The Complete Soapmaker: Tips, Techniques & Recipes for Luxurious Handmade Soaps

I've read a few of the reviews for this book, and I was quite surprised to see unfavorable ones! I love this book! I've been making soap for the past 7 years, so I'm not new to it. I've found this book helpful, and I've adapted my way of preparing my basic soap to this book's way - adding the lye is not any more dangerous then lye is inherently dangerous. Wear rubber gloves, and be careful! Lye is very caustic! I love the hand-milled soap recipes - I've created almost all of the ones in the book. The process of adding herbs, scents, & colors after the soap has cured is much more rewarding than adding these things to the lye/fat mixture (remember, lye is very caustic and will 'eat up' most additives). Hand-milled soap is very luxurious and quite easy to make - very exciting! I have lots of soap books, and this is the one I come back to most often. Try the olive oil castile soap - a nice soap that doesn't require special ingredients; and it's wonderful as a base for the hand-milled soaps, too!

It's cheaper to make soap from The Complete Soapmaker than other books because the ingredients you need (chicken grease, beef lard, olive oil, for example) are readily available and fairly inexpensive. I've been silently appalled at the cost of ingredients for recipes in The Soapmaker's Companion -- you can't find cocoanut oil or palm oil at the grocery store. The ingredients tend toward the exotic and have to be ordered via mail order. I guess I have a pioneer mentality -- I like the idea of using waste grease for something useful. I've been happy with the quality of the soaps I've made from both books, though I tend to favor The Complete Soapmaker because the recipes are more completely saponified. I don't like the slightly greasy feel of superfat soap from Soapmaker's Companion.

From start to finish a very colorful and promising book! Author constantly reminds of safety. Very affordable book. Tells how to make translucent soaps - very detailed!Troubleshooting and adjustment chapter is great! Learned things from this book that I did not learn from other soap books. Author is VERY creative and encourages the reader. Gives many different options for molds,colors, ideas,etc. Wide variety of soap recipes,you pick the one that's best for you! 44 recipes for hand milled soaps. Great detailed chapter on decorating,storing,wrapping and displaying your soaps! Conversion chart short and sweet. Acknowledgments short and sweet also,no addresses for the companies listed. Recommended for the begginner! Top notch!

This was the first soap-making book that I bought and it has really inspired me to make soap not just once but over and over again! The directions for each step of soapmaking are simple, clear and not at all condescending. There are many wonderful ideas and recipes for basic cold-process soaps as well as translucent (glycerin) soaps, gel soaps, shampoos, etc. I really liked how this book has so many recipes for re-batching/hand-milling soap. Discussion and reference on lye, colorants, scents, & cosmetic properties of additives are very well written and easy to understand. This book is an excellent springboard for the first time soapmaker!

I have been making soap for about one year. I have hungrily searched for information and recipes on soap making and have found The Complete Soapmaker to have the best information and recipes I could find. The book lists all of the supplies you will need and their use, many different additives to soap along with their value, as well as ideas on coloring, storing and displaying. I agree with the author, Norma Coney, that hand milling the soaps and introducing the additives once the lye has cured, lends the best value to the additives as the lye will have minimal opportunity to break them down. I love this book and can't get enough of it !