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Making Soaps & Scents: Soaps, Shampoos, Perfumes & Splashes You Can Make At Home (Life's Little Luxuries) Hardcover – September, 1999

25 customer reviews

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

MAKING SOAPS

Catherine Bardey, fashion editor and stylist, shows you the secrets of making soaps that add a personal touch to your everyday bathing experience and provide great presents for any occasion. Her special blends of all-natural ingredients produce handmade soaps with character and utility--ground almonds help exfoliation, lavender oil soothes and heals irritated skin, coffee rids hands of strong cooking smells and olive oil conditions hair.

MAKING SCENTS

From alluring to calming, each special scent in this distinctive collection of simple recipes will surround you with a pleasing aura all your own. Catherine's detailed fragrance profiles will show you how to pick the perfect scent to fit your mood and personality whether you're making your own or buying brand-name perfumes and colognes. She also gives recipes for her favorites including:

Cleansing Soaps & Shampoos include:

Soothing Honey Vanilla

Relaxing Coconut Rosewood

Exfoliating Honey Almond Soap

All-purpose Coffee Oatmeal Soap

Indulging Chocolate Milk Soap

Moisturizing Olive Oil

Glycerin Soap

Enticing Perfumes, Colognes & Splashes include:

Elegant Rose Water

Calming Lavender Water

Comforting Clary Sage Cologne

Spicy Pear Nectar Perfume

Zesty Lemon Lime Cologne

And this is just the beginning; explore these examples and use them as a base for your own soap and fragrance creations. You don't need fancy or expensive equipment or complicated procedures to surround yourself with sensational suds and stylish scents.

About the Author

Catherine Bardey has been a stylist for Elle, New York and French Vogue. She has written for Glamour, Vanity Fair, Martha Stewart's Living and other magazines. Her previous books include Secrets of the Spas, Making Soaps & Scents, Making Candles & Potpourri and Lingerie, all available from Black Dog & Leventhal. She lives in New York City.
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Product Details

  • Series: Life's Little Luxuries
  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal (September 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1579120598
  • ISBN-13: 978-1579120597
  • Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 0.8 x 9.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #901,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 73 people found the following review helpful By "zeesw" on October 19, 2002
Format: Hardcover
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.Read more ›
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful By Michelle Harris on July 27, 2000
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I read this entire book in one evening! The book was well-layed out and easy to understand. I purchased another book on soap/liquid making and the other author explained everything in the chemical names! It was so frustrating to read. Catherine explains everything in simple, easy-to-understand words that a beginner can follow with out any help.
Many of the soap ingredients are found right in your kitchen except for the Lye, which she tells you that you can purchase the Lye at your local hardware store, like Home Depot.
She also includes wonderful recipes. I bought the book mainly for the soaps but ended up enjoying the perfume section even more. I made my first Rose Water (eau de toilette) batch last weekend following her easy directions. I have since found other recipes on the Internet, but have found Catherine's recipe to be one of best recipes for Rose Water!
She even tells you where you can purchase your supplies and those hard to find (which weren't many--like the essential oils) items with the Internet addresses as resources. Its funny, but this is my bible now for working with perfumes.
If you're a beginner or simply curious about starting or dabbling in soap/perfume making, I would definitely recommend reading this book FIRST!
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful By Karla on November 18, 2001
Format: Hardcover
This is not a good book for making soap or anything else. It has more pictures than recipes and what recipes it does have are not very practical.
This is NOT a book for beginners either, spend the money on something else like soap making for fun and profit, and the soap makers companion.
I bought this book, and was very dissapointed, I resold it and not for very much I might add.
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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful By Jessica on March 11, 2000
Format: Hardcover
This is one of the best books I have read on soap making! Catherine (the author) tells you what kinds of ingredients to use and why they would be used. The recipes are not too large to handle like many soap making books. I found that to be excellent! Also included is how to make your own perfumes (which turn out wonderfully!) all the history and reasons for are listed inside the book before she gives you the recipes so you understand the recipes! Catherine is a great writer and knows her stuff... I am going to buy her other two books also!
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful By Amazon Customer on September 4, 2001
Format: Hardcover
I love to make natural soaps and I collects book that refers to soapmaking. For a person that already knows how to make soaps, this book is full of ideas. However this book is not for the novice soapmaker, since it lacks of alot of information which is vital for a beginer. A novice should look some place else for more deep information in order to ensure that he/she learn the ups and down of soapmaking. Other than this, it has nices photos.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful By A Customer on June 18, 2002
Format: Hardcover
Bardey's book basically rehashes a lot of tips found in other books. It's not a book for beginners but soap pros will find nice ideas for expanding their soap lines.
Note: One BIG problem I had with the Bardey book is in the "Custom Soaps" section. She lists the recipes but has no pics of the actual soaps! She only has pics of ingredients. Ugh!:-(
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful By Sandee B on September 13, 2000
Format: Hardcover
I found this book very helpful as a new soap crafter. It was full of great ideas and info. I really liked the charts in the back on the essential oils. I would recommend this as a must read to any new soap crafter.
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27 of 34 people found the following review helpful By A Customer on December 17, 2000
Format: Hardcover
This is a poorly written book, that is suitable only for academic study, and a poor one at that. If you are serious about trying to make soap, you should look elsewhere. I was lucky, in that I have a minor in chemistry from college, so that I could fill in the essential data omitted by the author. If I did not have experience to rely on, making soap from this text would have been near hopeless
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