Customer Reviews

The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques for Creating Colorful and Fragrant Soaps (Everything: Sports and Hobbies)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been an artisian soaper for over seven years. I found this book wonderful! Very well written with up-to-date 21st century information. The essential oil section is especially useful for knowing which essential oils that "come through" in cold process or hot process soap. I had to learn most of this the hard way through trial and error, and spending alot of money on research.

There is so much information in this book that was very well researched and a great benefit to the soap maker at any level. There are several techniques that are simplified from other books and information on the internet such as liquid soapmaking in a slow cooker.

There are discussions of soap casting, making geodes, swirling, gemstones, hand milling, and so much more to make this a VERY complete discussion of soap making.

Once you have mastered soap making and want to start selling, Alicia has added a very well written section on selling. Where to sell how to sell and useful information on what to expect when selling.

The only drawback is that the publisher did not use color photographs and add more of them to the book. This really would have enhanced the overall quality of the book if they had used all of Alicia's photos and in color.

I have read 6 other Soap Making Books in the past 6 months and this one puts them all to shame. Superbly written, concise information, not a bunch of information that is useless. Explains the different properties of the oils, EO's and benefits of each. Helps you to become a truly gifted soap maker.

Now in a newly updated and expanded second edition, "The Everything Soapmaking Book" offers the non-specialist general reader with a complete and easy-to-follow guide for making and creating all manner of soaps ranging from simple bath soaps to lovely and aromatic gift soaps. Thoroughly 'user friendly', "The Everything Soapmaking Book" takes the aspiring soap maker through every step of the process of making soap, including buying the right kind of soap making equipment, securing the proper ingredients, developing unique soap recipes, packaging soaps for holidays and special occasions, adding scents and colors, and the artistic techniques to make soaps in unique shapes and sizes. "The Everything Soapmaking Book" is enthusiastically recommended for anyone of any age wanting to try their hand at making soaps for themselves, their family, or their friends!

Some people really, really love Alicia Grosso's style and other books. I do not fall into that category, apparently. I ordered this book because of the reviews here and the promise of wonderful recipes and I was pretty disappointed. I would not recommend this book to others, but if pressed I would say it is definitely more for fans of Alicia Grosso. My problems with the book boil down to three key issues:

1) Grosso tries to fit too much into one book. She tries to cover cold process, hot process and melt & pour in ONE book which makes it a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sort of thing. Because she tries to fit so much in one book, it feels like she is leaving things out. I feel a lot of her descriptions and explanations have a "Well you know what I mean" sense to them. Therefore I wouldn't recommend this book to a beginner soapmaker.

2) It is poorly laid out. I like to have information in one section and recipes in another. This book flows like a stream of conscience which makes it hard when you just want to flip to find a recipe.

3)(and most importantly) The recipes are paltry at best. For instance in the CP section she gives you ONE base recipe and then just sort of builds off of that, and not in a meaningful manner. She adds lavender oil in one. In the next she adds lavender and something else. To me that means she put in ONE recipe and then offers suggestions for variations. The HP section is similar. I'm not sure how a book that really only contains 1 or 2 distinct recipes per section gets such high ratings.

Personally when it comes to soapmaking I recommend Anne Watson's "Smart Soapmaking" or Susan Miller Cavitch's "The Soapmaker's Companion." They are just better all around.

This is an ultra-complete soap making book. It's my bible. It even touches upon the HP technique that other books leave out.

The BEST part is that the recipes come in batch sizes. And there are no shortages of recipes.

Color photos would have been preferred. 5 star book regardless.

As someone who is a beginner at soapmaking I found this book provides a great overview of the subject. Really covers a lot of ground, pretty much any question you can think of is answered here. Lots of useful recipes as well so as you proceed there are many more advanced recipes you can try. Definitely very useful for anyone learning this craft.

Having read many books on soapmaking and having made some soap, I find my returning to this book to check methods, and ideas. The book is well written easy to read, understand and full of good information for all types of soap making. A must have for the begining soapmaker.

This book is my soapmaking bible! I originally borrowed it from our local library, but couldn't live without it so I bought my own. This edition is updated and has excellent detail! I've made most of the recipes and they are wonderful--not one failure. Very helpful in answering questions for the unexperienced soaper.

My daughter asked me if we could make soap sometime soon, and I've been doing a lot of research and have read a lot of book when I could have just gotten this one and made it all easier for myself.
Great book for beginners with tons of information and suggestions for if you decide you really like it and want to get more in depth in soap making. It has a long intro about how to set up and make soap safely that makes it a lot less scary to think about dealing with lye.
Then it goes into small batch cold process recipes, which is what we wanted to start with.
That alone is worth the cost of the book for me because it does explain the process exhaustively and well. But after that chapter it goes into a lot more things like how to make hot process soap and going from hot process to liquid and transparent (not glycerin) soaps. It also has a section on melt and pour soaps and advise on how to use molds.
Then it got into the chapters that really made me think my daughter's question could lead to an obsession for me. Making micro-batches of soaps with single oils to see how the oils behave, how to calculate lye for creating your bars of soap with blends of oils that give the benefits you are looking for. It can be a little intimidating to look at all the science and math, but the author explains it well enough to keep it from being scary and it looks like so much fun.
I got this book in Kindle format and I think I need a paper copy as well. Great book.

This is a better book for intermediate and above soap makers. I will wait until a find a book designed for the very beginner soap maker and then come back to this.