Soapmaking For Fun and Profit ASIN: 0761520422 Customer's Rating: 3 Summary: Good book for the business info Comments: This book is great if you already know how to make soap and want to start a business. It goes through the legal info you need to know to register a business name, get a bank account, accept credit cards, get a website, etc. And it is pretty decent for beginners learning how to make soap. There are a lot of suppliers listed and the instructions are pretty good. The only bad thing is that the book focuses more on melt and pour or hand milled soaps rather than true cold process soaps. The cold process recipes are very limited... one using just lard, one using just tallow, and one using just vegetable shortening. Yuck! If you *really* want to start a soap business, you're going to need a book that gives you recipes using coconut, palm, and olive oil - the basics for making soap. So get this if you already know the basics but have no clue where to start business-wise. If you are completely new to soapmaking, get The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Coss.

Making Natural Liquid Soaps: Herbal Shower Gels / Conditioning Shampoos / Moisturizing Hand Soaps ASIN: 1580172431 Customer's Rating: 3 Summary: Stop! This isn't a book for beginners! Comments: This is a very well written book but the making of liquid soaps should not be used as a group craft project. There are a number if ingredients used for ph neutralization that must be bought from reputable chemical supply houses; forget about the local craft store. And then you have to remember you are working with lye derivatives and heating alcohol over an open flame... Read this book carefully first before you try it out! There's also a lot of chemistry involved that, while not overly difficult to understand, may throw a lot of people. If you have experience with hot or cold process soap making (not that pre-made melt and pour stuff), then this is a decent book for you. The book has excellent visiual references and equally outstanding suggestions for packaging. While the visual aids are nice, they take up a huge percentage of the book as just filler making this a rather "light" book

Essentially Soap ASIN: 0873418328 Customer's Rating: 2 Summary: Just don't START with this book. . . Comments: if you're a beginner, or you'll likely end up as I did - frustrated. There's a world of information on the Internet and in the books by Coss and by Cavitch which is more reliable than this book. Most of all, DON'T use the "no-weigh" recipe Dr Bob offers for beginners (using a can of Crisco). As a complete novice, I saw that recipe, thought "I don't REALLY need a scale to make soap," and wasted tons of time and ingredients without a single usable bar. You do need to have a scale and make accurate measurements, and you should always double check your recipes. Other reviewers already point out that Dr Bob's recipes tend to be either too superfat or too lye-heavy, which is really confusing for the inexperienced soaper who doesn't know what went wrong, especially since he glosses over gelling and tracing. I have had one of his recipes work very well, but in contrast, I haven't had a single one of Coss' recipes fail me yet. And finally, this book is UGLY. The other books are much more attractive (and inspiring) in layout, design, quality of printing, and most of all in the soaps themselves. Sorry Dr Bob, I sold my copy at a yardsale.

Making Transparent Soap: The Art of Crafting, Molding, Scenting and Coloring ASIN: 158017244X Customer's Rating: 4 Summary: Please Use Extreme Caution Comments: I bought this book for myself. I read it over several times and became very familiar with the process before attempting anything. The book is extremely informative and well-written. Very easy to understand. The description of ingredients and the purpose of each one was very useful. Beautiful pictures. Nice sections on coloring, fragrancing and moulding. Great info. on where ingredients can be purchased. However, even though I followed the directions for the alcohol/lye method to the letter, I still had a disastrous first experience. My mixture, simmering on lowest possible heat, boiled up and oozed out the sides, despite the tightly cinched bungee holding the sheets of plastic in place. My inner pot ended up floating on boiling soap foam. I managed to save the remainder that was left in the pot and finished the simmering proccess directly on the burner (after cleaning the outside of the pot thoroughly). I estimated the amount of sugar/water solution and glycerin to add to it. Although I can't vouch for the amounts of any of the ingredients at this point, the stuff that I did save managed to come out very well. Looks pretty, smells great and lathers beautifully. I'm just lucky my stove top didn't burst into flames considering the flamable alcohol that oozed over the sides of the pot. I believe next time I try this (soon) I will ajust the method to what I consider safe and hope that it works well. If you plan on making this soap, please be sure to have an extinguisher close by. I'm not sure why I had such a horrible time with this method, but I'd hate for it to be worse for anyone else.

Making Soaps and Scents : Soaps, Shampoos, Perfumes and Splashes You Can Make At Home ASIN: 1579120598 Customer's Rating: 2 Summary: Not for a Beginner... Comments: This was my first book that I bought on soap making and I really wished I had read the reviews first, before I purchased this book. I should have known something was not right when she didn't have any pictures of her finished soaps with her recipes. Could it be because they don't come out right, so she has none to show? I have attemtped to make two of her recipes so far. The Cinnamon Ginger,pg. 71; which came out a dark, ugly, smelley, mess. My second attempt was her Soothing Honey Vanilla Soap, pg. 73. What a fiasco that turned out to be. She neglects to tell you that when you add the 6 ounces of melted beeswax to the oils that are at 100F degrees(as instructed by her Basic Vegetable Soap), the beeswax will immediately solidify again and float on top. So, now I had to re-melt everything to a temperature around 150F to get the Beeswax to stay melted and blend into the oils. And of course, my Lye was already at 100F, waiting to be added to the oils. I see now why she has the section of water baths to regulate your Lye/Oil tempertures. You are going to need them. Anyhow, in order for the beeswax to stay liquid, I had to keep the temperature around 150F. And now I wasn't sure which temperature my lye should be. She also neglected to warn you that honey can cause your batch to separate, that happened to me also, when I added the warmed honey. I have serious doubts that my soap will turn out ok, it is in the mold now, but it did not look good when I poured it. And, I also just found out, after reading on the Internet, that you should not add more than 1.5% beeswax to a batch, otherwise you will have problems keeping the batch at a liquid state. The other reason is because of Beewax's hardening properties. Since it makes a soap hard, too much is not good, not unless you have a jack-hammer to slice it:). Well, her recipe called for 6oz of Beeswax, which is more than 13%, I am afraid I will end up with a brick in the morning. Again, this is the type of information she neglects to explain to you. Another important note is the use of Essential Oils in her reipes, e.g., again, her Soothing Vanilla Soap says to use 2 oz of Vanilla Essential Oil. I am not sure who her supplier is, but I couldn't find pure Vanilla Essential Oil for under $194.00, for 2 ozs, and that was for Vanilla Absolute. I am so glad now, that I used Fragrance Oil instead. I don't have 200.00 to throw away, while I try to figure her recipes out. Again, this is book is truly lacking in information. I am sure an experienced soaper would have known these things, but than, I think an experienced soaper would have read this recipe,laughed and tossed it aside. And yes, how much lye do you need for the Lemon Lime Coconut Hair Bar on pg. 91, anyway? That's right, somehow the editor neglected to add it. Hopefully, once I become more experienced, I can use some of her recipes, but for now, I think I will stay with the Internet, so I can learn. Buyers beware, is all I have left to say about this book.

Soothing Soaps: For Healthy Skin ASIN: 1883010365 Customer's Rating: 3 Summary: Interesting, very basic glycerine soap recipes for beginners Comments: This book of glycerine soap recipes is an easy and fun read that I would recommend for the very nervous, first-time soapmakers. Glycerine soap base is easy to pick up at Wal-Mart or online, and the recipes provide information for adding herbs, oils, and healing blends. Some of the recipes get a little far-out--calling for rainwater collected during a lightning storm, for example--but you never know which customers may be really enthralled by "Lightning Water Soap"! This is just a basic, fun, easy book that, while not an invaluable resource, might be a nice additon to your collection of soapcrafting books.

Good Gifts from the Home: Soaps, Shampoos, and Other Suds--Make Beautiful Gifts to Give (or Keep) ASIN: 0761525432 Customer's Rating: 4 Summary: GREAT FOR BEGINNERS AND THOSE WHO ARE BUSY! Comments: From the eyes of a beginner this book is great because most of the recipes don't cost a bundle or contain harmful chemicals like lye. (I dont think I want to experiment with lye just yet). This book also has ideas that are inexpensive and easy to follow. "Die-hard" soap makers that believe in only absolutly made-from-scratch recipes will most definatly not apprieciate this book. Many of the recipes start from store bought soap and shampoo which in my opinion does not reduce the quality of the end results. The things in this book are great for presents. I've actually have been asked by one of my friends if I would sell some of the things I make at her store!

Handmade Soap ASIN: 0754801810 Customer's Rating: 5 Summary: TheStylish Unique and "Responsible" Soap Book! Bravo! Comments: This is the most unique and interesting book on handmade soap I have read. The recipes are all innovative and original and the pictures are the best. The book also successful in providing helpful step by step how to pictures that none of the other books I have seen provide. Hill's book is a welcome change from the various others that are copies of one another or seem to take one recipe and duplicate it from one page to the next with a few slight changes on sent or colour. The recipes are also 100% natural which I found refreshing. I would also like to refute another review from a soap maker from San Francisco that is more of an attack on the style of soap that Hill produces than a valid criticism. Hill's soap is a specific original style placing emphasis on natural ingredients as well as high emphasis the decorative presentation of the soap. As a soap maker I have produced soap successfully with even more botanical matter than Hill suggests with great skin conditioning results. If soap is dried and cured properly bacteria will not result any more than it would in a basic soap. The comment about clogging up drains from botanical matter is preposterous! Only small amounts of additives (oatmeal for example) come off of a bar of soap with each use and can wash easily down the waste pipes (far greater amounts of solid waste go down our kitchen and toilet waste pipes every day.) Perhaps the Californian just is not used to this innovative style of English soap making? As Hill is in a position as a professional soap maker with her obviously successful soap company Savonnerie that most of us would love to be in, she must be doing something right! BRAVO

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