Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started

Basic Soap Making was just that, basic. A good starter book for those interested in starting this hobby and are a little worried about its difficulty. The book proceeds through all of the steps in a very logical order so you can get started quickly. The amount of pictures showing all of the steps is great along with the detailed/quality of each picture. The recipes that are listed in the book will yield small (roughly) 2lbs or less of a soap “loaf”. This means that you can get "your hands dirty" and not have a lot of money invested in your first trial attempts at saponification. Towards the end of the book they cover some of the extra additives that you can begin to experiment with along with a brief description of what each additive contributes to the bars of soap. The area that I was most pleased with was the 5th chapter. This covered creating your own soap recipes and more precisely, several easy to read charts. These charts covered the SAP (saponification) values along with how to incorporate different oils, water quantities and match the amount of lye needed for proper saponification.The only reason I didn't give this publication 5 stars is because I had hoped for a little more details into the actual chemical process. When I get into a hobby; I typically want to know as much about it as possible. Also, you should take into consideration that I am a Chemistry major who enjoys the details and won't quickly loose interest in such information. Now that you know this; you should read my review through such a filter. If you are like me and would like to know more about the actual process/chemical reaction then you might want to get a more in-depth book. However, if you are merely interested in the "How to" parts of this hobby; this is an excellent start. This book did show me where I went wrong with one of my last batches and the recommendation that you should wait 24 hours before cleaning your equipment makes sense.Thank you for your patience with this review and I hope it served to help you with your decision to either purchase it or not. Thank you Elizabeth Letcavage for your publication.

Being new to soap making I purchased three (3) books, Milk Soapmaking by Anne L. Watson, Soap Crafting By Anne-Marie Faiola, The Soap Queen and Basic Soap Making edited by Letcavage. I have reviewed the three and find that each of them has good information to offer. If you are looking for an easy to follow soap making book that is great for a beginner like myself I would recommend both Basic Soap Making –Letcavage and Soap Crafting by The Soap Queen as they have easy to follow instructions as well as pictures to follow along. The Basic Soap making book offers more explanation on types of oils and smells to showing you some common items that can be used to make soap. The Soap Crafting book provides easy to follow recipes as well as easy to follow instruction and explanations. I love not only the MANY recipes in this book but also the explanation on techniques used to get different designs in soap. In my opinion, these books complement each other very well or could be purchased separately. The Milk Soapmaking book is perfect for milk soap recipes as well as explanations; it is a straight read only book so if you’re looking for a picture explanation you will not get it. She does an excellent job of describing what texture you should look for however, if you like an example this book may be best as an accompaniment to one or both of the other books and not as a sole source.

I'm new to soap making and I bought this as well as another book. I love the pictures. I also love the step by step instructions for adding oatmeal, colors and fragrances. Very helpful. It also has a good list in the back of characteristics in soap of different oils/butters. It also contains a helfpul SAP index and instructions for making your own soap.Cons: Each receipe calls for a different size soap box. I made soap boxes at home last weekend out of wood for the first basic soap receipe, but the next receipe calls for a larger box. The next recipe for an even larger box. That's annoying, I don't want a hobby of making soap boxes. I want a hobby of making soap!Also - for some reason none of the recipes suggested use butters, only oils. I'm not sure if that is so readers don't have to buy a ton of different ingredients or just to keep it simple.Overall, its a keeper and I'm glad I have it to refer to. But I've quickly realized that I need to learn to make my own receipes.

This book tends to be deceptively simplistic in the process of soap making. Don't mistake that simplicity though, as for, a process that is NOT hazardous. Lye, aka: Sodium Hydrochloride, aka: Caustic Soda, can dissolve skin to the bone, destroy lungs, and create permanent blindness. If it touches aluminum, it creates hydrogen gas, (extremely flammable) can splinter wood, and erode glass. So pay close attention to every thing the author calls for in reference to safety and then some. Read a Wiki on Lye, and sober yourself up to the task of working with it. Also, note the "one liner" that the soap remains 'green' or somewhat caustic and therefore requires a curing process of 30 days.All that said, the book is well made and well written and a comprehensive guide to some GREAT SOAP!! In the modern world, soap, or what we know as soap, is taken for granted...but try some of this "real soap", and I think you just might find it is a commodity of luxurious standards. The book also encourages you to utilize your own creativity, and the possibilities are exponential.

I wanted to have an assortment of references on cold process soap making, so after reading many, many reviews, I finally picked out 5 or 6 books and this is one of them. I have read it, basically cover to cover, and like having this author's instructions, recipes, recommendations, etc. to go along with the other books I purchased. Now, I just need to have the time to actually make cold process soap. With gardening, canning, and outside work still demanding, I will start my new adventure with cold process soap making once our weather changes; allowing me to work some hours indoors instead of outdoors. I am excited and eager to make some soap, hoping to make different types of soaps for different applications. I don't thing that a minute of soap making will feel like work either, as I think I am going to love the process and will add this to my winter activities. I would recommend this book to any beginner soap maker and I plan to start with a basic cold process recipe, as the author suggests to learn the techniques.