Handmade Soap

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Creative and Concise
Review: As a soap maker I really loved this book. I've probably read all the soap books available on the market. This book has by far the best creative projects and is filled with lovely stylish pictures. It is an inspiration and really makes you want to make soap. Hill's book is hard bound and over all very elegant, yet is surprisingly the lowest priced soap making book I've come across. It would be nice to make some of your own soaps and give the book as a present along with them. I did this recently and it was really apreciated, because the person who gets the gift understands the effort going into your soap.
The book is also clear informative. I bought my first soap book about 6 years ago and I wish this one had been around then. I baught the most recommended soap making book and I was so confused I nearly gave up, before developing my own recipe through trial and error. If you really want to know about a lot of sceintific jargon, this book is probably not for you. For most normal home purposes Hill gives you the basic information you will need as a beginner, with simple "normal people's" language. The book has a quick bullet point format, rather than getting to technical. Again I wish had this as reference when I started. She also answers all the questions I had as a totally bewildered beginner in a section in the back. with simple "normal peoples" language. She also gives honest direct safety information and suggestions. *If you do need more detailed information about the chemistry side, you can always get one of the larger nore technical words only books.

Rating:
Summary: At least there's a supplier list.
Review: Handmade Soap by Tatyana Hill
There are three basic soap recipes given in this book and 14 variations. Measurements are in both metric and American Standard.
-Note: while I have not tried any of these variations, some of them do sound interesting.

Ms. Hill has a listing of nine natural colorants, but she does not explain what these colorants will do in a finished soap.

Safety issues are dealt with fairly well, but I personally wouldn't recommend using vinegar to clean lye flakes off of your skin. Rinse well with running water, but using vinegar in a lye flake that is sitting on naked skin will hurt more that the lye bead by itself. Use the vinegar to clean up lye on your counters, not your skin.

In the back of the book there is a short list of suppliers in the UK, USA, and Australia. It is not a big list, but it is a place to start.

Overall, an ok book, but it is a bit lacking in information.

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: I already knew how to make soap before buying this book. So I've found it simple with great receipes. I usually do utility soaps but if you want to go further in fancy soapmaking, this book is excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Book, but only recipes
Review: I was a little disappointed in this book. I was looking for tips and ideas, and the majority of the book is recipes. But if that's what you are looking for, then the book is beautifully done, and the photographs are great.

Rating:
Summary: Not totally convinced!
Review: Not really convinced about some of the measurements;
1.To much essential oil - makes the soap to overpowering .
2.lye reccomendations to high; ive run them through an online lye calculater to discover that they are abit excessive,and im convinced this is why ive ended up a couple of times with white chunks in my soap.
3.Alot of the food additives such as the Honey And oats are way to excessive in quantitys-I then found with time they went mouldy.
Nice array of ideas , just needed abit more fine tuning than it actually had.

Rating:
Summary: TheStylish Unique and "Responsible" Soap Book! Bravo!
Review: This is the most unique and interesting book on handmade soap I have read. The recipes are all innovative and original and the pictures are the best. The book also successful in providing helpful step by step how to pictures that none of the other books I have seen provide. Hill's book is a welcome change from the various others that are copies of one another or seem to take one recipe and duplicate it from one page to the next with a few slight changes on sent or colour. The recipes are also 100% natural which I found refreshing. I would also like to refute another review from a soap maker from San Francisco that is more of an attack on the style of soap that Hill produces than a valid criticism. Hill's soap is a specific original style placing emphasis on natural ingredients as well as high emphasis the decorative presentation of the soap. As a soap maker I have produced soap successfully with even more botanical matter than Hill suggests with great skin conditioning results. If soap is dried and cured properly bacteria will not result any more than it would in a basic soap. The comment about clogging up drains from botanical matter is preposterous! Only small amounts of additives (oatmeal for example) come off of a bar of soap with each use and can wash easily down the waste pipes (far greater amounts of solid waste go down our kitchen and toilet waste pipes every day.) Perhaps the Californian just is not used to this innovative style of English soap making? As Hill is in a position as a professional soap maker with her obviously successful soap company Savonnerie that most of us would love to be in, she must be doing something right! BRAVO

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginners
Review: This was my first book on soap making, and although the pictures are beautiful I didn't learn enough to feel comfortable trying the recipes. I think this is a good book for getting your creative juices flowing, but unless you are experienced in soap making, you won't get much from this book. There is no in-depth explanation of oils, scents, colors, or anything. Actual instruction in soap making was two pages. No saponification tables, no rebatching instruction, and no discussion of different types of soap making (only cold process). Very vague about many things. I would not recommend this book for a beginner. For ideas and pretty pictures get this book.