The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps [Paperback]

Susan Miller Cavitch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1995

The definitive resource for making vegetable-based soaps from scratch, from buying supplies to cutting the final bars.

 

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

It's fun to make your own natural soaps at home!

Susan Miller Cavitch takes the mystery out of soapmaking, sharing her formulas for making high-quality vegetable-based soaps that are good for your skin -- and free of synthetic additives.

The Natural Soap Book gives you:

* Clear directions and illustrations to guide you step-by-step through the entire process -- from buying supplies to cutting and trimming the final bars.

* Recipes for old favorites like oatmeal/honey and avocado soaps to Susan's unique recipes for goat milk, borage, and even a tropical shampoo bar.

* Creative wrapping and gift packaging ideas.

* Formulas for exotic specialty scents like Holiday Spice, Sweet Earth, and Southern Summers.

* Profiles and tips from professional soapmakers.

About the Author

Author Susan Miller Cavitch is the founder and president of Soap Essentials, Inc., a Memphis-based retail mail-order company producing homemade herbal products. She is the author of The Natural Soap Book and The Soapmaker's Companion. Susan lives in Eads, Tennessee.

Product Details

• Paperback: 182 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (January 8, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882668889
• ISBN-13: 978-0882668888
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Candlemaking
  • #24 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Crafts & Hobbies > Soap Making
  • #30 in Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Chemical

More About the Author

Author Susan Miller Cavitch is the founder and president of Soap Essentials, Inc., a Memphis-based retail mail-order company producing homemade herbal products. She is the author of The Natural Soap Book, which gained praise from Debra Warner from the Orange County Register: "The Natural Soap Book will be a welcome guide for anyone taking up the home craft." Country Living magazine also had acclaim for this book: "Ms. Cavitch walks her audience through the complete process of soapmaking, and teaches readers everything from how to acquire materials and equipment to how to trim the final results." She has also written The Soapmaker's Companion. Susan lives in Eads, Tennessee.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very thorough and useful book January 30, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is _the_ book to acquire if you are planning to make vegetable oil based soap. There's a lot of information packed in this book. It presents all the elements of soapmaking very systematically, and explains the simple chemistry and logic behind the recipes and techniques. It specializes on the best ways to make vegetable oil soap -- which can differ from animal fat based soap. I'm a beginner. I made my first batch last night and it is happily solidifying in the molds as I write. I would buy this book in addition to whatever other soapmaking books you feel inspired to buy, because it covers just about everything and is a really good reference. It includes a large appendix of suppliers and a reassuring table of what to do when things go wrong. My only complaint is that it doesn't have a good description of what "tracing" looks like -- tracing being the sign that your soap is ready to pour into the molds. But, none of the other books I read did either. It's subtle, and I think it's the sort of thing you learn to recognize after you've made a couple of batches. Note that each of the eight basic recipes makes 40 bars of soap, so be prepared to share with friends!! If the amount of info in this book seems a bit overwhelming, beginners might also want to consider picking up a copy of Ann Bramson's book.

141 of 150 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Good, but........ November 24, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a beginner soap maker and found this book to be extremely informative. There is a great amount of information regarding the different types of oils and additives you can use. But, being a beginnger, I found the recipes waaay to intimidating and extremely large. I almost got turned off of soap making thinking that I would need a scale to measure lye to tenths of grams! (i.e. lye weight 567 7/10 gm) Also her recipes call for you to make batches of at least 40 bars each, an amount I was not interested in making. There is a lot of good information in this book, but I think that this book is for people extremely serious about soap making.

110 of 118 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars some basic misinformation problems with these books September 14, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

People either hate these books by Cavitch or they love them,and there's little room in between. Her book is a very valuableresource for technical info on oils/fats and their properties, and for basic ideas for recipes, however, if you follow all of her instructions you are missing out on some basic facts and better ways of doing things (i.e. you do NOT need to use GSE, just don't superfat your soap so dang much; USE a stick blender, the author probably had a batch trace too quickly and/or seize and thus swore off the stick blender; you do NOT need to use oxides nor are they "natural" colorants, they're metal-based and synthesized in labs; don't swear off the use of tallow or lard, and don't rely on the author's stats on them either; don't mistake her saponification table for potassium hydroxide as being one for sodium hydroxide, this will lead to disaster). You don't need to weigh your water either. These aren't serious procedural snafus, but the author obviously picked them up early in her soapmaking and has not let go of them. You will need GSE if you follow her recipes exactly and don't recalculate the lye, because her recipes produce soap that has enough excessive fat to make it go rancid after some months.

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to the Cold-Process Method August 24, 2002

By A. Kulcsar

Format:Paperback

If you are looking for an solid foundation of information for the cold-process method of soapmaking, get this book and its companion, "The Soapmaker's Companion" by the same author. This book provides a great deal of information to making cold-process (mostly vegetable-based) soaps. Some of the material is a little heavy (the parts on the chemistry of soapmaking) but is very important information if you want to learn to be creative and create your own recipes. The recipes are quite large, as some other reviewers commented, and the great thing about the companion book is the smaller recipes. You will not be able to find most of these ingredients at your local supermarket (e.g. pomace olive oil and palm oil). The recipes call for the real ingredients used in the industry that you will have to find - but with the popularity of the Internet, finding these ingredients is much easier than it used to be. This book may not be a one-stop-shop for information, but this book and the Companion come VERY close!

95 of 103 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not just the same ol' thing. May 9, 2000

By P. S. Black

Format:Paperback

I really enjoy the straight forward writing style of Ms. Cavitch. She speaks to you like you're having a conversation with a good friend.

In the Introduction she gives some basic chemistry of soap lessons which are very easy for the non chemist to understand. Then she goes on to explain different types of soap, different fats and oils what when you might want to use each. All through the beginning are charming, little stories about real soap makers and their businesses. What a nice touch.

This seems to be a very well thought out book with just oodles of information on just about every aspect of making soap. She's even included a small section on blending essential oils and give some suggested blending for certain scents.

The coloring section isn't as lengthy as I think it could be, but it is a good start for the beginner, especially for those who want to start using herbs for coloring soaps.

I can't say I agree with Ms. Cavitch on her temperatures explanation. But that does seem to be more of a preference thing. She feels that vegetable soaps made over 95 degrees F are problematic, but I have never found that to be the case. Actually... I have found the opposite to be true.

Weighing your essential oils in advance as she suggests you do in Step 1, is going to give you a problem unless you tightly seal it. I learned right away that they will evaporate into the air. What you weighed out before you started stirring will be partly gone by the time you use it! She does however, later in another section, mention that you should tightly seal the container.

A picture, an actual photograph, of what 'trace' means would be nice. Would it kill these authors to say something like, "thick like pudding"?... No one can ever figure out what is meant by the word trace. Newbees sort of freak out about it, and I can understand that.

There is one thing that I really don't like about her recipes. That is, some of the items are in pounds and some of the items are in grams. Unless you're good at converting or your scale does both, you're going to have a problem. It would have been much nicer had she offered all items in both grams and ounces and then you could use what you use. I can see why she's doing it. Grams offer much better accuracy with those items like lye and grapefruit seed extract. But many who aren't interested in doing conversions, won't use the recipes. :(

Cavitch is working with that old, bothersome method of matching your lye solution temp with your oil temp at about 80 degrees F. I don't recommend this method as it causing a soap separation many times when the temp drops and saponification slows to a crawl. But a good many people still use this method.

Her suggestions that a mostly olive oil soap can trace in about 7 minutes I don't agree with at all. I have hand stirred more like 3 hours for mostly olive soap. I wouldn't want anyone to think that they can actually accomplish this and not have under stirred soap. Pomace (a lower grade of olive) will trace quickly, but I don't think that can be done in less than 1/2 hour with hand stirring.

I guess the really big problem people have with Susan Cavitch is her method of figuring lye. What she does works, however, soap makers don't 'discount' lye, they add more fats/oils. It is quite confusing if you talk to someone who figures things with her discount method. It is just one of those annoying things. Some say the glass is half full, others half empty. Well, for Cavitch alone, the glass is half empty.

There are many recipes in this book and also a section on things you can add to the recipes and how to add them, such as herbs, superfat oils, etc., to make some varied soaps. There is a chapter on suggestions on wrapping soaps decoratively which is fun too.

All in all, I think this is a high quality book. I think the actual method of making soap is outdated now, but aren't they all? We have finally gone beyond the Ann Bramson book, but the authors have not caught up yet.

I have my little pet peeves about the book, but I think everyone should have a copy. All that chemistry is good to have so that you can talk to Dr. Bob later and actually understand him! :) . . .

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