Persimmon Soap

A quiet Japanese bar for the odour that showering never settled.

After about 40, the oil your skin has always made starts reacting with the air. That reaction produces a compound called 2-nonenal, the same kind of reaction that turns cooking oil rancid or metal to rust. It isn't sweat. It isn't germs. And soap and water can't break it down, because it isn't that kind of thing.

Persimmon tannin binds to the molecule and makes it too heavy to lift off your skin and reach a nose. The odour stops travelling at the source.

REAL PERSIMMON, NOT A PERSIMMON SCENT

A lot of what gets sold as persimmon soap is persimmon-scented. The fruit shows up in the name and on the front of the box, then disappears into the word "fragrance" on the back.

Ours is Diospyros Kaki Fruit Extract, listed by name on the carton, in order, alongside everything else in the bar. You can read the whole list below and check it against the box when it arrives.

WHERE TO USE IT

Start with the places your oil glands are densest, which is not your armpits.

The nape of your neck, the densest of the four. Lift your hair.

Behind your ears, a small area that gets almost universally skipped.

Your upper back, which is the reason this is a bar and not a stick.

Your upper chest, which sits under a collar and is how it gets onto fabric.

Then everywhere else, as normal.

HOW TO USE IT

Wet your skin and work the bar into a lather. Massage it over the four areas above, leave it on for 30 seconds to a minute, then rinse thoroughly with warm water. Once a day is enough.

Let the bar dry between uses. Glycerin soap softens if it sits in water.

WHAT'S IN IT

Persimmon Fruit Extract, which binds the odour compound at the source

Coconut Oil, which lifts the skin oil that carries it

Shea Butter, which replaces what washing takes away

Olive Oil, which softens the wash on drier, mature skin

Damask Rose, which soothes, and is the only scent in the bar

Glycerin, which draws water toward skin rather than away from it

Full list: Glycerin, Sorbitol, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Lauramidopropyl Betaine, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Diospyros Kaki Fruit Extract, Rosa Damascena Flower Extract, Decanal, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil, Tocopherol, Water (Aqua), Sodium Hydroxide.

No parabens. No sulfates. No aluminium salts. No triclosan. No synthetic dye. No heavy fragrance. Not tested on animals.

THE SEVEN-DAY TEST

The hard part of this problem is that you can't check it yourself. Your own nose stopped noticing your own scent years ago. So use something that doesn't.

Put a fresh white pillowcase on tonight. In the morning, before you shower, bring it to your face and write down one word for what's there. Swap your soap for this one and change nothing else for seven days. On day eight, fresh pillowcase, same check, same time of morning.

If the word didn't change, email us and keep the soap.

For external use only. Keep out of reach of children. Discontinue and rinse thoroughly if redness or irritation occurs. Avoid application on damaged skin. If body odour changes suddenly or persists despite washing, please speak to a clinician.

Glycerin, Sorbitol, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Lauramidopropyl Betaine, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Diospyros Kaki Fruit Extract, Rosa Damascena Flower Extract, Decanal, Rosa Damascena Flower Oil, Tocopherol, Water (Aqua), Sodium Hydroxide.

WHAT EACH ONE DOES

Diospyros Kaki Fruit Extract — Persimmon. The tannins bind to the nonenal molecule and make it too heavy to lift off skin. This is the ingredient the bar was built around.

Glycerin — The base of a clear bar, and a humectant. It draws water toward your skin rather than away from it.

Sorbitol — Works with the glycerin to keep the bar clear and stop the wash feeling squeaky.

Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil — Does the actual cleaning. It loosens the oil sitting in your pores so the water can carry it away.

Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter — Skin after 40 is already drier than it was. Shea replaces some of what the cleaning removes, so the bar doesn't leave you tight.

Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil — Softens the wash. Keeps the bar behaving like a cleansing bar rather than a deodorant soap.

Lauramidopropyl Betaine — A mild surfactant, here to lower the harshness of the cleaning rather than raise it. It's the reason the bar foams without stripping.

Rosa Damascena Flower Extract and Oil — Damask rose. Soothing, and the only scent in the bar. A trace amount, so it reads as clean rather than as perfume.

Tocopherol — Vitamin E. An antioxidant that stops the oils in the bar going off.

Decanal — A trace amount, used for the fresh top note.

Water (Aqua) and Sodium Hydroxide — Water and the agent that turns the oils into soap. None of it stays unreacted in a finished bar.

NOT IN IT

No parabens. No sulfates. No aluminium salts. No triclosan. No synthetic dye. No heavy fragrance. Not tested on animals.

3.5 oz / 100 g per bar. For external use only. Discontinue and rinse thoroughly if redness or irritation occurs.

Your skin has always made oil. After about 40 that oil changes, and it starts reacting with the air around it.

The reaction produces a compound called 2-nonenal. It's the same kind of reaction that turns cooking oil rancid or metal to rust, and it happens whether you showered this morning or not.

That's why nothing on the bathroom shelf worked. Antiperspirants block sweat, and this doesn't come out in sweat. Antibacterial washes kill germs, and there are no germs involved. Body sprays put scent on top, and two smells don't cancel out. More showers wash off more, but never all of it, and what's left is enough.

Persimmon tannin works differently. It binds to the nonenal molecule and makes it too heavy to lift off your skin and reach a nose. The odour stops travelling at the source.

Because it's a bar, you can reach the places this actually comes from. Not your armpits, which make sweat, but the nape of your neck, behind your ears, your upper chest and your upper back, where your oil glands are densest.

BENEFITS

Works on the compound, not on germs. Built for what's actually causing it, rather than for ordinary sweat odour.

Reaches where sticks and sprays can't. A bar goes on your neck, your ears, your chest and your back. A stick doesn't.

Doesn't mask. No heavy fragrance layered over the top. The only scent is a trace of damask rose.

Gentle on mature skin. Shea butter, olive oil and glycerin in the base, so it cleans without leaving you tight.

Replaces the stack. One step instead of the clinical stick, the acid pads, the whole-body cream and the antibacterial wash.

Nothing hidden. Thirteen ingredients, all listed by name on the box and on this page.

60 days, risk free. If it doesn't settle the question, email us and we'll refund you without asking for the product back.

yes , but we'd rather you find out than take our word for it.

Here's what's behind it. The compound was identified by Japanese researchers in 2001, who found it in people aged 40 and over and traced it back to skin oil reacting with air. Persimmon tannin binding odour molecules has been measured in the lab, and a four-week study on twenty men found a soap containing persimmon polyphenols significantly reduced the amount coming off the body.

Put a fresh pillowcase on tonight and write down one word for how it smells in the morning. Swap your soap for ours and change nothing else for a week. On day eight, same test, same time of morning. Most people know by then.

If the word didn't change, email us