Rating: 
Summary: Just one recipe. One. That's it.
Review: This is a really beautiful book -- the photography is gorgeous and I like Sandy Maine's style of writing. She is very readable.But... There is one recipe in this book, dressed up with different fragrance/essential oils and "fillers". I think this shows a total and complete lack of imagination, considering the WORLD full of God's beautiful, healing oils He put here for us to enjoy. But all it is is olive oil, coconut oil, Crisco...olive oil, coconut oil, Crisco...olive oil, coconu-- well, you get the picture. I also think that adding 3 ounces of lavender to that baby soap is going to just about knock the baby across the room. That is an awful lot of scent for a baby soap. I'm not sorry I bought the book. The pictures alone gave me some great ideas for packaging and displays. But buy another book if you want some REAL recipes. Save the money you would have spent on buying the enormous quantities of essential oils for these soaps and spend it on a gorgeous bottle of avocado oil. Let your imagination soar. Soapmaking is, in my opinion, an art form. It doesn't have to be as plodding and pedestrian as this book makes it seem.
Rating: 
Summary: Same old thing
Review: Very pretty pictures. And some fun stuff of general interest on the intro to aromatherapy, history of soap, etc. Not sure some of that history is true, but neither does anyone else and that makes it rather romantic. ;) There is only one recipe in the book, she just repeats it throughout the book changing the essential oils and fragrance oils for each recipe. Some she adds herbs to and some she doesn't. Some of the herbs she uses turn brown and bleed, which is verified by her photos of her soaps. The only way I can recommend the amounts of peppermint and lavender eo's that she's recommending is if you are buying VERY low quality EOs. Oddly enough, she has Frontier as one of the EO suppliers in one of her photos and I definately would not recommend that you use her recipe amounts for that brand. Page 79: in this 8# batch of soap she says to add 1 oz of cinnamon essential oil. Please DON'T, you'll be sorry. Page 77, add 4 ounces to the same recipe. AAAHHH! Can we say, Red & Inflamed? Yeah, there are more... Page 57, 4 ounces of peppermint eo in an 8# batch of soap? Yikes, like taking a shower with an ice cube... OK, ok, so you're buying your essential oils at one of these soap suppliers that buy low grade stuff and then dilute it with DPG? Okay, then pour that much, you'll probably be fine. Probably being an important word, because if they don't care about quality when they purchase,they might get the occassional good batch and then you'll be hurtin'. Oh, and she says to add 1/2 cup dried peppermint leaf to the soap. Well, that is going to turn brown, bleed, and look yucky. There are much better ways to get an herb into a peppermint soap, say, put something in there that stays green, for instance. As for the soap making method, it is exactly the same as your Ann Bramson book. Which is about $4.95, and this one costs $9.95. Well, except for Sandy Maine pours the lye INTO THE WATER! Hurray! First time I've seen the correct method in print. :) But she's saying to match temps at 95-98 F, put a blanket on it, etc. We know better now... There are MUCH easier ways. :) She says to use a wooden spoon to stir. Don't ever do that. Those of us who have will tell you, the lye water eats the spoon and sooner rather than later your spoon will break apart in your soap. Wood splinter soap. OK, here is my last complaint and then I'll shut up. Add 4 ounces of Rose oil, if you use 4 ounces of Rose essential oil and lets say you bought it wholesale. EACH BAR of soap will have about SIX DOLLARS of scenting material in it. And that's before you figure your costs of the fats, lye, etc. It'd be strong too, I'll tell ya that! Don't even think of using that much Soapcrafters fragrance oils either.. oh yeah, I was going to shut up after that last comment.... Recommended? No, unless you're a soap book collector, then buy it for the fun history stuff and the few pic's. I don't see anything particularly harmful in there, I mean, your skin will just be a little irritated by that cinnamon and for the next couple of hours people will be asking you if you have a sunburn. Aside from that it is okay. Just seems like something she dashed off on a lazy afternoon without much effort. But the photos are pretty. :) And it is interesting to see photos of her huge soap pot and her cutting press.
| 
