Simple & Natural Soapmaking: Create 100% Pure and Beautiful Soaps with The Nerdy Farm Wife’s Easy Recipes and Techniques

I think this book is essential for anyone looking to start making soap. I wanted to make my own soap because we decided to use less plastic and only buy shampoo and soap in bar form. I was just sick of constantly buying bars of soap, and thought it might be a good idea to make my own. I was a little lost with what exactly I'd need, even after watching online tutorials. I found this book at the right time, and I learned just what I'd need to set up my beginner's soap studio and the basic oils I'd need to get started. The book has detailed step by step instructions for both cold and hot process soap, a run down of basic materials you need to get started (like a hand blender, a few mixing bowls, etc), and explains the chemical process of soap making and how lye works. She even gives you a tutorial on cleaning up, which I didn't realize is a bit trickier than you'd think. After you learn the basics of soap making, then you get to the recipes, which are the bulk of the book. They start out really basic which is great for starting out. I made the basic bastille soap, and the shea butter bastille soap, which are the pictures attached. You learn that you can do a lot with some lye, a lot of olive oil, and bit of coconut oil. The recipes get more complicated as you get further along in the book. What I love most about this is that once you know a basic soap recipe, you can customize everything about it to create your own. Jan Berry gives you tutorials at the end of the book which cover colors, fragrances, infusions, and other additives. She also teaches you how to use a lye calculator, so you can even substitute your oils or create your own soap recipe. Using the tutorial about milk soaps, I was able to make a bastille soap with goat milk and it turned out great! There's also a troubleshooting portion in the back, which I'm sure I'll need eventually, but is very helpful when trying to avoid problems in the first place. I would definitely recommend this book as an absolute essential for anyone curious about soap making or just starting out.

I love this book. I'm new to soap making and I was looking for a book with recipes that were easy to follow and would turn out great every time. Someone recommended this book, so I bought it. Let me tell you, I've made over 20 batches of soap now and every recipe I've tried has been amazing. My favorite is the milk honey and oatmeal soap because I have dairy goats and like to use my milk to make stuff. I highly recommend this book. There are more advanced recipes in it as well, so I think it's a good book for beginners to advanced soap makers. I've recommended this book to a lot of people.

I did like this book. The pictures of the soap were very helpful, as was the suggested substitutions for oils at the bottom of the recipes and the adjustments needed to the lye when making them. I also liked the chapter on natural soap colors and the example bars to show how they look. And there are so many recipes in this book that I want to try! However, I think the other book I have on cold process soap making had better, clearer instructions on the process - I'm very glad I began making soap with that book instead of this one. This one has a decent set of instructions, but I felt there was room for some confusion, especially for a first timer. I also wish it had more information on essential oils and how to use them in soaps. Over all, however, this is definitely a favorite book already, and I'm just getting started! The natural recipes and the use of easy-to obtain ingredients or viable substitutions for harder to find ones makes it a go to book for me!

This is a gorgeous book filled with so many wonderful soap recipes that I can hardly decide which to decide first. She starts with basics and works up to trickier ingredients and techniques. Her detailed instructions make even a novice capable of producing a good bar of soap. The best part for me is that there is a picture for every soap recipe, so you know what your soap is supposed to look like. She even has pictures of various colored soaps at various stages of cure, so that you know what a finished product will be like, allowing the soap maker to choose the amount of colorant to get the desired color. My biggest problem with the book is trying to choose which recipe to start with. They all sound (and look) so wonderful! For anyone interested in soap making, I highly recommend this book!

This is a good resource book. Lots of interesting recipes - 50 of them. Some I’m really looking forward to making, while a few not so much. So in that department, there’s probably something for everybody to get excited about. My biggest complaint, and the main reason I took off a star, was the book layout. Each recipe has a full color page showing the finished product. Beautifully done, but making the opposite page too crowded with soap making ingredients and procedures. It really made the recipes “look” complicated at first glance. I love the pictures, but I would have resized them to a half page or less and used bigger font for the recipes. I would also spread out the recipe a bit to make it “feel” like you can focus on one step at a time instead of digesting the whole recipe at once. On the other hand, Jan Berry deserves 10 stars for her substitution and tip boxes. I absolutely love the fact that you can feel comfortable with putting your own individual preferences on the recipes, even before you gain years of experience and have years of experimenting.

My first book on soap making. Learned a lot. Wish she had more recipes using tallow, which I have a LOT of available to me. SO much with coconut oit and allergic to it. It gives me trigger finger. Painful....

I grew up listening to my mother tell me about being raised around women who could do everything...from pottery, to basket weaving, to growing vegetables, to raising cattle....everything...to include making soap. I have since retired and I have found myself with ample time to pursue hobbies that are important and meaningful to me. I have a respectable understanding of chemistry and how substances interact to make new ones, so the process of making soap wasn't scary to me. But the artistry of it is what I wanted to learn. I purchased a few different soap making guides, and each is excellent in its own right, but I love this one the best. I wanted to learn to make soap the traditional way, and none of the guides I purchased discussed the hot processing of soap. This one did. It made both processes really simple and easy to understand. After reading this book, I had a much better understanding of how to create my own recipes...and to approach to the process fearlessly, but also giving the process the respect it deserves. I think anyone who endeavors to create something as pure and timeless as soap will gain a great deal from purchasing this book. Every one that I give gifts to will receive a few bars of soap this Christmas, and a large part of that is due to this amazingly well written and detailed book. It is worth the money. I highly recommend it!

If you are interested in soap making I would recommend this book. Lots of important details, notes, tricks and recipes.

I'm relatively new to soapmaking. I've made about a dozen batches of soap. I've bought other soapmaking books but when I saw that this one came out I was instantly drawn to buy it. I'm glad I did. It has a ton of very useful information comfortably divided into subjects that are each a quick read and can be easily marked for future reference. Besides being informative it's inspirational as well since the writer included lot of terrific appealing recipes with ingredients many of which you most likely already have if you've delved in to this craft. That said, in most cases they are not difficult to obtain if you haven't got said ingredients on hand. It also has many lovely photographs which make you want to get soaping right away! Aesthetically pleasing and packed with useful information. It's just what I had hoped and imagined that it would be. I think I will be making a lot of soaps from this book.I highly recommend it! Soy relativamente nueva al tema de los jabones. He elaborado como una docena de distintos jabones. He comprado otros libros que tratan el tema de elaborar jabones y este me llamò la atención cuando vi que estaba en venta. Me alegro de haberlo comprado. Tiene una gran cantidad de informaciòn realmente útil, dividido de forma comoda, por tema. Cada tema se lee rapidamente y se puede marcar de forma que sirva para referencia en un futuro. Aparte de dar mucha informaciòn también da mucha inspiraciòn ya que la autora ha incluido muchas recetas con ingredientes que es muy probable que tengas si ya te has lanzado ha hacer jabones. Y en la mayoria de casos son bastante faciles de conseguir si no tienes dicho ingredientes a mano. Aparte de las recetas tiene una gran cantidad de fotos realmente bonitas que hacen que te entren ganas de empezar a elaborar las recetas inmediatamente. Esteticamente agradable e informativo. No dudo en recomendar este libro.

Ich habe es als Geschenk für ein Familienmitglied gekauft. Es kam gut an und wird fleißig genutzt. Ich bekam im Gegenzug auch schon eine hübsch verpackte, selbstgemachte Seife geschenkt. Man kann das Buch also weiter empfehlen.

Browsing through the book, the recipes are easy to understand. The molds are gorgeous. The photos looks amazing. And it helps that the weights used are given "grams" equivalent. Less time to convert. Although some oils/fats and herbs are a bit difficult to find in my area. It gives me a general idea the possibility of creating my own.

What a wonderful book full with useful information both for beginners and those that have made a bar or two before. Clear instructions, amazing pictures and recipes with easy to find ingredients. Would recommend this book to anyone who loves soap making!

Hermoso libro con un montón de recetas, pensé que era de pasta dura pero no importa pues el contenido es maravilloso.