Soapmaking the Natural Way: 45 Melt-and-Pour Recipes Using Herbs, Flowers & Essential Oils

I purchased this book because I wanted some nice and easy melt-and-pour recipes. With lots of little ones underfoot, I don't want to mess around with lye. I'd never be able to get anything made!

So far, I've made two of the recipes in the book: the brown sugar and vanilla soap and the lavender soap. The instructions were easy to follow and the soaps smelled wonderful and worked well. However, neither looked anything like the pictures in the book.

For the brown sugar and vanilla soap, the picture shows a bar that looks similar in color to a Neutrogena bar. When I added the specified amount of vanilla essential oil, the mixture turned almost black. Still pretty, but not what I expected. The second time I made it, I just added a few drops of vanilla EO to darken the soap slightly and add fragrance.

The lavender soap only lists three ingredients: olive oil suspension base, dried lavender flowers, and lavender essential oil. Yet the soap pictured is a deep, translucent purple. Not having any experience in soapmaking, I assumed that either the essential oil or the lavender flowers would provide the colorant. Of course, neither did. The lavender EO is clear and the flowers, while beautiful and fragrant, did not leach any type of color into the mixture. I basically wound up with a clear bar dotted with small flower heads. Still pretty, but again, not what I expected.

I applaud anyone who leans more toward eco-friendly. However, these soap recipes may be animal free, but melt and pour bases usually contain multiple synthetic ingredients and her coloring materials are less than desirable. Also, glycerin is not a soap ingredient; it naturally occurs during the saponification process of handmade soaps. The beautiful cover caught my eye at my local bookstore, but when examined more closely, it was your typical "green bandwagon" book. For those interested in truly making natural soap, I recommend The Soapmaker's Companion or The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps by Susan Miller Cavitch. There is much more satisfaction from making soaps from scratch than from a synthetic melt and pour base. Cold and hot processed soaps just require a few extra steps. Happy soaping :)

The cover of this book sold me instantly! I'm a sucker for anything about glycerin soap and I was so excited to see a book focusing on natural recipes using melt and pour soap.

When I received it I enjoyed looking at the finished soap photos but was disappointed that there weren't any step-by-step pictures. However, the book covers many natural ingredients that can be used which was just what I hoped for, and the projects are easy enough for a beginner.

I have used quite a few soap recipes from this book. The recipes are easy to follow, smell great, and the recipe for men's shaving soap is real nice when my husband shaves. The clay in the soap helps with razor burn and his skin looks soft when he is finished. Also, the lavender soaps are nice in the shower. I have this book posted on my Squidoo pages as a recommended product - I have tried the recipes so I know this is a good offer. Marie Browning has good recipes also.[[ASIN:0806962895 Natural Soapmaking]]

Soapmaking the Natural Way by Rebecca Ittner is a how-to book on making homemade soap. Custom soap that is handmade with natural ingredients can be quite pricey, but now you can learn how to make your own soap!

Soapmaking the Natural Way is a very helpful tool to use if you are interested in making your own soap. I've wanted to make soap for years, but was always scared to do it. I thought it would be this huge undertaking and really hard and messy to do. Surprisingly, it wasn't!

The recipes for soap in this book all really sound (and look) amazing. I ended up making the Brown Sugar and Vanilla soap. It didn't look like the soap in the book, but I used different molds and didn't scrape them. I also put little amethyst chips in two of them just to try it out, and it actually worked (sort of). I'll experiment more with this later.

Some of the recipes from the book that I really want to try soon include:

* Lavender Clay
* Vanilla Sundae
* Berry Smoothie
* Himalayan Magic
* Pomegranate Crush
* Tropical Dream
* Carved Quartz (looks like real quartz!)
* Fruity Cupcakes (soap that looks like cupcakes!)

The basic knowledge of making soap and many easy to make recipes are included in Soapmaking the Natural Way. It is written in a way that is easy to understand and gives the confidence to actually take the jump to start making your own soap.

Overall, this is really the perfect book for learning how to make your own natural soap. Trust me, it isn't that hard! If you've ever wanted to do this, go for it. It isn't expensive and is really quite easy!

* Thank you to the publisher of Soapmaking the Natural Way, Lark, part of Sterling Publishing, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I'm new to melt and pour soap making, but found this book to be just perfect! Lots of basic information in the beginning of the book, followed by recipes, and packaging ideas. Most of the soap recipes are vegan, however, some include goats milk. Love how the author includes essential oils, dried flowers, and dried herbs into her recipes. If nothing else...this books gets your creative juices flowing! Hardcovered with gorgeous photos!

The book presents lots of really fun looking soaps that use melt and pour glycerin bases. Since most of my family has sensitive skin and lots of allergies, I would love to make soaps that smell good but won't irritate their skin. Glycerin soaps can be hard to find in the store. I'm planning on making several of these for my own family and to use as gifts.

Wonderful boook suggested my Mother Earth magazine. The recipes are simple and truly ARE all natural soap making......no artificial dyes, only natural products easily available for scenting and coloring the soap. My only suggestion is to go directly to using silicone baking pans for molding the soap....it is simple and the soap comes out perfectly beautiful!!

Being new to soap making and using only melt and pour, I wanted something to inspire me and get the ideas flowing. This book did just that and more.

I have purchased quite a few soapmaking books recently, and I really enjoyed this one. It is simple, easy to understand, and exactly what I wanted! I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but I'm looking forward to it!