Still natural
Cha Shan Fang is currently one of the few soap manufacturers in Taiwan still using the old-fashioned hot process method. The company employs techniques passed down from Grandpa's Meishengtang days, a process that includes 10 steps and takes seven to 10 days to complete.
The first step is the most important and the most difficult. Lin adds coconut oil, olive oil, water, and soda ash to a pot in a precise ratio, then brings the mixture to a boil at 100° Celsius. "It's like making rice porridge," says Lin. "You have to stir it constantly, add some more, then bring it back to a boil. You've got to monitor it continuously for two to three days, adjusting the weightings of the ingredients and the boiling time to account for the weather and humidity. Humid winter days, for example, mean more boiling time." Lin says that his uncles, who are very experienced at the job, handle this step, known as saponification, which combines the oil, water, and soda ash into a soap base. The next step involves extracting the excess soda to produce a pH-neutral soap that's gentle on the skin.
"Everyone used hot processing 40 or 50 years ago," says Lin. "But no one does anymore because it takes too long and costs too much." To the best of his knowledge, Ivory is the only one of the few hot process soaps still made from which the excess base is extracted. This extraction step is what most differentiates Cha Shan Fang's product from the cold-process handmade soaps on the market, like l'Occitane and Yuan. Cold-process soaps combine sodium hydroxide, oil, and water, then heat the mixture to about 50°C, stirring until it congeals. The resulting soap then has to sit for a month and a half before coming to market to allow the sodium hydroxide to evaporate. But the sodium hydroxide evaporates only from the surface of the soap, leaving a slightly alkaline interior that can damage the skin.
Most brands also incorporate ingredients derived from petrochemicals. Frequent use of the harsh soaps that result can produce the dry, cracked hands characteristic of housewives' eczema and the itching red bumps of atopic dermatitis all over the body.
"Grandpa liked to say that soapmaking should be an ethical business," says Lin. "I want to live up to that ideal." He says that Cha Shan Fang doesn't add scents or essential oils to its soaps to make them more fragrant or visually appealing; they add only natural ingredients. The current list of additives to their dozen-odd soaps includes things like tealeaves, herbs, medicinal herbs, and fruit extracts.
The company's development process is for Lin to keep testing until he finds the most appropriate ratio of additional ingredients to soap base. Additives like tangerines are problematic: the fruit loses its vitamin C when dried, but has too much moisture when fresh, which makes soap made with it difficult to preserve and prone to molding. Since adding preservatives violates Lin's soapmaking ethos, he had to work out ratios of skin to flesh for each tangerine variety. He ran dozens of tests before finally getting it just right.
Cha Shan Fang now has six locations around Taiwan, including shops in Taipei, Yilan, and Danshui, in addition to its flagship store in Sanxia. Lin disagrees with the notion that his company's expansion has been slow. He says it might have expanded and grown its profits more rapidly through franchising, but thinks franchising could well have damaged the brand. He argues that training his employees himself and keeping the brand solidly grounded is the key to long-term viability.
Ordinary folks wonder how Cha Shan Fang's prices can be lower than competitors' given its soaps' labor-intensive manufacturing process and natural ingredients. Lin says the reason is that they keep their margins low.