Everything Soapmaking Book : Recipes and Techniques for Creating Colorful and Fragrant Soaps

Well written book. Many recipes from basic to adventurous. A little frustrating for me though because:1. I'm a visual learner and there are very few pictures to illustrate the process2. I need to do extra work converting measurements from lbs/ oz/ farenheit to measures I understandI would recommend a brand new beginner takes the time to watch video tutorials online to get a better sense of what is being described.

I am new to soapmaking - this book tells you everything you need to know - am having lots of fun trying out some of the recipes and will carry on using as a reference for as long as I carry on. The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques for Creating Colorful and Fragrant Soaps (Everything (Hobbies & Games))

There are many books available to learn soapmaking but I purchased this one because of the great reviews from Amazon. As always, Amazon reviewers did not let me down. The book is written in easy to read chapters with information in the main body of the text and helpful hints and tricks in the sidebars. Very much like the "Idiots Guide to..." series of books. It contains several simple recipies and step-by-step instruction for beginners as well as tips for more intermediate and advanced soapmakers such as swirling ,layers, imbeding and working with colors. This book does not go into great detail about the more advanced material but encourages the reader to experiment and discover the techniques for themselves. The only drawback I felt this book had was the fact that there are very few pictures but I felt this was small stuff compared to the rest of the book and not enough to take away a star.There are many online soap suppliers out there with a great selection of products to help you be as simple or as involved as you would like with soapmaking. Many of them are listed in the resource section of this book. But there really is no need to spend alot of money here, most of the ingredients needed are available in our kitchen and the grocery store. I did have to order the lye from Amazon because I could not find it at any hardware store in my area. I also used plastic Tupperware containers for my soapmolds! I would also recommend the many Youtube video tutorials out there after you have read the book; I felt that watching these and seeing the soaps made in living color helped me with the learning process but then again, we all learn differently!I felt like The Everything Soapmaking Book presented soapmaking as an art form that has a learning curve but is very rewarding with endless ways to be creative. I hope the author writes more books on soapmaking, I would like to read some more! Enjoy and "Happy Soaping"!

I have been making soap for about three years now, but this book was where I got my start. I have both the kindle version and a very dog-eared hard copy.The descriptions and instructions are very clear and well written. They are easy to follow for a beginner or an intermediate soap-maker.Now, I have sort of "outgrown" this book and have branched on to making my own recipes, but I will never forget where I learned how to make my first batches.The reason why I gave this book 4 stars rather than 5 is because the book has no pictures or illustrations. Everything must be conveyed through the written word. For some people, pictures could be very helpful with instructions.Another is the 100% olive oil soap recipe in the book seems to be flawed. I made two one pound batches from this recipe on two different occasions. Both batches were failures. After running the recipe through a lye calculator, I tried a different amount of lye. It cured fine after that. A typo perhaps?

This book is very descriptive and goes into detail about every single thing you need to know about soap making. I love it!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS! Dealing with subjects as varying as The Origins of Soapmaking, Equipment you'll need, Basic Techniques and Ingredients, Herbal Additives, Fragrance Oils, Essential Oils, Colorants, Cold-process and Hot-process Techniques, Liquid Soaps, Transparent Soaps, Cream Soaps, Molds, Hand-milling, Recipes, Creating, Presenting, Selling... Amongst the chapters you'll find "E Alerts," which are cautions you need to be made aware of, "E Facts," which provides guidance to help you in the process of making soap, and "E ssential," which gives you helpful information. One of the most complete books on the subject of soap-making I have purchased.

When I was learning to make soap - I read EVERYTHING I could get my hands on. Every book at the library and bookstore, and every website and forum I could find - I read them. I was obsessed.This book has the most complete instructions and ideas for making soap out of all the others out there. So if you're only buying one soapmaking book - this is the one I would suggest. There are other good ones - but this one covers areas like fragrance and color options better than most. She also tells you specific suppliers where you can find some ingredients which is very helpful to beginners. Whether you want all-natural soaps or if you're OK with some synthetic ingredients - you can do both with this book whereas other books limit your options and don't give more info on natural ingredients. Although this book won't teach you everything there is to know about soapmaking - it will give you the best foundation over the other books available and help you decipher confusing information you might see on the internet.I'm an experienced soap maker now and I sell my soaps to a happy group of fans, but I will still refer back to this book sometimes for inspiration and ideas. Her writing style is very comfortable and it's easy to get absorbed and just keep reading.