention. In 2024-25, HUL relaunched Lux with what it describes as “a superior, patented technology called ‘Stratos’”. The company calls Stratos “a revolutionary technology that bolsters our product superiority.” In the same year, Lux was relaunched “with a sharper proposition of ‘Flawless glow’” and extended into new formats and variants such as Sandal. In 2025-26, HUL listed “Lux’s vitamin formats” among its innovations in personal care.

Bodywash is the brand’s second front. In 2023, Rakul Preet Singh became the face of the new Essence of Himalayas exfoliating range. HUL then activated the premium Essence of Himalayas bodywash range on e-commerce and quick commerce in 2024-25. By 2025-26, HUL reported that in skin cleansing “Bodywash became the fastest growing format, with Lux leading market development”. In the June quarter of 2026, “Lux launched a refreshed Bodywash proposition that combines superior skincare benefits with premium packaging.”

Getting a bar of soap to every corner of India takes a vast network, and Lux rides on HUL’s. HUL says it reaches more than 9 million outlets across the country (FY2025-26). In rural India, HUL reports that Lux is building salience through rural digital activations, while in modern trade it names Lux among the brands leading growth, “with bodywash and premium bars consistently delivering strong performance.”

Pillar 4: Lux, a Beauty Brand With a Social Voice

Sustainability, Governance & ESG · weighted 16% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

Lux has used its place in a private daily routine to raise public issues. In May 2019, in India, it created the “Soap with a Lump”: a bar with a small lump that stays as the soap wears down, prompting women to check their breasts while bathing. The soap was introduced at an Indian Cancer Society breast cancer screening camp in Vasai, Maharashtra. Samir Singh, then Executive Vice-President, Global Skin Cleansing, Unilever, explained the thinking: “The moment of the shower is a quiet, private and reflective moment.”

In another Indian campaign, called “The End”, Lux worked with a streaming platform to place messages on consent and respect inside classic Indian films, the kind of films that often showed a woman’s refusal being disregarded. Globally, Lux has committed to reaching 50 million women by 2030 through communications, activations and partnerships.

The brand’s environmental work starts with what goes into the bar. Unilever says that since December 2023, Lux soap and bodywash products have used 100% NDPE-sourced palm oil (no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation). In India, HUL says the Stratos technology “enables us to transition to more responsible sourcing and reduced carbon footprint.”

Lux is also backed by the governance of a listed company. HUL’s board includes independent directors alongside its executive leadership, and the brand sits within HUL’s Personal Care business, led by Executive Director Vipul Mathur.

Pillar 5: Lux’s Growth in a Changing Market

Digital & Financial Soundness · weighted 10% in the MegaBrands framework · How MegaBrands measures this

HUL does not publish sales for Lux as a single brand, so the clearest financial signals come from the company and its skin cleansing business. HUL reported turnover of Rs 63,763 crore for FY2025-26, up 5% (figures exclude ice cream). In the March 2026 quarter, HUL said skin cleansing “delivered high-single digit growth, driven by outperformance” in Lux and one other brand. In the June 2026 quarter, it reported that premium bars led skin cleansing with double-digit, volume-led growth.

Lux is also learning to win where shoppers now discover brands. In 2024-25, HUL pushed its premium Essence of Himalayas bodywash through e-commerce and quick commerce. In April 2026, Lux launched “My Algorithm”, a campaign rolled out in India and six other markets that uses ads designed to act as “algorithm cleansers”, sending fresh signals to the social media feeds women see every day.

Priya Nair, HUL’s CEO and Managing Director, described the company’s priority in its FY2025-26 results: “We are focussed on strengthening our consumer franchise while delivering sustainable and competitive growth.”

The Lux Benchmark

Every category has leaders. A MegaBrand is the brand its category is measured against. Lux holds that place in the Soaps and bathing bars category in India because its record is strong on every pillar at once. It is widely recognised, trusted across generations, renewed through new technology and formats, willing to speak on issues that matter to women, and backed by the reach and financial strength of HUL.

Above all, Lux shows that a brand can stay young for a hundred years. It has done so by keeping one promise, a little glamour in an everyday ritual, and by finding a new face, a new fragrance or a new format for each generation of Indian consumers.

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About Lux

Lux is a beauty soap and bodywash brand owned by Unilever and marketed in India by Hindustan Unilever Limited, headquartered in Mumbai. Launched in the mid-1920s, it celebrated its centenary in 2024 and is sold in more than 100 countries. In India, its advertising has featured film stars for generations, and HUL’s distribution network reaches more than 9 million outlets. Lux has been selected as the Mega Brand for Soaps and bathing bars by the Business Intelligence Unit of WCRC (World Centre for Research and Consulting).