Gosho™ Persimmon Soap

A Japanese-style persimmon bar for the odor regular soap can't wash away.

• Made with Japanese persimmon fruit extract and green tea, the pairing Japan has trusted against odor for generations
• A light citrus and green-tea scent that doesn't linger or fight your perfume
• Creamy glycerin lather with shea and olive oil that leaves mature skin soft, not tight
• One 100 g bar with a free mesh lather bag; no sulfates, parabens or aluminum

The quiet change. Somewhere after forty, skin begins to make a compound called 2-nonenal. Japanese researchers identified it in 2001. It is an oxidized skin oil, not sweat, so it doesn't rinse off the way sweat does, and it settles into collars, scarves and pillowcases. Most people can't smell it on themselves. A daughter, a grandchild or a husband usually notices first.

Why washing more didn't help. Ordinary soap is built for sweat and dirt. Perfume covers the smell for an hour and then sits on top of it. Neither deals with the oil.

Why persimmon. In Japan, tannin pressed from unripe persimmons has been used since the thirteenth century to keep paper, cloth and wood fresh, and persimmon soap is a drugstore staple for the odor of age. Gosho is made with persimmon fruit extract and green tea in a creamy, low-fragrance glycerin base, so it cleans where the odor forms without stripping older skin.

How to use it. Lather it in the mesh bag on the neck, behind the ears, the chest and the upper back. Leave the lather for thirty seconds to a minute, then rinse with warm water. Use it every day and give it two weeks. Keep the bar on a dry dish between showers so it lasts.

What's in it. Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) fruit extract and green tea leaf extract in a glycerin base with coconut oil, shea butter, olive oil and vitamin E. No sulfates, parabens or aluminum. Full ingredient list: Glycerin, Sorbitol, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Lauramidopropyl Betaine, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Decenal, Diospyros Kaki Fruit Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Oil, Tocopherol, Aqua, Sodium Hydroxide.

What's in the box. One 100 g bar and a mesh lather bag. Lather in the bag, then hang it to dry. A glycerin bar left sitting in water goes fast, so rest it on a dry dish.

The name. Gosho means "imperial palace". It is also the name of the Nara persimmon that was sent as tribute to the shoguns for four centuries. We named the bar for the fruit's history. We are not claiming a shogun used it, only that you deserve the same fruit they did.

Our promise. Use it for up to 90 days. If you don't feel fresher, write to us and we refund the order.

For external use only. Keep away from children. Discontinue use if irritation occurs. Made in China. Sold by The Health Bureau.