Customer Reviews

Soapmaking for Fun & Profit: Make Money Doing What You Love!

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have many books on soap making and they are pretty much all the same.... all someone else's recipes. I have been searching for one that would give me the "base" formula and I found that in this book. You get a short history in how soap began, and thorough explanations on the different oils, fats, butters, and scents.... how each is used and what they do for your soap. It even explains the different aromatherapy characteristics of the fragrance and essential oils. There is a wonderful explanation on how to calculate the saponification values that even an 8 year old could understand. Yes there are a few recipes to get you started in each type of soap making (melt & pour, hand milled, rebatched, and cold processed), but mostly you are encouraged to create you own recipes.

The business part is also one of the most thorough I have found. It covers licenses and permits, copy right laws rights and wrongs, FDA labeling rules, taxes laws, and so much more. This book is a must have for beginners and experienced soap crafters alike!

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 & 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.

This is an excellent book going over how to start a soapmaking business, but the recipes are not the greatest. This is a great supplemental book but not the greatest recipe book.

Buy this book if you're planning on starting a store and selling soap. Otherwise, avoid it.

The recipes are uninspired and uncreative. They're not bad, they're just not creative enough to grab someone who's enthusiastic about making their own soap. For that, I recommend the Susan Miller Cavitch book, "The Soapmaker's Companion".

The business advice, however, is great. I really recommend it if you're interested in starting a craft business.

And that, really, is the only reason to buy this book.

I became interested in soapmaking not too long ago and have been avidly reading anything I can on the process of soapmaking and on opening a business to sell my creations. This is, by far, the best book I've read that covers both subjects. The recipes are great for a beginner, such as myself, and the author provides other tips for creating your own recipes and designs. The best section of the book, however, discusses developing a soapmaking business. The chapters are well placed and flow easily. The instructions are easy to understand. In fact, the entire section can actually be applied to ANY crafting industry. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

I loved the book. It's full of fun personal stories about soapmaking. Plus it's full of all the information needed to make a soap. I don't need a book on fragrance oils and a book on herbs..it's all covered in one book. I made several recipes and got great results. The information on selling my own soap was very useful!

I kept looking through this book, undecided - but eventually had to get it since it is (so far) the only book on soapmaking I've found that has a bunch of advice (Chapters 7 - 10) on pricing, marketing and selling soap.

The first part has some practical advise on soap making from setting up a work station to using essence oils. Basic information for Melt and Pour, hand-milled and Cold Process soapmaking, with a saponification chart, which is useful.

Nerius offers guidelines, advise, basic info which is also findable in various places (on the internet primarily) but it is helpful to have it in book form, and all in one book.

The recipes are secondary to the rest of the book -- there is advise on making your own recipes, which is a good thing to know. A little more information about vegetable oils as a choice for one's basic recipe (rather than one "Vegetarian Delight" recipe) would be good.


Her cold process basic soap recipe includes rendered beef fat/tallow -- it almost sounds as if that's the only kind of CP soap to make - a negative for some of us. (My rating should be a 3.5 stars instead of 4, for this reason). However, in the old days, soap was made with animal fats so this is my own personal criticism.

About 1/3 of the book is a mini-course in crafts business basics, written by Barbara Brabec - a book within a book. This, to me, was too much info in a book on soap making (a lot of the advise does not relate to the specifics of soap making). I would have preferred to do without it, but now I have it handy in case I need it.

Not the ONLY book to have on soapmaking, but a plus to a soapmaker's library.

This book is geared more toward hobby soapmakers than serious small businesses but it's a nice place to start. The chemistry is OK but not great. It DOES have a few nice pictures and the friendly, chatty style fits the author well.

If you've never been in business before and you're really not looking to go into serious manufacturing this is a good get-your-feet-wet book. If you're an experienced business person who's just looking for a good lesson on soapmaking, pass this one up.

I ordered several books and am new to making soap. I found this one so much easier to understand. The information is very clear with lots of easy tips, in terms a new person to soap making can understand. Soap making ratios, tables, etc can be so confusing, she makes it more enjoyable reading. Not really any photos here, but I am less concerned about pictures of soap then I am learning how to make them. I highly recomend this book for everyone, especially those new to soap making.

This book is the best book that I have purchased pertaining to the soap making business. Though this book lacks on recipes, it is very informative on how to start your own business and it gives you vital resources to help you along the way. It is packed with alot of useful information. I recommend this book for those just getting started and thinking of starting a home based business making soaps or other crafts and don't know where to begin. This book is definately a must have!