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The Complete Soapmaker: Tips, Techniques & Recipes For Luxurious Handmade Soaps
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List Price:
$14.95
Special Price:
$2.59
Your Savings: $ 12.36 ( 83% )
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Sterling
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 745
EAN: 9780806948690
ISBN: 0806948698
Label: Sterling
Manufacturer: Sterling
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 1997-06-30
Publisher: Sterling
Studio: Sterling
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Editorial Reviews:
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“Provides detailed instructions and recipes for basic lye soaps made with animal or vegetable fats, and for hand-milled and specialty soaps using almond meal, chamomile, glycerin, and milk....Shampoo and liquid are covered as well.”—Library Journal. “You’ll also learn a little something about the history and origins of soap and soap making, fragrance, herbs and natural dyes.”—Woman’s Day Crafts & Needlework.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Marginal
Comment: I bought this book at a second hand store to add to my soaping library. For a couple of bucks, it's okay. However, it is marginal at full retail.
First off, it's pretty dated. I understand that the dangerous lye instructions have been corrected in later editions, and for that I am glad. I am also hoping that the advice about fabric dyes has been removed. These are not skin safe, and really have no business in soap.
The methods are also outdated. Mixing takes forever using these methods, the re-batching (handmilling in this book) is messy and nasty, and the soap oil combinations are adequate but nothing to write home about. Run the soaps through an online lye calculator to adjust the lye amount before proceeding....you really don't want lye heavy soap.
On the plus side, the book did give me a couple of nifty ideas for molding, some interesting ideas for additives for my own, safer recipes, and it's very beautifully laid out with lots of color photos.
If you're an experienced soaper looking for some ideas, I'd say buy it. If you're a newbie, you will be much better off with Alicia Grosso's "Everything Soapmaking Book" or Ann Watson's "Smart Soapmaking." Both are safer, up to date, and will have you producing soap with a minimum of fuss.
Customer Rating:
Summary: pretty good book
Comment: I was rather amazed at some of the negative comments about this book - if you're thinking of buying it, be aware that many of them are a little melodramatic. This is a decent book, good for starting out. I would supplement it with information from other books and the web.
Obviously lye must be added to water and not the other way around (you may get away with it but you risk a caustic "volcano"); this apparently has been corrected in newer editions, so what is all the fuss about?
Not sure I get why several reviewers are screaming about the recipes being lye heavy. I did what they suggested and ran several of her basic recipes through 4 different online calculators and got almost exactly the same results. I followed her recipes for my first few soaps _precisely_ and the soaps I made turned out beautifully, very gentle and not caustic at all.
Another class of negative reviewer obviously does not understand the difference between actually making soap and "melt and pour". The difference between the two could be roughly compared to the difference between baking a cake from scratch and mixing up a box of Duncan Hines. This is a "from scratch" book - maybe too much effort for some, but EXACTLY what many of us are looking for!
I also agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who praises this book for not wasting your time with the typical nonsense "history of soap" which can be found, fully regurgitated, on dozens of websites. Said "history" is full of speculation presented as fact, and sparse with actual facts.
Overall, this book is a welcome addition to my library!
Customer Rating:
Summary: I Love this book
Comment: I love this book. The edition I have (paperback) does not say add water to lye. Perhaps this has been corrected. It is emphasized in italics not to add water to lye. The photos are wonderful and gives you many ideas.
The recipes are simple ingredients. Since "Real" soap was made from these ingredients. (tallow and lard) It makes wonderful soap. She used a very simple method of handmilling. There are other ways. She keeps it simple. Most books I have read are very confusing. Out of all the books I have read this is my best book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Vegans Beware!
Comment: Con: There are only 2 recipes that feature strictly non-animal based products. In-depth instructions on 'rendering' While you *can* change the oils, the lye calculations must be reformulated to compensate for the differing SAP levels. That, combined with the fact that the recipes are a bit lye heavy is, in my opinion, too much hassle.
Pro: The rebatch section has beautiful (triple lemon) and unusual (lettuce!) soap.
Pro: Very nice photos. Excellent wrapping/presentation ideas.
Recommendation: consider the library before making purchase.
Recommendation: "The Soapmaker's Companion" by Cavitch is more suited for (and leans toward) vegetarian/vegan soapmakers.
Customer Rating:
Summary: My goodness
Comment: Inaccurate and very VERY dangerous.
Mrs Coney suggests adding water to the lye instead of the other way round. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS!
She then goes on to write about "trailings" (trace):
If you've stirred for nearly an hour and still can't see trailings, go ahead and proceed as if you have seen them. The signs are probably there, but you're not experienced enough yet to recognize what you're seeing.
VERY DANGEROUS AND MISLEADING. If proper trace hasn't been reached then it's very dangerous to proceed. Using some oils (such as olive, grapeseed and shiso) it simply takes longer to reach trace. I think most people making soap can understand what a thick custard (trace) looks like compared to milk (no trace).
Some of the recipes call for WAY to much lye! In some there isn't enough oil to change all of the oil into soap, leaving you with a soap which still has lye in it after saponification - very dangerous and a great way for the whole family to get some nice chemical burns. Enter some of her recipes into the online Lye Calculator at the-sage and you'll see what I mean.
More stupidity:
- Even thinking about mentioning the possibility of using liquid fabric dyes and food dyes in soapmaking
- Believing that you need to hand-mill and rebatch soap in order to use fragrances and additives
- Her way of making liquid soap is by rebatching soap with extra water added! Even a novice soapmaker can tell you that the only proper way to do this is by using Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) instead of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) in the soapmaking process.
- She doesn't even bother to suggest to properly test the PH of the soap before trying it: if the soap isn't ready, the lye in it will let you know right away by making your skin sting!.
Terrible, terrible, terrible and EXTREMELY DANGEROUS book.
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