Rating: 
Summary: The Grandmama of all Soap Making Books
Review: This is the book that got me started on my own soap-and-toiletries making business, too. It is very inspirational! Ann Bramson even managed to get me to boil down many, many pounds of utterly disgusting beef fat to make my own tallow (I do NOT recommend this -- it will make your entire house smell like a meat-packing plant), but I'm glad I can say now, as a veteran soapmaker, that I did try it a couple of times. I quickly moved on from the beef tallow and lard-based soaps to the vegetable based soaps, though. I have a few quarrels with this book, such as stirring raw soap with a wooden spoon (only recommended if you like having wood splinters in your soap as an exfoliater) and adding water to the lye instead of the lye to the water (this could cause an eruption of lye to shoot right out of your container, very dangerous). I also think that her extravagant use of essential oils could bankrupt the uninitiated who don't know how much those little teeny bottles cost! But all in all, this is a wonderful, thorough book, a real pleasure to read. She has a great sense of humor and really conveys her obsession with beautiful, handcrafted soap very well.
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