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Easy Soap Making: Natural Recipes for Creative Melt-and-Pour, Hand-Milled, and Cold-Pressed Soaps
Easy, creative recipes to get you started with soap making
Making homemade soap means being able to create beautiful designs while using the best natural ingredients for the body. Unlock the artistic possibilities with the tutorials and recipes in this beginner's soap-making book. Get started right away with recipes that take an hour or less of active time and use just a few ingredients. Easy-to-follow instructions mean that anyone, no matter their level of experience, can enjoy making handmade soaps to gift, display, or use every day.
Multiple methods—Explore the differences between melt-and-pour, hand-milled, and cold-process soap making.Natural ingredients—Discover how to choose and use ingredients like carrier oils, essential oils, colorants, and decorations.A variety of recipes—Nourish thirsty skin with creamy Yogurt Moisturizing Soap, invigorate the senses with the woodsy fragrance of Rosemary Peace Soap, or gift indulgence in a bar of Warm Vanilla and Honey Soap.Whip up beautifully simple bars with this standout among soap making books for beginners.
Making homemade soap means being able to create beautiful designs while using the best natural ingredients for the body. Unlock the artistic possibilities with the tutorials and recipes in this beginner's soap-making book. Get started right away with recipes that take an hour or less of active time and use just a few ingredients. Easy-to-follow instructions mean that anyone, no matter their level of experience, can enjoy making handmade soaps to gift, display, or use every day.
Multiple methods—Explore the differences between melt-and-pour, hand-milled, and cold-process soap making.Natural ingredients—Discover how to choose and use ingredients like carrier oils, essential oils, colorants, and decorations.A variety of recipes—Nourish thirsty skin with creamy Yogurt Moisturizing Soap, invigorate the senses with the woodsy fragrance of Rosemary Peace Soap, or gift indulgence in a bar of Warm Vanilla and Honey Soap.Whip up beautifully simple bars with this standout among soap making books for beginners.
133 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 13, 2021
107 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 21, 2021
When Kelly Cable’s daughter developed life-threatening allergies, she took a long, hard look at what she had in her home. She started with the food they ate, eliminating anything that wasn’t all-natural. That helped a lot, even helped her own chronic pain and fatigue. But that wasn’t enough. Next, she looked at the their bath and beauty products, and in wanting to get rid of all the chemicals in their soaps, she tried making some herself. And she fell in love.
Now Cable is a soap-making enthusiast, and she is here to share her enthusiasm for the hobby to anyone else who is interested. She writes for beginners, who have never even tried to make soap before, and she writes to those with a little experience who want to take their skills to the next level. She uses few ingredients and makes her recipes easy to follow, so that anyone can get the basic ingredients and jump right in to the craft of making their own soaps.
She talks about 3 different processes to use, starting from the easiest to more challenging. First is the Melt-and-Pour, where you start with a soap base, melt it down, mix in scents or add ins, and pour it into a mold. Using this method, you can make a Cotton Candy Soap, Warm Vanilla Coffee Scrub Soap, Cleansing Tea Tree and Charcoal Swirl, Rosemary Peace Soap, or Bath Crayons, for example. The Melt-and-Pour method is especially good to get kids involved.
Next is the Hand-Milled soaps, where you take a soap base and or grate it to melt it slowly before resetting it. You can recycle your botched batches of soap here, or you can make a fresh Cold-Process Soap Base to use. But with this process, using a slow cooker on the lowest setting, you can craft a Yogurt Moisturizing Soap, Cinnamon Oats Soap, Lavender Poppy Seed Soap, or Moroccan Lemon Soap, just to name a few. Where the Melt-and-Pour soaps are ready to use almost immediately, these take 1-7 days to cure before they’re hard enough to use.
And most complicated is the Cold-Process Soap, where you have to add the lye yourself (although the Cold-Process Soap Base for the Hand-Milled soap also uses the lye, if you decide to take that route). This method gives you total control over all the ingredients, but the lye process is dangerous and should only be executed under the safest of circumstances (Cable explains all that in the book). But with this soap base, you can create soaps like Warm Vanilla and Honey Soap, Green Tea Herbal Soap, Deep Night Soap, Light Herbal Shampoo, and even Laundry Soap. These need to cure for 4-6 weeks, but you get a pure soap of your own creation to keep your family healthy and to give as gifts to friends.
Easy Soap Making has lists of equipment and ingredients to use for scent and color and texture. She shares ideas for adding some artistic flair to your designs and lists words you need to learn as you grow as a soapmaker. The book even includes resources for equipment and ingredients as well as other books you can turn to or ideas.
I love to make my own soaps, but I have not yet tried to Cold-Process my own soap bases. I am intimidated by the lye, but maybe someday I’ll get there. In the meantime, I have lots of recipes and ideas to play with as I experiment with some of these recipes. But even without using the Cold-Process section of this book, I am glad to have the information. Knowing the the option is there makes me know that I can get as involved with this hobby as I want to. And while I love all the photos of the beautiful natural soaps through the book, I do wish there were more photos of the process of making the soap. I think it would be helpful to see pictures of the various steps, especially for beginners.
Egalleys for Easy Soap Making were provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.
Now Cable is a soap-making enthusiast, and she is here to share her enthusiasm for the hobby to anyone else who is interested. She writes for beginners, who have never even tried to make soap before, and she writes to those with a little experience who want to take their skills to the next level. She uses few ingredients and makes her recipes easy to follow, so that anyone can get the basic ingredients and jump right in to the craft of making their own soaps.
She talks about 3 different processes to use, starting from the easiest to more challenging. First is the Melt-and-Pour, where you start with a soap base, melt it down, mix in scents or add ins, and pour it into a mold. Using this method, you can make a Cotton Candy Soap, Warm Vanilla Coffee Scrub Soap, Cleansing Tea Tree and Charcoal Swirl, Rosemary Peace Soap, or Bath Crayons, for example. The Melt-and-Pour method is especially good to get kids involved.
Next is the Hand-Milled soaps, where you take a soap base and or grate it to melt it slowly before resetting it. You can recycle your botched batches of soap here, or you can make a fresh Cold-Process Soap Base to use. But with this process, using a slow cooker on the lowest setting, you can craft a Yogurt Moisturizing Soap, Cinnamon Oats Soap, Lavender Poppy Seed Soap, or Moroccan Lemon Soap, just to name a few. Where the Melt-and-Pour soaps are ready to use almost immediately, these take 1-7 days to cure before they’re hard enough to use.
And most complicated is the Cold-Process Soap, where you have to add the lye yourself (although the Cold-Process Soap Base for the Hand-Milled soap also uses the lye, if you decide to take that route). This method gives you total control over all the ingredients, but the lye process is dangerous and should only be executed under the safest of circumstances (Cable explains all that in the book). But with this soap base, you can create soaps like Warm Vanilla and Honey Soap, Green Tea Herbal Soap, Deep Night Soap, Light Herbal Shampoo, and even Laundry Soap. These need to cure for 4-6 weeks, but you get a pure soap of your own creation to keep your family healthy and to give as gifts to friends.
Easy Soap Making has lists of equipment and ingredients to use for scent and color and texture. She shares ideas for adding some artistic flair to your designs and lists words you need to learn as you grow as a soapmaker. The book even includes resources for equipment and ingredients as well as other books you can turn to or ideas.
I love to make my own soaps, but I have not yet tried to Cold-Process my own soap bases. I am intimidated by the lye, but maybe someday I’ll get there. In the meantime, I have lots of recipes and ideas to play with as I experiment with some of these recipes. But even without using the Cold-Process section of this book, I am glad to have the information. Knowing the the option is there makes me know that I can get as involved with this hobby as I want to. And while I love all the photos of the beautiful natural soaps through the book, I do wish there were more photos of the process of making the soap. I think it would be helpful to see pictures of the various steps, especially for beginners.
Egalleys for Easy Soap Making were provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.
October 28, 2024
This was an excellent beginner's book. I loved the intro because even though my family isn't suffering from allergies to toxic ingredients, we are still on the same path to simplify the things we use daily. Natural ingredients, homemade, eco-friendly, AND budget friendly. I really appreciate the mention of melt and pour soap because it seems like the perfect place for me to start. I'm not sure I'm ready for the chemical mixing of cold-process soaps. Great read, I can't wait to try these recipes! Also, she included laundry/dish soap as well as shampoo bars in this book! Five out of five stars!
July 26, 2021
A very well done, well thought out book! As a newbie to soapmaking, this is exactly the book I needed to get me started. I can't wait to work my way through the different processes!
*This book was given to me for review. My opinion is entirely my own.
*This book was given to me for review. My opinion is entirely my own.
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April 10, 2025A very beginners guide to soap making — I’m looking for something a little more intense and comprehensive so I will probably read her “The Natural Soapmaking Book for Beginners” which she says is a more complete guide
January 1, 2022
Simplifies all the different ways to make soap. Then throws in recipes for each!
March 26, 2024
All the recipes are for 2 pound soap molds. This is far from the most common molds used and found on Amazon.
November 7, 2022
Rating 5 stars until I can try these recipes out. It certainly seemed like a good beginners guide to me!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews