What do we do ?
The Sainte-Marthe factory in Marseille contains a soap manufacturing unit.
"Each year we sell around 3000 tons of soap."
The soap making process at CDSM has not changed since the grand era of soap factories in Marseille. It still involves saponification, or the Marseille process, which consists of the mixing and continuous cooking of oils and soda. As in previous centuries, this manufacturing process involves alchemy and know-how, which the soap making masters pass on from generation to generation. When our clients visit the soap factory they discover the old tanks made of heat-resistant bricks fashioned from years and years of wood heating at temperatures over 200 °C. Even if today we feed the tanks in a modern way, the stainless steel being intertwined with the old bricks, all the rest is authentic !
We are one of the last Marseille soap manufacturers in France.
Soap making by saponification consists of 5 distinct steps and takes place in a cycle of about 80 hours :
First step : decoloration and purification of the raw materials
This is a physical bleaching of the glycerides using a decolorising clay which has the property of fixing impurities ; after filtration the glycerides are ready for saponification.
Second step : Saponification in a cauldron (traditional method)
Empatage : The mixture of the soda and oil is brought to boiling point being heated with serpentines in which the vapour is circulating.
Relargage : Excess water , fatty impurities and glycerine are removed from the paste by stopping the boiling process (separation in two stages of the soap which floats).
Cuisson : The soap still contains fatty bodies which didn't react so we heat it again adding soda several times and letting it settle each time to separate the soap from the "cleaners".The soap is now ready.
Liquidation : This step is to boil it fast for the last time adding pure water to precipitate the last foreign bodies and colorants (which form the fat) to the bottom of the cauldron.
Find the authentic Marseille Soap by clicking here.
