Customer Reviews

The Soapmaker: Natural Handmade Soap from Your Kitchen

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

 

 

This book teaches you the soap from soap method of soapmaking. Instead of actually making the soap, you take pre-made soap, shred it and make new soap out of it. This simplifies the process and allows you to create your own designer soaps without a lot of hassle. If you want to avoid the mess and complexity of making soap from scratch with lye, tallow and such this book allows you to make the basic soaps more decorative by adding colors, scents and additives.

The book starts out with step-by-step instructions, accompanied by photos, of the basic soapmaking processes. It then discusses the many ingredients of the soaps including scents, oils, colors and other additives. A basic list of essential oils and absolutes along with a description of their aroma, blending options and any warnings is also included.

The rest of the book is dedicated to making soap and bath products. Unfortunately, only about half are accompanied by pictures, so it can be hard to tell what it will and should look like when you're finished. There are sections on whipped cream and glycerin soap as well as soap balls, liquid soaps and other bath items such as shampoo and body powder. Some of my favorite recipes include mint and lavender slice, red sky crescent moon soap, liquid lime soap, milk bath and fantasy body dust.

There is a great list of suppliers in the back including websites. An index was helpful in finding things as well. Overall, I found this book to be helpful in creating decorative soap and bath items for friends, family and myself.

Having goats I was interested in finding a book that would teach simple soap making techniques including using milk. I also wanted a book that would show natural soaps or soaps that would be healthy for my family and my skin. If you are interested in or make healthy foods you will have the items needed readily at hand. And the book is helpful because it lists where to get some of the ingredients for some of the soaps if your area doesn't carry them. Although essential oils can be found via the Internet as well. There should be one or two soaps (at least) that a person can and will want to make.

Milk-Based Soaps: Making Natural, Skin-Nourishing Soap by Casey Makela is a book I also recommend for those who like myself make homemade soap using milk from my own goats. Milk soap is harder to make but is my favorite soap next to olive oil soap.

This book contains alot of good information on making soaps that keep you from not having to deal with lye or other caustic chemicals. Essential oils are a bit expensive, but hey, who said that soapmaking as a hobby was inexpensive? I see alot of people complaining about not finding some of the ingredients. 100% pure Soap flakes are certainly NOT a detergent and can be found at the "better" soap making supply houses..you just have to take some time and search them out. You can also make soap flakes by grating a vegetable based 100% pure bar of soap, such a Ivory. Voila, instant soap flakes. Also, this book seems to originally been published in Europe, hence the hard to find ingredients in the U.S. When it comes to scents that you can't find, such as field mint, all you do is substitute it with another type of mint that you find pleasing. I applaud the author in the sense that she uses only essential oils and makes colors from natural ingredients. Yes, if you want cheap soaps that are made with disgusting synthetic scents and fake coloring, these things are readily available, but you get what you pay for. I for one, would only want to make pure, natural and organic soaps, as the author does.

I had very high expectations of this book, which unfortunately were not met.

The first problem with this book is the author lists ingredients which are not readymade kitchen ingredients. Some of the oils listed are extremely difficult to find even for ardent aromatherapy enthusaists like myself. An example is monoi de tahiti. I called my natural soap store to ask if they sell soap flakes and was told they do not as soap flakes are acutally detergent and very harsh on the skin.

Another disappointment was the contact list at the back of the book 60% of the websites listed are not available or have changed ownership. An exmaple is the authors website it is now a website where you can buy garden furniture, flowers etc. Very disappointing. The reason I was looking for the authors website was cause she lists vegetable soap flakes as a product that is available off her website. The only soap flakes I could find were detergent.

Not all the recepies have pictures therefore it is difficult to assimilate what the product will look like after it is finished. I guess I could use my imagination!

On the upside the pictures that are there are breathtaking! The soaps look deliciously edible and overall the book gives some good ideas. I will just take the ingredients and find subsitutes and work some subsitution magic and hope it works!

This book is not about soapmaking.
If you are looking for a resource for learning to make soap, this book is not for you.
If, however, you are looking for a resource on learning how to melt, mold, scent, colour and package soap, this is a pretty decent book.
I was really looking for some good books on the ancient art of soapmaking: creating and controlling the chemical reactions between fats and alkali in order to create that wonderful handcrafted soap that my grandmother knew, made and used. Instead, when I picked up this book, I got an eyeful of information on using someone else's soaps to modify into whatever shape and colours that you want.
That's all well and good... learning to hand-mill soap (that is really what this book is about, hand-milling soap... the process of reshaping and modifying previously-created soap) it a nice art in and of itsself but it is not soapmaking.
If you don't want to really control what your soap is made from but just want to make something pretty, fragrant, or what-have-you, I would recommend this book for you. It has some wonderful ideas for scents, shapes, packaging and such.
If, on the other hand, you want to become an artisan in the realm of soap... learning how to mix different fats in the proper ratios with the proper amount of lye to saponify, scent, colour and shape, and turn out a truly hand-made product, I would recommend that you find some other book. This is not for you.

This book has great pictures and the steps of soapmelting (of premade soap) are easily explained. I agree with the other reviewers that the purchase of the ingredients (the essential oils) can be costly. But this book offers unique recepies not just for soaps but also for shower gels and lip balm. If one is into aromatherapy and wants to get started with soapmelting, this is the right book. The ingredients can be found in health stores, spice shops, and internet suppliers.

Great book with a good variety of soap recipes. Good instruction on how to create her yummy soaps. Such a good book for those of us who can't use harsh chemicals. The cream soaps are a unique twist on handmilled soaps. This is great book for any soap or craft library.

I bought the book because of the title, "natural handmade soap from your kitchen". You sure can't make any of these soaps from stuff you "already" have in your kitchen. There are a lot of supplies you cannot find locally you will have to do lots of mail order to complete these soaps. It was not what I thought it was. A nice book if you already have tons of soap making supplies and essential oils and dried flowers, but the ordinary person couldn't make these recipes easily.

I have been wanting to get into soapmaking for awhile and received this book for Christmas. The recipes look fairly simple to make - they call for soap flakes - with the addition of various scents, colors, and exfoliants. However, while simplifying the soap making process, it makes up for it in adding other ingredients. Collecting the ingredients to make any one recipe would require an initial investment. Most recipes call for 3-5 different flavors of essential oils, with other ingredients thrown in such as rosewater or green clay. The pictures and layout are very attractive - you should just know what you're getting into.

I thought this book could have been better put together. Not too happy with it. Nice photographs though, and I did try out sdome of the recipies with a good deal of sucess.