The Handmade Soap Book [Hardcover]

Melinda Coss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 1998

Readers can easily craft a wide variety of unique bath products from one basic recipe using the easy, step-by-step instructions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"But it is Melinda Coss, in "The Handmade Soap Book" who assures the uninitiated that they can make soap. She is the playful coach who, with humor and joy, shows the delightful side of soapmaking. Her book is also chock-full of the work of still-life photographer Emma Pelos, and sure to capture the heart of any gardener. It is a creative presentation that brings out the extraordinary beauty of ordinary garden goods, such as herbs, fruit, and twine, in combination with soap." -- The Register-Guard

From the Back Cover

In a world filled with artificial and synthetic products, this book shows you how to creat your own soaps and bathtime luxuries using only natural ingredients and very little specialized equipment. Gorgeous photography and simple, easy-to-follow recipes will inspire you to start right away.

-- Create a soap to suit your own personal skin type

-- Choose from a range of scintillating and mouth-watering ingredients, including peach, cucumber, ylang ylang, cinnamon, pine, pepperment, camomile, lavender, sandalwood, chocolate, goat's milk and many, many more

-- Includes recipes for shampoo bars, body splashes, bath oils and foaming bath creams

-- Solve all your gift problems -- with soaps for grown-ups and kids, men and women

-- Plus great ideas for packaging and presenting your finished soaps

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; First Edition edition (January 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580170846
• ISBN-13: 978-1580170840
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Most recipes are lye heavy..., November 27, 2000

By 

Jane R Milner (Grass Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Handmade Soap Book (Hardcover)

I bought this book after reading all the reviews as one of my information sources for soap making. However, now that I have about a year's worth of experience, I would not recommend this book for the beginner. ALL of her recipes need to be checked with a lye calculator as they are lye heavy. This will cause the soaps to be crumbly, harsh, drying. She also feels that beeswax is needed in most of her recipes, which one doesn't need. Also, most experienced soapers wouldn't use such high amounts of coconut oil as this is drying, even though it makes wonderful lather. Fresh fruit nave no place in cold process soap...they will mold. Fragrances need to be added at the rate of about .5 ounce per pound of oils, she falls way short, so the soaps will have very little fragrance. The photographs appear wonderful, until you have experience making soaps, then you will notice how lye heavy they are. The amount of water that is needed in her recipes is also off. Her recipes are small (32 ounces) so your margin for error is very slim. I suppose you could use the book for ideas, but you really need to rework the recipes. After you have learned how to make cold process soap elsewhere.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lovely Photos, Iffy Recipes, May 4, 2001

By 

S. D. Shaver (San Clemente, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Handmade Soap Book (Hardcover)

The recipes in this book are, compared to the recipes in the Susan Miller Cavitch "Soapmaker's Companion", deceptively simple. This can be good and bad -- I've made two soaps from this book, and one came out super-soft and the other came out fine. As for their lye content -- yes, compared to Cavitch's computations, they do seem on the heavy side. Someone recommended calculating before you make the recipes, and I think that's a good suggestion.

The photos are gorgeous, and give you a sense of what your final product will look like. She has some good technique suggestions, and the standard list of sap values for soaps. Her list of ten things to do when making soap is amusing.

But I don't recommend this as a first book for beginning soapmakers. I do recommend it if you are buying it along with other books on soapmaking (such as the above-mentioned Cavitch book) and for those who are moderately familiar with soap-making.

This book does contain animal-fat based recipes, which can be a drawback to some.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Only One You'll Need, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Handmade Soap Book (Hardcover)

This was the first soap book I read and I keep coming back to it! The recipes are easy to follow and the author encourages you to experiment with different ingredients. I have had tremendous success with these and have become a total soap addict! The pictures are exquisite and inspiring. The list of suppliers and internet links were also very helpful.