Making Soaps & Scents : Soaps, Shampoos, Perfumes & Splashes You Can Make At Home

"This book is mostly about making soap from scratch. There are good lists of supplies and formulas included within the book. A good starter book for soap making and precautions in handling your product in process. The scents section is not the main focus of the book but has some good ideas for creating fragrant soaps that should prove helpful."
~ Written on 2008-04-14

"NOT for the novice soaper but interesting for inspiration, this book has some major errors that may cause a novice headaches and make an accomplished soaper wince.

Oh - I am not addressing the fragrance portion of this book

For starters, please do NOT mix your lye solution in a glass container - even Pyrex can shatter and you could end up with horrid burns. And a dust mask doesn't protect you from fumes so keep that in mind!

Please also, don't use crayons to color your soap... I mean REALL!?!

And while I'm at it, don't line your mold with waxed paper. Or go ahead and try it and then come back and write your own review! It won't peel off easily... I recommend freezer paper myself.

And the last thing I will mention is that her discourse on how much better vegetable oil soaps are than animal fat soaps is just plain wrong. She gives a nicely balanced "basic" recipe for veg soaps, but doesn't do the courtesy of providing one for animal (just tallow alone is not great, but then neither would be just coconut oil). You can use almost any blend of oils & fats to produce a soap to meet almost any needs... don't limit yourself to what she thinks is gospel.

Go online, read a ton of free stuff on a few sites, join a soaping forum online or find a friend who soaps... That will be much more helpful than this book.

Some of the references and suppliers are outdated, but it was published in 1999 so that is to be expected, and some are still around.

Good luck."
~ Written on 2008-01-02

"This beautiful, slim book is split into two parts:

1) 'Making Soaps,' which begins with a little history on where and how soap was invented (supposedly in Rome from animal fat and ash residue some few thousand years ago), followed by a list of tools and ingredients you'll need, like a scale, paring knife, measuring cups/spoons, large stainless steel/ceramic pot, rubber/latex gloves--oh, the list goes on and on. Then it goes into the techniques and three methods of soapmaking: cold-process, hand-milling, and melting (aka Jell-O method; the easiest of the three). There are even recipes for you to try, like Cinnamon Ginger, Honey Vanilla, Coconut Rosewood, etc, which just made me hungry after reading them. I guess the nice thing about soapmaking is that if you mess up, you can always eat your mistake (j/k). I haven't tried any of the recipes myself, so I can't say they'll work, especially after reading a few other reviews below. As for the shampoo section (which is also lumped here), that's reduced to just 8 pages--half of which are just photos--and doesn't go into great detail.

2) 'Making Scents,' which also begins with a history on fragrances, this time starting around 3500 BC. I wasn't too interested in this portion of the book, but it is a great place for beginners to start since organic perfumes are relatively easy to make, and the tools required are a lot fewer and less dangerous than for soapmaking. However, as the author mentions, don't expect to make a reproduction of Chanel No 5 or the like. There are some good perfume recipes, though, like Rose Water, Vanilla Bean Water, and Pear Nectar Perfume (none of which I've tried, but would try if I ever got around to it).

I received "Making Soaps and Scents" awhile back as a gift. What I liked most about it was the vegetable-based soapmaking recipes since I'm a vegan and didn't want to get involved with any animal products. However, I'm not very good at arts and crafts at all, and forget about getting me in the kitchen: I usually end up burning something when I do. For that reason, I've been a little wary of attempting any of these soapmaking ideas. For now, I'm happy just buying vegan soap/shampoos at the store, like Crystal (a soap), which doesn't include or experiment on animals. But for those who are into arts and crafts, then "Making Soaps and Scents" is certainly worth checking out. It's quite informative, with several tips and troubleshooting pages throughout the book; not to mention it's very colorful and beautifully photographed, even if the photos are mainly just of soap."
~ Written on 2003-12-08

"This is just another book that was written to cash in on the current DIY craze in toiletries and bath products. The author is not much of a soapmaker, and I ended up selling my copy to a used bookstore within 6 months of ordering it. The book is beautiful to behold, while being a pain to actually use due to the format and size, but is essentially useless next to the few books that actually impart info which empowers crafters to make ingredients decisions because they've learned something. Read Cavitch if you want to learn something.

This is just another abbreviated Martha-esque book."
~ Written on 2003-07-15

"This was my first book that I bought on soap making and I really wished I had read the reviews first, before I purchased this book. I should have known something was not right when she didn't have any pictures of her finished soaps with her recipes. Could it be because they don't come out right, so she has none to show? I have attemtped to make two of her recipes so far. The Cinnamon Ginger,pg. 71; which came out a dark, ugly, smelley, mess. My second attempt was her Soothing Honey Vanilla Soap, pg. 73. What a fiasco that turned out to be. She neglects to tell you that when you add the 6 ounces of melted beeswax to the oils that are at 100F degrees(as instructed by her Basic Vegetable Soap), the beeswax will immediately solidify again and float on top. So, now I had to re-melt everything to a temperature around 150F to get the Beeswax to stay melted and blend into the oils. And of course, my Lye was already at 100F, waiting to be added to the oils. I see now why she has the section of water baths to regulate your Lye/Oil tempertures. You are going to need them. Anyhow, in order for the beeswax to stay liquid, I had to keep the temperature around 150F. And now I wasn't sure which temperature my lye should be. She also neglected to warn you that honey can cause your batch to separate, that happened to me also, when I added the warmed honey. I have serious doubts that my soap will turn out ok, it is in the mold now, but it did not look good when I poured it. And, I also just found out, after reading on the Internet, that you should not add more than 1.5% beeswax to a batch, otherwise you will have problems keeping the batch at a liquid state. The other reason is because of Beewax's hardening properties. Since it makes a soap hard, too much is not good, not unless you have a jack-hammer to slice it:). Well, her recipe called for 6oz of Beeswax, which is more than 13%, I am afraid I will end up with a brick in the morning. Again, this is the type of information she neglects to explain to you. Another important note is the use of Essential Oils in her reipes, e.g., again, her Soothing Vanilla Soap says to use 2 oz of Vanilla Essential Oil. I am not sure who her supplier is, but I couldn't find pure Vanilla Essential Oil for under $194.00, for 2 ozs, and that was for Vanilla Absolute. I am so glad now, that I used Fragrance Oil instead. I don't have 200.00 to throw away, while I try to figure her recipes out. Again, this is book is truly lacking in information. I am sure an experienced soaper would have known these things, but than, I think an experienced soaper would have read this recipe,laughed and tossed it aside. And yes, how much lye do you need for the Lemon Lime Coconut Hair Bar on pg. 91, anyway? That's right, somehow the editor neglected to add it. Hopefully, once I become more experienced, I can use some of her recipes, but for now, I think I will stay with the Internet, so I can learn. Buyers beware, is all I have left to say about this book."
~ Written on 2002-10-20