[Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

Classic is the best

The Shanghai Bee & Flower sandalwood soap has stayed unchanged for almost 90 years, from its packaging to the soap

itself, according to Lin Ling, deputy marketing chief of the soap maker, who declares that, "It is not that we don't want to change it, it can't be changed. It is classic!"

Lin said the company tried to replace the paper wrapper with paperboard, and print tapes and logo on the paper in the 1990s, but market feedback was negative because customers were only loyal to the classic version.

"We made the changes in order to simplify the packaging procedure, in which seven packing processes are all done by hand, including pasting the paper wrapper, printing instructions in four languages, trademark, anti-piracy logo, etc," says Lin.

The unique fragrance of the Bee & Flower sandalwood soap comes from a mixture of more than 60 essences, and the most important are up to 20 kinds of pure natural extracts. These natural essences can only be purchased once a year. Other materials are also screened closely.

The most important ingredient is the sandalwood essential oil, which can only be purchased in Jiuzhaigou of Sichuan province.

"For every ton of soap, 17 kilogram of spice are added. That’s the formula of our sandalwood soap," says Lin.