# Good soapmaking book wanted



## newbie nubian (Feb 7, 2009)

I have been lurking on this section for a long time now. I am a beekeeper and have made some lip balm and lotion bars from my beeswax. I'm just dying to try making soap from goat milk and honey. I have read all of the recipes and posts. Can anyone recommend a good basic book? I would like to have something to read and pour over before I give this a try. Thank you.


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## Madfarmer (Nov 18, 2008)

So far, I've resisted the urge to buy a book, much as I love books. Thanks to this forum, I just dove in & made soap. The first batch or two were kinda ugly, but they ARE good soap. The Walmart recipe is virtually idiot proof. You could use the $$ for equipment & supplies, or go th Amazon.com & you'll probably find all the books that are available. Personally, I think we should gig Vicki & Barbara til THEY write one! :crazy Good Luck!

Tom


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## mill-valley (Feb 22, 2008)

I agree with Tom. Most books make it sound overly complicated which is why it took me 4 years to try. That said....I wouldn't mind having a GOOD book around either just for reference if I can't get online; many of the books have incorrect info though.


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## MiaBella Farm (Jul 22, 2008)

I have "The Everything Soap Making Book" and I really like it! I just use it for reference and for ideas.


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## Narrow Chance (Oct 29, 2007)

I'm with most.. I never bought many books on the subject. 

I won a book at a soap gathering.. and I think it is one of my favorite soap books. 
'Soap Naturally' by Patricia Garzena and Marina Tadiello Mine came from Annie Lee's.. at annielees.com 

The other book that inspired me to make soap in the first place was a book sent to me by a friend when she heard me say I wished I could make soap.. but felt I couldn't. 
It's 'The Natural Soap Book' by Cavitch. I've made several things from both books.. and they have turned out great.

If I were to buy a book or two.. these would be the books I would want.


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## Guest (Sep 30, 2009)

I have at least 12 soapmaking books, I read about making soap for 1 year before I got the nerve to make a batch.. the books scared me into thinking it was hard to make.. I tell all that if you can make soup, you can make soap.. The books make it so complicated, when it doesn't need to be at all.. so many myths about soaping out there and so many mean soaping people that are so jealous if you make a soap as good as theirs or better.. Not to say that the books aren't worth reading because you can get lots of ideas from them and plan or tweak the recipes in them.. I just think you should take anything to serious in soaping books except the hazards of working with lye.. TAKE THAT SERIOUSLY... Soaping can be so much fun with experimenting and creating your own designs and scents.. I would not recommend any one book tho.. and never never follow a recipe by measurements that are posted in some books.. Use weights only
Barb


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## newbie nubian (Feb 7, 2009)

Yes, I'm putting it off because it sounds really complicated. I AM nervous about working with the lye. I guess I'm just going to have to jump in an try it. Fortunately, I'm a nurse and work with nurses who love to do product eval for me. 

I have a food scale that I use to weight ingredients for lip balm and lotion bars. Can I use this same scale for soaping ingredients, or do I need something bigger? 

Also, what kind of container do you mix the lye in?


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

The food scale will be just fine, assuming it goes up to at least 5 pounds or so. Having a tare feature (the ability to zero it when it's already got weight on it) is handy, too. I would not use an analog kitchen scale, though, only a digital one (too hard to read the moving bar and too hard to be accurate enough, IMO.) I'm sure that different people use different things for measuring lye and mixing it. I measure my dry lye into a dedicated plastic container (it's a recycled large yogurt container and I marked "LYE" on the side with a permanent marker...it stays with my soaping stuff and I don't use it for anything else...I do wash it after each use...rinsing with LOTS of COLD water first) and then I mix the lye with the frozen liquid I am using in a glass pyrex bowl. I have a dedicated silicone spatula that I use for that, too.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

I started out using the worst book ever. The only thing it did teach me right was about lye. I can't even remember the name of it. Then I found DGI and its wonderful soap makers who share all of the wonderful imformation PLUS they gave me the SOAPCALC and the LYECALCULATOR. Once I started using them my soaps took off Or should I say...I took off in full flight. I got hooked and have come up with some awesome things that make my soaps distinguishable. I mess around quite a bit now, I keep my solid formulas but I play. All the soaps that are from the solid formulas are marketable, which I do sell on small scale, and the others are smaller batches that only I testfirst then all of my guinea pigs get to try
Tam


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## mill-valley (Feb 22, 2008)

I use stainless steel bowls and spoons for mixing lye. If you are a nurse you've probably messed with stuff more hazardous than lye...as long as you are safe and careful (gloves/goggles/etc) you'll be fine.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I do think that learning about the science of saponification and PH is fasinating, and I was lucky Labrat was still on the dish back then, just like alot of us do with the science of goats...fighting those who fly by the seat of their pants for 5 mintues  I so enjoyed Lab Rats posts, alot have been deleted but if you join the forum, you can search the archives for old posts, soapdishforum.com they have changed the name and it is not the forum it used to be.

But agreed, most books and most forums want you to fail, they simply lye (pun intended) to you, make it harder than it needs to be with temps and technique, and way to expensive with all the butters and oils you have to use to make good soap. I used to love telling them to put my walmart recipe through the calculator against using their expensive oils and butters, make a better bar...course not that I really believe all the hype of that calculator anyway  Just like in goats, it's a hobby for many, but it can quickly become a business if you do it right, keep your prices low, your technique easy enough to duplicate into big batches with commercial molds. Vicki


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

I taught myself how to make soap by reading on the internet. After I had been making soap for quite a while my friend gave me a little book on making milk soaps. I had learned enough by then that I just laughed my butt off by the directions in the book. For making milk soaps they had you freeze the milk, unfreeze it, pasteurize it, then go through this long complicated procedure to mix it with the lye. If this would of been the first thing I picked up to teach myself I would of been doing A LOT of work for nothing. I'd read everything in DGI to get you off to a good start. 

For containers to soap in, I like to use old frosting buckets you can get at the grocery stores for free. They are really handy to have. They come with lids too so if you want to make up some oils ahead of time you can just put the lid on and put the bucket away. The ones I get are big enough I can make a batch up to 10 lbs.


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