About Pears
Pears is the world's oldest continuously existing brand and the first mass-market translucent soap, created by Andrew Pears in London in 1807. According to Unilever records, Pears was the world's first registered trademark, making it a truly historic brand with over 200 years of heritage. Andrew Pears, born around 1770 in Cornwall, moved to London and established a barber's shop in Soho. Observing that wealthy clients were damaging their skin with harsh soaps containing arsenic or lead, he experimented with purification methods and created a gentle soap based on glycerine and natural products. The resulting transparent amber-coloured soap with its distinctive English garden fragrance became an instant sensation. The brand pioneered modern advertising under Thomas James Barratt, who married into the Pears family in 1865 and became known as "the Father of modern advertising." Actress Lillie Langtry became the first celebrity to endorse a commercial product for Pears in 1882, and the famous "Bubbles" advertisement using a Millais painting became one of history's most recognised ads. Acquired by Lever Brothers (now Unilever) in 1917, Pears was relaunched in the UK in 2016 with expanded products including hand wash and body wash. The original transparent soap remains beloved for its gentle, pure formula.



