Soothing Soaps

If you live in an apartment, or don't have the space to make soap from scratch, this book is perfect. The recipes are easy to follow and include ingredients that are easily found at the co-op or herb store. The "baby soap" is especially wonderful.

Really enjoyed this book. This book gives the reader information concerning the healing properties of herbs, and some very unusual herbs, at that. Using a glycerin soap base for these recipes gives the reader a quick way to take care of those creative urges that come upon us. This is a good way for the potential soapmaker to get her/his feet wet before tackling the lye process. This would also be good supervised craft projects for those with school age children. What fun!

I think this is a great book for people who are beginners (either beginner soap makers, beginner herbalists .... or both), or more experienced people who have limited time to devote to soapcrafting. The soaps aren't from scratch, but you can buy the base you will need from your local Wal-Mart or an online supplier, and you'll be ready to go. This can save you a lot of the time, expense and frustration you might otherwise incur if you had to manage both the soap base *and* the herbal ingredient additions yourself. Sandy makes this so easy that almost anyone can head into the kitchen, and within half an hour have a batch of beautiful, healing soaps that are ready to use. Some of the "New Age" philosophy (like communing with flowers to ask them to heal you) left me a bit cold .. but there's lots of excellent advice and much good information in this book. - Ela