Handmade Soap

"Hill's book is useful both to the experienced soap maker and to the novice. To the experienced hobbyist or commercial soap maker, Hill offers diverse recipes that are an original and imaginative respite to most of the popular soap manuals that may be technically heavy but simply alter fragrance and colour from one project to the next.
For the novice, it is the one book I have seen with step-by-step "How To" visual imagery. It also explains necessary information, such as safety and troubleshooting quickly and responsibly without getting involved in heavy technical jargon. Admittedly it does not have masses of chemical information but the beginner would be better served purchasing one of the lengthier text based instruction manuals. This book excels where others fail through concise information rich visuals and creative projects.
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~ Written on 2002-05-18

"As a soap maker I really loved this book. I've probably read all the soap books available on the market. This book has by far the best creative projects and is filled with lovely stylish pictures. It is an inspiration and really makes you want to make soap. Hill's book is hard bound and over all very elegant, yet is surprisingly the lowest priced soap making book I've come across. It would be nice to make some of your own soaps and give the book as a present along with them. I did this recently and it was really apreciated, because the person who gets the gift understands the effort going into your soap.
The book is also clear informative. I bought my first soap book about 6 years ago and I wish this one had been around then. I baught the most recommended soap making book and I was so confused I nearly gave up, before developing my own recipe through trial and error. If you really want to know about a lot of sceintific jargon, this book is probably not for you. For most normal home purposes Hill gives you the basic information you will need as a beginner, with simple "normal people's" language. The book has a quick bullet point format, rather than getting to technical. Again I wish had this as reference when I started. She also answers all the questions I had as a totally bewildered beginner in a section in the back. with simple "normal peoples" language. She also gives honest direct safety information and suggestions. *If you do need more detailed information about the chemistry side, you can always get one of the larger nore technical words only books."
~ Written on 2002-02-25

"If you want a book on the technical aspects of soapmaking this is not the book to buy. What Ms Hill excels at is creative ways of presenting her soap. Admittedly some of her ideas are not altogether practical, but they would make wonderful display soaps or gifts, and certainly led me into new ideas of my own."
~ Written on 2001-03-02

"This book doesn't give a great deal of technical detail or variety of recipes. It is, however, wonderfully creative in the ideas for moulds, decoration, packaging etc. Not the first soap book to buy, but definitely a good addition to the soapmaker's bookshelf."
~ Written on 2000-12-15

"I expected this book to be more than a brief introduction to making CP soap and to offer inspiration and new recipes. Unfortunately it doesn't cover anything not covered in the Handmade Soap Book and doesn't really inspire either. There is not enough hard information about ingredients or processes not is there enough information to encourage newcomers to soapmaking to experiment safely...The suggestions for packaging are rather strange too as one of the beauties of handmade soap is in the using. I'm not sure how i'd feel about lathering up with clove studded soap..........all roughed up probably. Sorry Tatyana........."
~ Written on 2000-08-12