Make Your Own Natural Liquid and Soft Soap: Tips, Techniques and Recipes for Soapmaking Success

BeeTee Amara: Wish it came with free audio or video

United States on May 03, 2023

Adry: Está muy completo el libro, me encanto

Mexico on Dec 19, 2021

ElnyElny: She mentioned the fats % by multiplying to SAP Value, then each this number will be added to other fat SAP Value. I calculated it again and again.. The number should be 0.2921, not 0.22875. I have no idea how she got this number from.

And I just regret that she spent a quite of few pages of fragrance restrictions in some countries, and what IFRA restrictions in particular country. I'm not sure if there any soapmakers will export their products overseas, which is there are any, this information may be useful. But to me, it's kinda sad. I wish she would explain more on how to infuse herbs into oils and revealing of tips and tricks on how to make this infused oils without changing soap colors paste.

Overall, this book is helpful for me, a newbie in soapmaking. Will try her soap recipe this week.

United States on Aug 13, 2021

Tenessee: Great book with a lot of information. It has a lot of recipes but also takes you step by step through the process. Really informative

Canada on Oct 21, 2020

Amazon CustomerAmazon Customer: I just got the book today . Start reading it straight away. I can not tell how pleased I am with it . Answers to so many questions I had . I do like a comprehensive book . And oh boy this delivers ! And I purchased another book now too for more and more information . When you want to do something properly done you need the knowledge .Love it !!!

United Kingdom on Sep 09, 2020

Desiree: This book is fantastic for liquid soap making. It goes over both the in depth scientific methods of determining alkalinity and the quick and dirty method of testing. There are also a ton of tried and tested recipes, which will work out really well if you follow them to the letter. A must have for anyone learning liquid soap making.

Canada on Sep 17, 2019

KimikoKimiko: Overall, a really helpful, and information packed book on making liquid soap. Just about every facet is covered, and using the info I easily made my first batch of liquid soap, seen in the photos (recipe #7). I did not follow the recipe exactly, as I used SoapCalc amounts instead. I had a fresh jar of KOH, and didn’t understand exactly why the author preferred to make the recipe lye heavy, and neutralize after cooking. Most current liquid soap makers online, seem to prefer a 0% to 3% max superfat. And my soap came out crystal clear anyway. By the way, let your soap sit and saponify longer, several days longer. It really does help turn the paste to a nice gel.

A few other items were missing, like why adding saltwater to my soap samples ended up turning the liquid soap back to paste, when I did follow those directions exactly. It happened days later. Thickening with borax simply refers the readers to another book. But if you want to know all the details on how to scent your soap, this book covers scents quite extensively. I look forward to trying those, and the no-paste, and gel soaps, using the info in this book.

This book is better suited to those more chemistry...

United States on Feb 11, 2019

onef: This book does a wonderful job of explaining why the chemical process for KOH soap making is different; she makes sure to emphasize that a 'neutral' or balanced soap is not pH neutral 7, but merely a completed chemical reaction with no leftover lye or excess fat. If you need to understand why something works before you can accurately follow a recipe, this is the book for you. I do wish that she would cover paste and liquid soaps that aren't clear, though; she definitely values a transparent liquid soap, and really doesn't cover traditional liquid soap making (for example, old Appalachian methods) at all. I'd hoped to find more about using potash with late, or tallow, and goat or sheep milk, in this book. If she had ventured further into historical methods and how to include them in modern small batch homemade soap making (after all, that's a lot of the interest for most small crafters), it would make this book perfect. As it is, the book is still excellent; I recommend it, whether you're new to soap making or just new to potassium hydroxide soaps.

United States on Apr 11, 2018

javamuse: I absolutely love this book. I have been making liquid soaps (very successfully) for a couple of years now, having learned mostly from the Failor book.
I got this as a supplementary resource, mostly to learn the "no-paste method". It has clarified several things I was still experimenting with, and has some nice features including photos of what to expect, and some soap-fails.

Another item that was very helpful was how to use salt to thicken real liquid soap (as opposed to detergent-based "soap"): I have researched this quite a bit and of all the books, websites, and blogs I've tried, Thompson's book is by far the clearest about this.

I can't comment on how it would work in an absolute-newbie situation; Thompson refers to the Failor book in a few places but I think this one would work as a newbie-book as well, and might be quite a bit easier to start with. This book does not cover the borax method of thickening though, which has been my go-to method and has served me well so far.

One caveat, especially for Canadian users: the no-paste method and gel soaps both require potassium carbonate (NOT "bi"carbonate), at a rate of 5% of oils - that's quite a bit if...

Canada on Nov 11, 2017

commonsense: This is a great book. I read it from cover to cover before I decided to give the laundry and dish washing liquid recipe a try. I was unclear about the dilution procedure for the no paste method so after I couldn't figure it out I got Jackie's email address from some of the comments she had made to the reviews here and emailed her. Within the hour she had emailed me back and clarified the procedure for me. Also, as I was cooking the paste using the no paste method (I was cooking it on top of the stove, don't do that) it got this thick foam on top and I couldn't get rid of it. I emailed Jackie about it and she helped me with that too. Her help was invaluable.This book is a great companion to Failor's book. Truthfully it is more valuable to me because I do NOT like making the paste for liquid soap. Once I get over the learning curve and get more comfortable with the no paste method I will be making everything recipe in this book. Thanks again Jackie for you help. It saved my paste!

United States on Oct 24, 2017