World

The Spritzer Of Youth?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 12, 1999 / 3:24 PM EDT / CBS

ThereÂ's some new bad news about middle age, reports CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen. Chemical changes apparently make people's bodies smell worse as they grow older.

The news comes from the Japanese, who are turning bad odor into big profits. A TV ad for odor-absorbing underwear promises to soak up middle-age smell even after its hundredth wash.

Indeed, modern science cannot restore youth but it may have come up with the next best thing Â– a product that smells like youth.

Shoji Nakamura, the chief perfumer at cosmetic company Shiseido, can distinguish 2,000 scents. He sniffed out a whole new product line.

Â"Too much body odor is not polite in advanced countries,Â" says Nakamura.

Young-smelling bath powder, body lotion, shampoo and air-freshener are coming next to shelves in Japan,

Nakamura, with his nose that knows, waxes poetic about how middle-aged people smell. Â"Greasy,Â" he says, Â"with a grassy nuance.Â"

But take heart, just ahead is the brave, new, nicer smelling world, something Japanese companies hope no self-respecting middle-aged person will dare turn up his nose at.