As winter approaches, many people begin focusing on indoor crafts such as soap making. Here are some of the best books on learning how to make your own soap from scratch.
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Making soap at home
If you are interested in getting started in making your own luxurious soap at home, you can start out with some basic recipes. While both cold and hot process soap making does use lye, don’t be intimidated. As you become more familiar with the process as well as the ingredients, you can create your own.
These soap making books will help you learn different materials and processes people use to make soap at home. I definitely would pick ones that sound best to you and give it a go.
My favorite soap making books
The Natural Soapmaking Books for Beginners by Kelly Cable is my personal favorite. She is the blogger and maker of handcrafted beauty and soaps at the Simple Life Mom. All the recipes are palm oil free and it includes recipes for shampoo, babies and even laundry. She also shows you what “trace” means as well as making swirls. A super helpful tool is the natural colorants wheel.
Making Soap by Kathrin Landmann is a delightfully short soap making book. There are some interesting recipes including basic soap-on-a-roap and beach ones. Her ingredients are not necessary as natural as possible but they add some interested colors and designs. Includes a great recipe called Coffee Soap. Definitely a good one to check out.
One of the original best soap books is the Natural Soap Book by Susan Miller Cavitch. This book is wonderful and has a large range of recipes you can try. My personal favorite is the One Stop Soap, which only has seven ingredients. The only issue with the recipes in here is the sheer size. Many of the recipes are much larger (about forty 4 ounce bars) than the 1 pound bar I make (about twelve 4 ounce bars).
DIY Artisanal Soap by Alicia Grosso is another good soap book to check out. The recipes are often natural and she covers other processes such as hot process and liquid soap. A very informative book. My favorite recipe is the Mommy & Me Soap recipe. It includes breastmilk!
Pure Soapmaking by Anne-Marie Faiola is another excellent soap making book. She is the founder of Bramble Berry which has all the supplies you need to get started making your own soap at home. The recipes in the book are also fabulous and include ingredients such as nourishing oatmeal and exfoliating crushed walnut shells. Definitely one to read.
Simple Natural Soapmaking by Jan Berry is my other favorite. Jan Berry is the blogger at Nerdy Farmwife and she has some very practical and helpful information on making soap at home. She includes an awesome soap recipe called Creamy Avocado Soap!
The Herbal Academy
If you are interested in infusing your own oils and using different herbs in your soaps, check out the Herbal Academy’s course on Botanical Skin Care. They have a great Floral Delight soap recipe you should try and will teach you the methods in which you can make more and different natural products at home!
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