Review: Not a Resource for Beginners
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2014
I've only been soaping about a year now but even a noob like me can see that this book is poorly put together, confusing and somewhat dangerous. It looks like a compilation of recipes the author found interesting that she put a preface on and called her own.  I believe this because there is absolutely no consistency in the format of the recipes, they switch between grams and ounces, spelling "color" versus "colour," and the yields are all over the place.  The science of soaping, lye calculation, oil characteristics, molds, colorants (what the heck is micka?)...  all the many variants that make soaping so fascinating and unique are expected to be understood. This could almost be overlooked but to barely talk about safety is unforgivable. The author spares a couple sentences about protective gear and there are a few warnings within recipes, but lye is extremely hazardous and needs careful handling. In recipe 7, the recipe states, "add water to lye" which any soaper knows would cause a LYE VOLCANO on your countertop. Always add lye to water. Oh, and what kind of water, tap, distilled? Another recipe calls for 20 ounces of soy. Soy beans? Soy milk?  Even something as ordinary as hard water can cause wild fluctuation in results.  Some may feel I am being too harsh, but this book will undoubtedly cause someone to at least waste expensive ingredients and at worst suffer a serious burn or damage to their kitchen.  There are thousands of wonderful resources at a soaper's fingertips on Amazon and the internet: this is not one of them.