Victoria Tsai, founder of the San Francisco-based skincare line Tatcha, has entered a blue period. She’s released a new line of skin creams called the Indigo Collection, which is inspired by Japanese samurais’ use of the dye to help heal injuries in battle. Tsai was inspired to create the new line after suffering her own bout with eczema, which eventually led her to a documented indigo growing region in Japan where she found a book detailing the dye’s healing properties for various skin ailments.

The blue-tinted creams are the latest in a series of skincare solutions Tsai has traveled across continents to research, find, develop, and refine. Always enamored with all things beauty—Tsai’s parents owned a beauty boutique in Houston, Texas, and Tsai’s mother educated her on traditional Asian skincare at a young age—Tsai got her professional start in the industry at some of the largest beauty care conglomerates. “I really messed up my face,” explains Tsai, who notes that part of her job was to do competitive product testing. “Creams, oils, and makeup left me with a bleeding, blistering, scaly on my face, lips, and eyelids.” Next, Tsai took a job with Starbucks, helping the company to introduce coffee products overseas. She found herself on flights to Asia every few weeks. While she was there, Tsai purchased cosmetic blotting papers (aburatorigami) exclusive to the region. “They literally put this paper between gold and pound the paper,” Tsai explains, detailing the aburatorigami-making process she witnessed in a gold-leaf workshop (the thin leafing was traditionally used on the pavilions built during Japan’s imperial period). As Tsai started asking questions to learn more about the papers, she was redirected by the gold-leaf manufacturers to the geishas who frequented the factory’s shop. “I hung out, and low and behold they came,” Tsai said.

After conversing with the geishas about their rituals, Tsai was stunned at how simple of a regimen geishas followed to achieve what they call mochihada, or baby-like skin. “It’s essentially sushi, no fish. The Japanese diet. Just seaweed, rice, and green tea,” she explains. After eight weeks of trying the geisha’s regime, Tsai’s troubled skin healed. The transformation urged Tsai to search for documentation of the geisha’s rituals, which had always been passed on through oral tradition. “I saw the steps that they were taking but I didn’t understand why,” Tsai explains. “It was like looking at a map through Swiss cheese.” Tsai eventually discovered a book written in 1813 that contained the geisha’s skin regimens. Tsai spent the next four years finding the book’s three volumes, translating the contents, and scientifically combining the text’s ingredients. This is how her skincare line, Tatcha, was born. The name stands for the Eastern tradition of flower arrangement (Tatchibana), which focuses on the beauty of a solitary flower. “It invites you to see the beauty of something when you strip away all the excess,” explains Tsai. The line includes natural cleansers, exfoliants, moisturizers, hydrating masks and cosmetic creams—all inspired by the ancient manuscript. The unique combination of natural ingredients in each Tatcha product—from camellia flowers, green tea, and pearls to rice, red algae, silk and peony—reflects the traditions of the geishas from the books Tsai collected.

The Indigo used in the new collection—silk hand cream, soothing body butter, and skin softening renewal treatment—is sourced from the same regions where indigo grows and where Tsai found the book. Next, Tsai is set to release a firming serum made with real gold and a new illuminating eye mask. “Your skin is beautiful and brilliant, if you take care of it in the right away, you should be happy and beautiful with what you’ve got,” Tsai says.

By Megan Meyer

Pictured: Victoria Tsai with a Japanese geisha.
Photo courtesy of Tatcha

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