Handcrafted Soap (Paperback)

by Delores Boone (Author) "All soapmaking ingredients have unique characteristics..." (more)
Key Phrases: active lye, push the tare button, soapmaking supplier, Ylang Ylang, Apricot Kernel, Middle Bergamot (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Soap-making books come and go, many of them focused on saving money or getting back to basics. Washington-based entrepreneur and teacher Boone offers a third option: a high-quality and aesthetically pleasing product. In her introduction, she refutes the contention that soap making is a messy and boring process simply because of the outcome--that handmade cleansers are creamier, more luxurious, and produce a squeaky-clean surface. In fact, all her instructions are designed to encourage an artisan output: explicit data about the equipment and ingredients involved (lye, distilled water, and oils/fats); detailed information and step-by-step color photographs of methods; 28 recipes with design and process topics (e.g., don't add colorants to milk soaps); and others. Along the way, she refutes some long-held myths--for instance, that all castile soap is 100 percent olive oil and that handmade soaps won't work well for Fido. At the end are charts galore--oil properties, lye and water calculation, oil characteristics, essential oil blending characteristics, conversion chart, glossary, and resources. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
Making beautiful decorative soap is easy and fun with this 28-project, step-by-step guide. Within a couple of hours, crafters will have a range of unique, sanitary soaps that are ready to use or wrap as gifts.

The author's no-fail methods enable even absolute beginners to create soaps of all colors, shapes, designs and scents. Each chapter explores a different technique for making hot processed soap--from the "oven method" for large batches, to the author's very own "crock-pot method" for ease of use.

There is also a chapter that reveals proven "recipes" for making a variety of hot-processed and melt and pour soaps.

Almost everything the reader needs can be found in the average kitchen, and the soap materials are readily available at craft, grocery and hardware stores. Best of all, this soap is inexpensive to make and easier on the skin than traditional store-bought soap.=

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (October 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581802684
• ISBN-13: 978-1581802689
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #385,089 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comment from the Author, December 1, 2002

By	Delores L. Boone "HotSoapEtc list owner" (Monroe, Washington United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was originally 178 worded pages. North Light has a fixed format of 128 pages total. I am sorry to say the pertinent things soap makers had asked me to write about was was edited out to make room for pictures and melt and pour including the reason I call olive oil is a neutral oil. I was referencing the effects oils have on softening or it having the ability to reverse the softening power of oils, such as, sunflower. Much of the book is out of context.
I was not given the book for review until 30 days prior to printing, and the charts not all for review, so there was no time for North Light to correct anything. I have, however, posted explanations and corrections that I feel need to be made in the second printing on my soap list, especially the Lye-Water Chart correction.....

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book But "Fluffs" Over Some Topics, November 16, 2002

By A Customer

I love the pictures and the way the information is presented and would buy it for that alone... I double checked some of the recipes and found the lye amounts to be correct. I especially liked the authors way of incorporating milk into hot processed soaps. I would definitely purchase this book again.... YET!!! I thought her introduction was a bit negative and less than motivating about the joys of soapmaking. Her comparison of Cold-Process to Hot-Process was a bit negative also. I also don't agree with the authors information about oils.. I feel there could have been more research done. She mentions that Olive Oil is a "neutral" oil... I definately don't agree! I have found it to be very "active" and conditioning. And, due to the low iodine content, Olive Oil effectively makes a rock hard bar upon curing. The Oil Characteristics guide was misleading to me also...A waste of my time. I have found Canola Oil to be highly conditioning to almost that of Olive Oil. There is very little mention of curing the soap. Crock Pot temperatures vary along with the abilities and experience of the individual soapmaker. Most hot-processors make soap and let it cure about a week, unless they've tested for neutrality. She doesn't mention a whole lot of testing for this or even viable PH ranges for handcrafted soap. Because of this, I question the ability to make the soap that day and use it later that same day. I would personally increase cooking time a bit to insure soap neutrality. But again this is all my opinion! I did like the book because there is so little out there focusing on the hot-process method. I would purchase this again, and feel it's one for the library, yet don't think it deserves the 5 stars because although an experienced soapmaker would be able to fill in the informational gaps, I wish there was just a bit more for the "new" soaper. I'm a tough judge yet still rated this book pretty darn good!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, Fun and Accurate, May 29, 2005

By	Lilla from Oz (South Australia) - See all my reviews

If you want to make hot process soap in the easiest and most reliable manner you can find this is the book for it. This book, and author, are truly amazing. Finally a soap book with easy instructions and color photos for visual learners! Photos througout for slow cooker, double boiler and oven cooking
methods, as well as, the finished soaps.

This book does away with much of the repetative rhetoric that is in every other soap book (warnings about essential oils, naming what some of their properties, etc., as this is can be found online. She gets down to the business of How To Do It along with extras usually NOT seen in other books, such as: including an Oil Property chart so you need not get online to
recall what an oil does, EO blending so that you know the formula of how to blend top,mid and bottom notes, and she even explains briefly what each major fatty acid in oil might do for a bar of soap in the (edited) soap designing section of the book.

On a personal note I joined Ms. Boone yahoo group. She is the only author I am aware of that invites her readers to a group, to email her or ring her with questions. She truly cares for the soap making success of her readers and group members.