Soap Crafting: Step-by-Step Techniques for Making 31 Unique Cold-Process Soaps Hardcover – Illustrated, August 13, 2013

Bought this as a used book, it is in very good condition. The book is well illustrated and informative and I recommend it to anyone interested in soapmaking.

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.

Judging a book by its cover, I love hardcover books because it maintains its new look longer. This particular book is also spiral bound; it allows you to leave the page open flat on a table while you look at the recipes.In terms of the content, this book really helped me to understand the overall soap making hobby. The author jumps right into a simple recipe before going into overwhelming details. The book also generally outlines commonly used oils, fragrances, and colors that allows you to get creative early on in your soap making adventure. The only thing I found was that the SAP values in the book are a little on the conservative side (meaning the SAP values are in general on the lower end of published ranges). Some of the recipes are difficult for beginners, but I feel they would become more useful later (I'm not there yet). I really appreciated that the recipes were well described. Some of the little "tricks of the trade" are described to maximize your success.I now have many books in my library, but this is one of the three that I refer back to most often.

This is a good overview of soap making and materials for the beginner. I find it's worth it just for Part 1, which covers soapmaking techniques, equipment, oils, fragrances and colorants in detail. I bought the book just for this, as it's a fairly comprehensive reference tool with good pictures, lots of detail, and the right amount of opinion (although I still go back to Cavitch's "Soapmaker's Companion" if I have a really detailed question).As a home soapmaker, rather than one with aspirations to sell my creations or one who makes soap as an artistic outlet, I find the recipes in Part 2 less helpful. There's a strong focus on funky color swirls and embedded glycerin chunks, which require an amount of investment (in materials, in colorants, of space, of time) that I don't find necessary for my purposes. My impetus for making soap is to have nicely scented soap without a ton of additives -- to know what's in the soap my family uses. For me the color swirls might be fun for a recipe or two, but involve a lot of extra work. I wish she'd included a few more recipes that didn't involve two or more colors. Also, in the recipes of hers I've tried, I've found her batches are too large for my equipment, since I haven't made major investments in big soap molds or large mixing containers, and I don't have the space to cure that much soap. For my purposes, I find the recipes in Barto's "The Natural Soap Chef" to be a better size and more practical (and just as satisfying -- good fragrances, nice colors); that book is easier for a beginner to get going with. But this will be a matter of personal taste.Overall, this book is a solid reference and a good introduction to color, if that's what interests you.

I love this book! Very informative and has wonderful recipes! I will keep this in my personal library forever!

There were some negative reviews about this book which made me almost not get this but I’m glad I did. It’s very helpful for beginners and also teaches you some techniques for seasoned soapers. I don’t think she necessarily forces you to buy her products, you can easily find similar fragrances on other websites for cheaper prices. You can just follow the recipes and design techniques. This book gives you a lot of great ideas and step by step pictures. Definitely nice to have this information on paper right in front of you rather than playing videos back after back. I would recommend this to anyone who loves to make cold process soaps or are interested in learning.

I make cp soaps but this book is beyond my expectation. It blow my mind with various formulations. This book is complete guide to make cp soap from fruit purees, coconut milk, goat milk, beer, red wine, different types of natural clays according to skin types different oils, butters formulations are just amazing and much more knowledge. Each detail of oils, butters, equipment well explained, if you are beginner or cp soap maker Must buy this book. You'll get more from this book in compare of offline/online cp soaps workshop.

Very well written, good recipes, techniques and tips.

What a beautiful book! I bought it as a gift for a friend and it is truly “giftable”. Thank you so very much!

Muito bom !

je remercie, l'auteur de ce livre, bien illustré, détaille en image ,pas pas, des instructions, pour celle qui ont du mal mal a maîtriser la saponification,Bravo, je recommande ce livre.elle vaut la peine. c'est en anglais bien sure