Our Story

UNODOR began with a simple, personal question.

It all started three years ago with my wife.

My wife from Southeast Asia had a distinctive body odor, so she showered several times a day.

While this is very rare among Koreans, it was something I was very familiar with, having lived in Singapore for a long time.

I found a research paper on HHS Public Access—a database made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—that stated, “Due to differences in DNA structure, body odor varies by country, and East Asians such as Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese have the least body odor,” and showed it to my wife.

“It’s not because you’re unclean or anything to be ashamed of. It’s just because our DNA is different,” I reassured her, but perhaps because she is a woman, she felt embarrassed and kept asking me if she smelled.

She tried several commercially available deodorants but wasn’t very satisfied with any of them.

When I lived in Singapore, I used to buy deodorants from the world’s best-selling brands and use them on days when I expected to spend a lot of time outdoors and sweat heavily. But the sweat odor remained, and I remember thinking, 'If deodorant can’t solve the problem of sweat odor, why am I even paying money to use it?'

Suddenly, my older sister came to mind.

My sister has been running a highly successful OEM and ODM business for cosmetics and fragrance products for over 10 years. Despite majoring in fashion design, she taught herself chemistry and perfumery, and as the CEO of a well-known company in the industry, she’s renowned for her unparalleled quality.

I told her my wife had a body odor problem and that she’d tried various deodorants without success, and asked if there was a solution.

“Hmm… I’ll see what I can do.”

A week later, she handed me a bottle of deodorant spray, saying she’d made a batch to test.

My wife started using it, and surprisingly, her body odor completely disappeared after just a few days!

It really vanished completely, as if it had never been there in the first place!

I was so shocked that I asked my sister what on earth she had done.

"Body odor isn't just a smell coming from your body or sweat. It's actually produced when microorganisms on your skin break down sweat. That's why most products on the market either use aluminum compounds to completely block sweat glands so sweat can't come out, use antibacterial agents to kill all the microorganisms, or mask body odor with strong fragrances. But sweat is something our bodies produce naturally. Does it really make sense to block it? In fact, they can’t even block it perfectly, so sweat still seeps through. That’s why the odor persists. And while we only need to kill the harmful bacteria, those antibacterial agents indiscriminately kill beneficial bacteria too, which is bad for the skin. Using strong fragrances also increases the risk of allergies. I designed this product to not block the sweat glands, but to disrupt the signaling system between sweat and bacteria, making it nearly impossible for body odor to develop in the first place. And for any odor that does seep through, I’ve created a way to trap it within its molecular structure. Since my family will be using this, I had to make it as healthy as possible.”

But I had my own world, too.

I was in the midst of establishing myself in the SaaS industry, commanding a pretty decent salary, and my outstanding performance had earned me praise from many senior colleagues, who would say, “Hey, this kid’s got something special.”

So, this amazing deodorant has become a personal item used exclusively by our family.

Two years later, at the end of last year... the boss who had been mentoring me suddenly left the company.

I had worked right outside the delivery room with my MacBook and iPhone on the day my daughter was born, and I had worked nonstop without a single day off. Having lost my mentor, I immediately took a belated three-month maternity leave and began to ponder my future.

After taking just a few days off, that deodorant suddenly popped into my head.

I began my research.

For people in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, deodorant is a daily necessity.

I asked all my foreign acquaintances, but I rarely heard any feedback suggesting they were fully satisfied with existing deodorant products.

A few emerging brands that don’t use aluminum compounds were already experiencing explosive growth in the North American and European markets, but they relied on masking body odor with strong scents rather than solving the problem at its root.

Because Koreans tend to have relatively less body odor, Korean cosmetics companies have neglected deodorants as a product category. Consequently, even as K-Beauty sweeps the globe, K-Deodorants remain extremely rare.

'It seems that I’ve finally found the business item I’ve been looking for all this time.'

I had always wanted to start a business, but I held a firm belief that “you shouldn’t choose a business idea just because you’re good at it, enjoy it, or want to do it; you must choose something that solves a problem in the world, and you shouldn’t rush into it until you’ve found that problem.” Because of this, even I was genuinely curious about when I would actually start a business.

I acted quickly.

I conceived a comprehensive body odor solution brand and, just four days later, completed a business plan and requested a meeting with my older sister.

I said, “If you make the product, I’ll sell it in overseas markets,” and she replied, “There’s no reason not to do this.”

Together, we combined her expertise in formulation with my experience in global business and technology to create UNODOR.

UNODOR is more than a deodorant.
It is a microbiome-based body odor solution brand—designed not to cover up odor, but to address it at its source.

From underarm odor to foot, oral, and other body odors,
our mission is simple:

To redefine odor care by eliminating body odor safely and sustainably, so people can feel confident in every moment of their lives.