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Rating: 
Summary: This is the Best Hot Processed Soap book ever.
Review: I loved your book. It made hot processing soap so easy. After several months of trial and error making hot processed soap on my own, I literally stumbled onto your book while searching the web. I ordered it from my local bookstore and have been blessed with wonderful soaping experiences ever since. Your explaination of the various methods, the use of the different additives along with the characteristics of each oil, and your beautiful illustrations led me to try all sorts of new combinations. Along with making my own basic soap recipe, I tried several of your recipes, each one becoming my new favorite! I kept tweeking my own recipe using some of your suggestions and I must say that now, thanks to all your good advice, I make a very nice bar of soap that is beautifully scented. Whether you are aware of it or not, you and I have enjoyed many pleasurable, and successful, hours of soapmaking together. Thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed but not surprised
Review: Much of the info in this book is already available on the internet, and it is unfortunate that the author feels she is an expert on the subject. Her comments on oil qualities and what they do in soap are not backed up by any hard data (much less experience of other soapmakers), and I wish that she had at least consulted with a chemist who could elucidate some info on fatty acids and what they bring to the finished soap. You do not have to be a chemist much less a scientist to make soap, and this book is proof of that, but the author is clearly neither and unfortunately that comes through in approach and attitude.I had problems outlined by others here, e.g. knowing when the soap is "done" cooking, how to deal with a batch that too much water cooked off from, getting rid of bubbles. Clearly, either you do it the author's way or you don't do it at all. That's a poor way to view one's students. The attitude about HP vs. CP was overly defensive. A lot of us in the CP community awaited this book with baited breath because we'd never really gotten straight answers out of the author on the HP lists she runs, but the book was simply more of the same. Either one "gets it" and does HP and it comes out swell, or you're clearly messing up. What I would recommend in lieu of this book is the Ann Bramson book and/or the second Susan Miller Cavitch book. At least the oils info is right on, the technique is okay, and if you're on the internet, you can find instructions for doing HP and adapt recipes accordingly.
Rating:
Summary: Great Pictorial of HP Soap Making !
Review: Put out by North Light Books it's purpose to show BEGINNING hot process soap makers how easy it really is to make wonderful soaps from scratch that are safe to use when cooled. Included in this book, besides full color pictures on every page, are wonderful charts, tips and vendor listings naming reputable sellers of soap supplies, digital scales, packaging supplies and hard to find items.
I am on the author's list and even though I had already made my first HP soap while waiting for the books release I had to get the book because it is the first of it's kind.
If you are an experienced soap maker then you may not want to invest in a this how to book. But for a beginner it is perfect, explaining to the timid newbie how to make lye soap using heat without worries of soap boil overs. There is a reason for doing it the author's way as opposed to what might be found on the Internet: safety. Whether you are a list member of her group or someone she has never met but purchased her book your safety is her first concern and it shows.
The only down side of the book is what the editors cut out of it! What was turned into them was so much more but there was no room in the predesigned format for everything and the editor chose what to add and what to cut. They chose make a great book into a beginner book. Insulting the author is misdirected by those who criticize. Publishers invest money and make most of the decisions on book content. It is a pity they failed to listen to the author who wanted to put it all in because it truly would have been a soap makers bible if they had.
Rating:
Summary: This is the Best Hot Processed Soap book ever.
Review: This book is wonderful for the beginning soap maker, or the beginning hot process soap maker to use. The step by step color photos leaves little doubt to an inexperienced soap maker what is happening or how the cook progresses. Seeing an exact is a good stress reliever that one does not find on Internet boards or email lists where you will get different opinions as to what you should expect. Each person cooks with different temperatures. The buy different brands and shaped pot and fill the pots to varied levels. This book teaches the new soapmaker the safest way to prepare and cook the soap so it will decrease the risk of boil over to nil as long as they follow directions
accurately.
Hot Process soap does take a little practice to recognize when the soap has newly finished. The book advises to not stir the soap during the cook so the new person can see the by-product of saponification (glycerin) floating on top of the finished soap. This is mentioned in the book, most event on page 101.
If a soap maker reduces the water amount needed or lets her soap cool too long before adding fragrance then yes she will have a poor texture soap. But if one knows the tricks on how to add low flash point fragrances at a slightly higher temperature without losing the scent they do not need cool the soap to the point of it looking like mashed potatoes rather than hot Petroleum Jelly
it should resemble.
As for needing a chemist to explain soap making it is not that hard of an equation: fat and oil plus lye plus water will create enough heat to saponify those ingredients into soap and glycerin. My understanding is that synthetic detergents are what chemists have worked with since about 1942. If that is what a reader is searching for they can probably find this information in Essentially Soap written by a Chemist named Robert McDaniel. But if someone is interested in making real soap the safest way possible, and have patience to practice the craft she is learning, then this book is great! Anything unexplained in the book can be easily asked of the author herself who offers her soap list address in the back of the book. I found this an extremely gracious thing to do and as person who signs my real name as opposed to being anonymous, I will say that this act does not sound like someone who willfully put out a poor book.
Rating:
Summary: Not pleased at all
Review: This book was originally 178 worded pages. North Light has a fixed format of 128 pages total. I am sorry to say the pertinent things soap makers had asked me to write about was was edited out to make room for pictures and melt and pour including the reason I call olive oil is a neutral oil. I was referencing the effects oils have on softening or it having the ability to reverse the softening power of oils, such as, sunflower. Much of the book is out of context.
I was not given the book for review until 30 days prior to printing, and the charts not all for review, so there was no time for North Light to correct anything. I have, however, posted explanations and corrections that I feel need to be made in the second printing on my soap list, especially the Lye-Water Chart correction.....
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