The soaps are meticulously packaged by hand including the signature Bee & Flower Sandalwood Soap and the newly-minted twin-pack facial soaps. [Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

A delicate process

All the basic materials go through nine stages, including kneading, refining, grinding, layering, printing, packing and so on.

The production process itself is quite delicate. Take the packaging for instance - it calls for traditional craftsmanship.

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The wrapping paper is ochre with floral prints. Two layers of paper tapes cross each other, and a golden medal sticker bears the same image: the logo of Bee & Flower sandalwood soap, which has remained unchanged for decades. In the era of quick repackaging and updating, this piece of soap preserves the old ways.

Even the wrapping paper is specially made. It has a lower density than average paper, so that the sandalwood soap scent can be smelt easily, and the paper can help the soap's fragrance mature as time goes by, says Lin.

Even subtler are some of the details: even the paste that glues the packaging together is ground corn paste, not glue. Not only is it more viscous, it’s also more environmentally friendly and safe, without hurting the packing workers' hands.

With its delicate materials and exquisite production, Bee & Flower sandalwood soap has won special titles again and again. The soap is exported to more than 40 countries and regions in the Europe, the US, Southeast Asia, etc.

Even with the backdrop of the global economic slowdown, export revenue of Bee & Flower sandalwood soap grows at a rate of between 10 percent and 15 percent year-on-year. In 2013, as much as $4 million worth of the special soap was exported, accounting for 20 percent of the company's total output, according to Ma Dexiong, who is in charge of the company's international trade department.

According to Ma, Indonesia has imported up to 50 percent of its sandalwood soap from the company thanks to recognition of the Chinese brand.