Making Soap from Scratch: A Step-by-step Guide

by Gregory Lee White, Roy Hamilton (Photographer)

With a no-nonsense approach and easy to follow directions, writer and professional soapmaker, Gregory White, shares his experience (and recipes) for creating all-vegetable, cold-process soaps. White takes the reader step by step through the process of making natural soaps for family, friends and for profit. Easy to understand and master. Includes tips time-saving shortcuts, natural scent selections and large production. Includes an essential oil guide. Includes a humorous chapter Bubbles and Bull, A Saucy Look into the Life of a Soap Maker - telling stories of disastrous partnerships, comical customers and the perils of soap making chat forums.

111 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 2010

Reviews

[Trinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good beginner's guide to soap making. Clear and easy to understand; uses standard US measurements rather than metric.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am completely perplexed by this book. The first 60 or so pages are like a regular soap-making book: info about ingredients, methods, etc. Then, for no reason that I can understand, the author spent about 30 pages bad-mouthing people. Trashing on potential customers, trashing on former business partners, trashing on online forum users. It seemed like the author was using this book as an opportunity to settle the score with people. He did this under the guise of letting the reader in on the challenges of running a soap company. However, these were completely idiosyncratic challenges that have to do with his interpersonal relationships, not soap making per se. It came across really petty and unfair.

But...it was also such a car-wreck that I kept reading.

The book also wasn't so useful to me, since the batches of soap that the recipes make are much larger than I would want to make. They'd be better suited for someone who wanted to sell soap or had an enormous number of friends and family in need of soap.