Persimmon Soap Is the Biggest Scam Ever Sold to American Women Over 60

Former persimmon-soap sales manager exposes the industry's "Refill Playbook," and the 2-a-day habit that finally ended her mother's "old lady smell."

WARNING: If there's a bar of persimmon soap in your shower right now, read this before you buy another one.

These were Judy Brennan's first words when I sat down at her kitchen table:

The Thanksgiving That Changed Everything

Judy Brennan spent 11 years selling persimmon soap to women over 60.

She was very good at it.

Then, two Thanksgivings ago, she watched it fail the one woman she loved most. Her own mother.

Her mother was 90. She'd used that soap faithfully, twice a day, for two whole years.

At dinner, Judy's granddaughter leaned over and said, loud enough for the whole table: "Great-Grandma smells funny."

Judy's son got up and cracked the window. In November.

Nobody said a word to her about it. Families never do.

"I went home that night and couldn't sleep," Judy told me.

"I'd sold that bar to thousands of women just like my mother.

"And I knew exactly why it wasn't working."

"I'd always known."

She quit three weeks later.

When I sat down at her kitchen table, three boxes of persimmon soap were already waiting between us. She turned one over before I'd taken my coat off.

#1: It was never built to fix the smell.

"Soap washes your skin, and that's all it can ever do. But that smell isn't sitting on your skin. It's being made underneath it."

Here's what she means. And it doesn't matter which brand you bought. Even the real Japanese kind, with real persimmon in it, can only reach your skin.

As we get older, the body starts making an oil that goes stale fast, and it keeps making it from the inside, all day long, no matter how hard you scrub.

So you wash it off at 7. By 9, it's back.

Here's what your $20 bar actually reaches.

"We all knew it," Judy said. "You can't wash off something the body keeps making.

"So we never promised it would stop. We promised it would help.

"Read the box. Every word was chosen."

C

Verified customerUS

VerifiedSep 16, 2026

Both my wife and I have noticed absolutely no difference using this VERY expensive soap.

J

JamesUS

VerifiedJul 5, 2026

Did not help odor. As far as cleaning, seemed to work as well as any other soap, but the "old age" smell persisted.

Gransnet › Forums › Persimmon soap for old person smell

LonaWed 07-Oct-20

About 2 years ago I suffered exactly like you. Everything clean but i could smell it. I bought the soap, it didn't work but I persevered, no joy.

Add messageReportMessage poster

#2: The science they sell it on doesn't hold up.

"We built a whole category on one study from 2001. Nobody in the office ever asked if it held up."

So we checked.

What the research actually says

1

The "old people smell" compound the soap is sold to remove? A later skin study couldn't find it at all.Gallagher et al., British Journal of Dermatology, 2008

2

Older body odor isn't stronger. Scientists rated it less intense and less unpleasant than younger people's. It's not worse. It's different, and family notices different.Monell Chemical Senses Center · Mitro et al., PLoS ONE, 2012

3

We looked for a peer-reviewed trial showing persimmon soap works better than ordinary soap. We couldn't find one.Sixty & Beyond Consumer Watch search, Nov 2026

So what exactly are you paying $20 a bar to scrub off?

#3: The fading is the business.

"A bar that fixed it would be a one-time sale. A bar that fades is a customer for life."

One buyer said hers was "only good for about 10 minutes." So you buy another. And another.

Inside the company, Judy says, that had a name: the Refill Playbook.

And if you don't reorder fast enough? Some brands do it for you by charging your card anyway.

RT

Rachael T.AU

VerifiedNov 1, 2026

It appears as a 1 time purchase until you get to checkout , then in fine print it says you agree to a subscription, which I don't agree to ! And want any subscription cancelled immediately thank you

AS

Alicia S.US

VerifiedOct 11, 2026

Didn't subscribe for this product and it keeps sending me more and more

Trustpilot is full of reviews like these. It's called the automatic rebilling scam.

#4: Most of what you pay for is the box.

"Everybody buys the 'Japanese secret.' Turn the box over and look for the persimmon."

On one bestselling brand, the persimmon is listed only as "fruit extract."

And when one buyer asked where her "Japanese" soap came from, the company told her the truth. It's made in China.

Then there's the bar itself, which is often much smaller than the one in the ad.

C

CustomerUS

Aug 12, 2026

No persimmon in Their persimmon soap!

C

Verified customerUS

VerifiedSep 9, 2026

Buyer beware, their ad shows pictures of large bars of soap, so I paid the crazy high price. Then I received these tiny little bars. Absolute fraud and theft, also it's just plain soap that's heavily scented. Would not buy again.

#5: It can be rough on the skin it's meant to help.

"Skin over 60 is already thin and dry. Scrubbing it twice a day with a harsh bar isn't kindness."

C

Verified customerUS

VerifiedJul 9, 2026

I can’t see that it does anything but dry my skin. And I bought at least six bars. Thought I might be smelling persimmons… but nothing.. I’m disappointed.

C

Verified customerUS

VerifiedOct 2, 2026

this was my first order and was disappointed with the effect had on my skin my face became blotchy and a little rough on upper lip

#6: The shame was printed on purpose.

"Oh yeah, it'll definitely fix your old lady smell." 😂

"We tested the boxes. The label that embarrassed women sold the most."

Mumsnet › Forums › Old person smell?

CurlewKateTue 07-Oct-25

If any of you are in contact with Persimmon soap, do tell them that is a horrible and offensive strap line!

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#7: Then they went after your daughters.

"Half our ads weren't for you. They were for your kids. 'Buy Mom the soap. Don't say a word.'"

It works. Here's what grown children write online:

If a bar ever showed up in your shower that you didn't buy… now you know.

So what actually works?Grandma never bought this soap. She never smelled old.

"The answer was never in the shower," Judy said. "It was on Grandma's dinner table."

She counted it off on her fingers.

• Parsley on every plate. It wasn't there for looks. You ate it.
• A peppermint after supper, from the little dish by the door.
• Slippery elm bark in the cupboard, "for your insides."

Then she told me the one most of us have forgotten.

In the early 1950s, every drugstore in America sold green chlorophyll tablets for one job only: odor.

"Then it all quietly disappeared," Judy said. "Parsley turned into a garnish nobody ate, the tablets vanished from the shelves, and companies like mine stepped in and sold women a $20 bar of soap instead."

What Judy did nextShe quit, and built what she should've been selling.

So Judy did what no soap company ever would. She took those same four things, parsley, peppermint, slippery elm and chlorophyll, and put every one of them into a single soft, sugar-free strawberry heart. She called it Crave Candy.

Every dose is printed right on the label, so you know exactly what you're getting.

You take two. Every morning, with your coffee.

And while you get on with your day, they quietly go to work on the inside, right where the smell is made, so there's nothing to rub on your skin and no embarrassing label sitting in your bathroom for the grandkids to read.

Then the soap industry came after her

Word got around fast.

A former colleague called her the week she launched. "You'll never work in this business again," he said.

"Good," Judy told him.

Then a letter arrived from a lawyer, warning her to stop "disparaging" a category she'd spent 11 years building.

She keeps it on her fridge.

The first pouch went to her mother. Judy didn't tell anyone.

"At Easter my granddaughter climbed into her lap for the whole movie," she said. "Nobody touched the window."

"I'd rather lose a sale than do to one more woman what I did for 11 years."Judy Brennan

The hard questionsI asked Judy what you'd ask her.

Isn't this just another product sold to the same women?

"It's a product, yes. The difference is there's no subscription, ever.

"And if it doesn't work for you, you get every penny back, even if you've eaten every last heart."

Do I have to stop using my soap?

"No. Keep your regular soap for the outside. The hearts are for the inside."

How will I know it's working if I can't smell myself?

"After 65, more than half of us lose a big part of our sense of smell. So stop trying to smell yourself, and watch your family instead.

"You'll see it in the little things. The window stays shut, and the hug lasts a little longer."

Is it safe with my medicines?

"It's four plants, no hormones, no sugar. Take it two hours apart from other medicines, four from thyroid medicine, and show your pharmacist if you take a lot."

Reporter's note: Judy was blunt about the limits, too. The hearts won't make you smell like strawberries, they won't work overnight, and they don't replace your shower. "Give it the full 90 days," she said. "Grandma's table didn't work in a week either."

Your move

Stop paying them. Try what Judy gives her mother.

• Hug your family without wondering what they smell.
• Stop paying $20 a bar for "absolutely no difference."
• Tastes like candy, and works where soap can't reach.
• Never a subscription. Money back, even if every pouch is empty.

Try Judy's Hearts ›

Sixty & Beyond readers get a third pouch free with every two.

Still a small American company, growing fast on word of mouth from women who trust Judy.

They're counting on you to buy another bar this month. Don't.

Before I left, Judy asked me to pass on one thing.

If there's a box of that soap in your shower right now, go turn it over and look for the word "persimmon." Then decide who really deserves your money.

See what Judy gives her mother ›

Diane Mercer, Consumer Watch

11 CommentsSort by Top

You

Post

N

Nannan2

It whiffs of a marketing scheme by the Japanese company(and Amazon) to sell the very expensive persimmon soap to me!

LikeReplyGransnet

RA

r/Aging member

The persimmon soap has persimmon listed as the last ingredient. I bought the “real Japanese” stuff and it’s drop shipped from China. There is next to NIL persimmon in any of the brands.

LikeReplyReddit

Judy Brennan Featured in this story

Turn the box over, ladies. That's all I'm asking.

LikeReply

W

watermeadow

My granddaughter complained that she didn’t want to visit her Great Grandma because she smelt.

LikeReplyGransnet

TR

Trustpilot reviewer

I did not want automatic renewals and felt “Tricked” into signing up for this. I have requested my order be cancelled.

LikeReplyTrustpilot · 1★

S

Solonge

Persimmon soap is apparently the answer, it strips the fatty acids, naturally the soap is quite expensive and also pretty drying to your skin.

LikeReplyGransnet

S

Stillness

I was in a a cafe once with my granddaughter, then 8, and she snuggled up to me and said ‘why do all old people smell the same”. The lady sitting nearby burst out laughing and I was mortified.

LikeReplyGransnet

G

Granless

I already do what has been suggested but the odour penetrates through daily clean clothes.

LikeReplyGransnet

H

Hetty58

I predict a huge increase in Persimmon soap sales!

LikeReplyGransnet

RA

r/Aging member

I am not impressed with the persimmon soap at all. I shower twice a day and never wear my clothes a 2nd day.

LikeReplyReddit

G

Granmarderby10

there is always something to beat women about the head with isn’t there!

LikeReplyGransnet

P

Poppyred

I for one will not be buying into the Japanese soap nonsense.

LikeReplyGransnet

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