Our Story

September 2026

A Letter to You

from Catherine, founder of Kaori

I'm 74 years old. I grew up on a farm in Vermont where nobody talked about skincare. You washed up, got dressed, and went back to work. That was life.

But as I got older, I started caring about how I presented myself. Not for anyone else. For me. Because when you grow up without that, you learn to appreciate it. I found my routine, found my products, and for twenty years, everything worked just fine.

Then I turned 50. And the same products I had trusted for decades just stopped doing their job. There was this smell that came out of nowhere. I couldn't place it, couldn't scrub it off, couldn't cover it up. I switched brands, spent money on things I'd never heard of, showered until my skin was raw. Nothing changed.

I didn't tell anyone. I just quietly started pulling away. I stopped having people over. I kept hugs short. I found reasons not to go out. And the whole time, I thought it was just me. That my body was breaking down and this is what getting old looks like.

I didn't know what was happening to me. I just knew I didn't feel like myself anymore.

A Letter to You

It took me years to find out what was actually going on. And when I did, I was angry that nobody had told me sooner.

Your skin chemistry changes as you age. Around middle age, your body starts producing a compound called nonenal. It sits on your skin and causes a subtle, lingering odor that regular soap cannot break down. It doesn't matter how often you shower. It doesn't matter how expensive your products are. They simply aren't formulated for it. They were made for a younger body that doesn't produce nonenal yet.

That's why nothing I tried ever worked. There was nothing wrong with me. I just didn't have the right product. And neither does anyone else walking down the soap aisle at the grocery store.

There was nothing wrong with me. I just didn't know what my body actually needed.

What I Found in Japan

My husband and I have traveled to Japan many times since our honeymoon. On one of those trips, well after the problem had started, I walked into a drugstore and saw persimmon soaps on every shelf. Everywhere. I asked the woman at the counter about it, and she explained it to me like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Because in Japan, it is. Everyone there knows about nonenal. They have a word for it: kareishū (加齢臭). No shame, no confusion. Just a fact of getting older, and a simple, natural answer that has been around for generations. Persimmon tannins break down nonenal at the source. Not by covering it up with fragrance. By actually removing it.

I tried it that same evening. And for the first time in years, I felt clean. Actually clean. Not perfume-clean. Not "I hope this works" clean. Just clean.

But what stayed with me even more was how differently people there live with aging. They don't hide from it. When something changes, they address it and keep going. Older people in Japan are visible, active, present. Nobody made me feel like I should be ashamed. And I realized that's what I'd been missing back home. Not just the soap. The permission to simply deal with it and move on.

There was nothing wrong with me. I just didn't know what my body actually needed.

Why Kaori

I didn't set out to start a company. I brought the products home for myself, and then for friends, and then for their friends. And at some point, my grandson looked at me and said: "Grandma, we should make this available to everyone."

So that's what we did. Every Kaori product uses the same Japanese persimmon formulations that have been trusted there for decades. Not a Western version of it. Not something that smells nice for two hours and then fades. The real thing, made with real ingredients, sourced from people who have been doing this their whole lives.

I test every product on my own skin. Because I'm not a brand. I'm a 74-year-old woman who had this problem, who spent years feeling lost because of it, and who refuses to sell you something that I haven't used and trusted myself. When I say it works, I mean it works on me. Today. This morning.

There was nothing wrong with me. I just didn't know what my body actually needed.
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You deserve to hold people close without thinking twice. You deserve a product made by someone who actually understands what you're going through. And you deserve to feel like yourself again. Not younger. Just yourself.

With love, Catherine

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