Because of his skin’s adverse reaction to commercial soaps, Chiang Jung-Yuan set out to make his own and now his all-natural handmade Yuan Soap sells internationally.
AS the saying goes “cleanliness is next to godliness”, and Taiwanese Chiang Jung-Yuan is of the opinion that as you cleanse your body, you also cleanse your mind and soul.
Listening to him expound his philosophy of love and life, one is inspired to embrace the Taipei native’s wholesome way of living.
Building the burgeoning Yuan Soap farming industry from scratch, the soft-spoken “soap farmer” brings new meaning to natural soap-making. While other soapmakers merely can claim to make handmade soaps with natural ingredients, he goes further.
 Taiwanese soapmaker Chiang Jung-Yuan, founder of Yuan Soap. Chiang has planted his own herbs organically since 2007 and fetches water from natural springs every other day to make his soaps.
Even its saponification process is left to nature as Chiang does not use chemicals to hasten the process. Left to dry naturally, it could take from 45 to 60 days for a batch of Yuan Soap to mature.
Not one to do things half-heartedly, the former advertising man-turned-soap entrepreneur acquired a piece of land – leased to him rent-free by a friend – in a village atop a mountain in Chinshan Township, Taipei County. He also found the best water source, a spring from Yangmingshan National Park.
Averse to the use of “dead” water, which has been kept in a container, Chiang insists on “live” water that has been gurgling in the brooks and bubbling in the springs.
“We fetch water every other day so that it is ‘fresh’ and ‘alive’. There is no point carting too much water from the spring as storing it for too long would adversely affect the water molecules.”
Chiang admitted to being greatly influenced by the writings of visionary Japanese researcher Dr Masaru Emoto, who wrote three books about the influence of positive and negative energy of water.
Initially, Chiang used to lug heavy bags filled with his handmade soaps and go knocking on doors trying to sell them. Not long after, his business expanded through word-of-mouth. Yuan Soap went from 370 dealers and five brand stores in 2007 to 450 dealers and eight brand stores a year later.
In barely three years, the product is now sold in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
He recalled with fondness developing his very first cake of soap using moxa or dried mugwort. “My skin is sensitive and commercial brand soaps only aggravated my condition. After I successfully made my first soap, my mother requested I make her one for her, as her hands were sensitive to cleaning agents.”
During the interview, Chiang took a swig from a bottle of translucent golden liquid. Sensing my curiosity, he explained: “This is yuxingcao (literally “fishy-smelling grass”, scientific name Houttuynia cordata), named thus due to its fishy scent, but it has excellent anti-microbial properties.”
 Yuan Soap is made from fresh spring water that’s fetched daily. H. cordata is also an important component of Chiang’s recently-developed recovery series range of soaps in Taiwan.
Chiang has been making soap for 10 years but only embarked on his full-fledged soap-farming cottage industry some four years ago.
“Initially, when I first started learning how to make soap, I was just making them for my own use and giving them to family and friends. I hadn’t thought of making it a career.
“Then as I was ready to take on a new direction in my work and my career, my friends encouraged me to try making natural soap as it would be a very good opportunity for me to tap into this largely unexplored market,” said Chiang.
He said that learning how to make soap was the easy part. “It took me only four days. But, it’s like learning how to write and being able to write beautifully.
“Making good soap takes a lot of practice, analysis and experimentation. That’s why I spent a lot of time trying out different types of oil and water as well as natural ingredients.
“Finding out what cleanses well, works to alleviate skin problems, and has revitalising qualities ... it took me many years of experimentation to develop my range of soaps.”
Chiang was finally satisfied when he developed the 18 steps of making Yuan Soap, beginning with carting water from the springs and collecting herbs to cutting and handstamping each cake of soap.
Drawing from his personal experience with Chinese medicine as well as local herbs and grasses, Chiang started to experiment and formulate his own recipes for his soaps. Starting out with a basic range of seven, it has expanded to 33 variants with different properties: protective, cleansing, moisturising, recovery, and others.
About a dozen Yuan Soap variants are available in Malaysia, including wild mugwort, wild patchouli, purple gromwell and roselle, wild yellow sage, organic lemon, organic mung bean and job’s tears, shishen Chinese herbs, organic oats, cypress and eucalyptus. There is also the laundry bar for clothes and the liquorice soap for hair.
Soon to be available here are variants like tangerine, bitter tea tree, pine tree, honeysuckle, H. cordata, mulberry leaf and chrysanthemum, and dead sea mud. There are also soaps specifically for men and women as well as babies and even a lucky soap, presumably to wash away one’s bad luck!
Chiang said he is researching Malaysian herbs and looking into incorporating them into his expanding range. He is also planning to visit Hong Kong, Thailand, Egypt, Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East for the same purpose.
The fourth of six siblings, the 46-year-old dog lover has also penned an autobiographical book, The Road of Yuan’s Farm Soap (Ah Yuan De Fei Zao Chuan Qi in Mandarin), detailing his soapfarming endeavours.
Excerpt from The Star http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2009/4/17/lifeliving/3700984&sec=lifeliving | 
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