Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring and Easy to Do Too!
Review: This is my favorite melt and craft soap book, despite my four star rating. The instructions are easy to follow and the numerous photos are great to look at. Even the book's covers are attractive. My favorite projects are the 2 color swirled soaps with a marblized appearance, the faux french milled soap, a bath salts box, and fruit cane citrus slice soap.The author's great instructions on layering and cane building have been most useful in turning my ideas into workable soap pictures. The faux milled soap is also great because I know people that don't consider translucent soap to be "real" soap, no matter how pretty. I absolutely adore the bath salts box, made with a chocolate box mold, because it can be used to hold smaller sized soaps or as a utilitarian air freshner. It's less of a hassle to keep one of these on my desk at work than a bar of soap--very cool! Beginners will really appreciate the troublshooting sections and tips so that you can correct problems and learn how to decrease/increase ingredient to achieve certain effects, like making a soap clearer in appearance. I gave the book four stars because it doesn't contain a lot of information about fragrance mixing or which kinds of plant materials can be safely included in a soap. This is a minor quibble as the breadth of projects are more than enough to keep someone busy for quite some time. I would have given the book 4.5 stars I could. Whether you're thinking of crafting soap for your own enjoyment or to start a business, you can't do much better than this book.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the price
Review: Without question, Kaila Westerman is the guru of all things "Melt and Pour." Her knowledge of the basics of soap crafting is as extensive as her knack for the details. If you're looking for a GREAT book to get you started, this is the one. If you're already involved in soaping and want some great new tricks, you won't be dissapointed. In so far as the references in the back, yes, many of the suppliers listed are associated with Westerman, but frankly, there aren't a lot of reputable suppliers out there and Westerman and the others listed provide only the cream of the crop in the way of soap supplies. Buy this book today, dive in and get soapy!
| 
