300 Handcrafted Soaps: Great Melt & Pour Projects

I absolutely love this book! I look at it over and over again! Pictures are fabulous! When my kids' friends are over and they say, "We're bored!" I get out the soap supplies and this book so we can pick out a particular one to do. I have found a lot of the soap molds in the book online, although I wish they did have a suppliers list of where each mold was ordered. That would be great. The fact that the recipes are for one or two soaps at a time is great for my situation. We'll pick different recipes, different molds and make several at a time.

This is a positively fantastic book and a must-have for anyone who is interested in M & P soapmaking, whether it be on a professional or recreational level. The recipes are easy to follow (although I don't necessarily stick to the "per drop" recommendation for either coloring or scent) and the photographs are just beautiful. Guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing! Well worth every penny, you won't be disappointed!

Whether you're a beginner or an expert soapcrafter, 300 HANDCRAFTED SOAPS by Marie Browning is definitely a must-have for your library. If you craft melt & pour and are low on ideas, you'll be inspired after just the quickest look through this book. The photographs are stunning, and I'm sure this will be mentioned in all reviews. Almost all of the 300 recipes have accompanying pictures and this is necessary for such an eye-catching craft. Ironically, the one photo that could have been improved is the cover shot---the background is a bit too dark to effectively highlight the soaps.This book is up-to-date as the author mentions more than her standard coconut oil, clear or opaque glycerin melt & pour bases. Olive oil, avocado and cucumber, goat's milk, colored, and the newer frosting bases are described and pictured. Marie Browning offers helpful suggestions for selecting QUALITY soap bases and her advice is very important for those beginners who tend to buy whatever's on sale or available. Without a decent soapbase you might as well just go on using commercial soap found in your local grocery or drug store, which is notorious for being loaded with synthetic ingredients. As the author of a book about melt & pour soap and a soapcrafter for several years, I've learned that you must read the ingredients. If doing business with an Internet based soap supplier, ask for the soap base ingredients if not already listed on the site. If the supplier refuses this request, don't do business with them as they probably have a low-grade soap base.Ms. Browning has sections on aromatherapy, fragrances, and what makes safe additives such as herbs, spices and oils, along with a few cautions. She can be ultra conservative in her warnings: "Avoid all essential oils, natural herbal products, and salt baths during pregnancy." But she's also straightforward about using alcohol to spray on soap to avoid bubbles and adhere layers preferring to "wait until a skin forms; I then carefully remove the skin with a knife." This is the most effective method I've learned over the years. For those looking to explore the boundaries of hand-milled [sometimes called rebatch] soapcrafting, you'll be advised to purchase a copy of her earlier book, BEAUTIFUL HANDMADE SOAPS. Ms. Browning's latest offering is for melt & pour soapcrafters only! Her recipes can be adapted to hand-milled soap however. She has a handy chart comparing hand-milled and melt & pour [also known as M & P]. I laughed when I read of her advice to use M & P soap within three months as it loses its fragrance and "colorants migrate." I think her usage of fragrances, her method is to measure by drops and she doesn't indicate whether it's a fragrance oil or essential oil as she believes it's the soapcrafter's decision, is minuscule. Admittedly, some colors can be problematic, fading or bleeding in the soap and making a mess. In moderately or uncolored soaps I've personally made, there have been

Just received a copy of 300 Handcrafted Soaps and I am absolutely thrilled with it. It is, as usual for Marie Browning books, pure magic. The projects are well described, the photos are lovely, and the variety is unbelievable. This is the definitive melt and pour soapmaking book. I have a shelf full of books on the subject, and I suspect this is the one I will keep coming back to as my reference guide. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in this form of soapmaking!