Soothing Soaps: For Healthy Skin

Rating:
Summary: Not for beginers....
Review: I noticed that this book is lacking of showing how to work with the glycerine in order to make this soaps. I don't believe this book is for beginers in soapmaking. Other than that, it has nice photos!

Rating:
Summary: A great beginning book on making herbal soaps
Review: I wanted some insight into how to incorporate herbs into my melt and pour soap, and I found this book very helpful. Contrary to what another reviewer said, not all melt and pour soap bases contain alcohol and fillers - it is possible to get m&p soap base that is composed of natural ingredients.

I was pleased to find information on different methods of preparing your own decoctions, tinctures and infusions from herbs, and also some basic information on gathering herbs.

I found this book to be very helpful to someone like me who didn't know anything about herbal soaps and didn't know where to start. I have already made several of the soaps and have been very pleased with them.

Rating:
Summary: Not what you might expect
Review: The soaps are truly beautiful to look at with all the different colors and textures. I expected recipes for cold process soap and not the use of melt and pour bases so I am not completely pleased with this book. Depending on where you reside, some of the ingredients listed in various recipes may be harder to find while other ingredients in my opinion are quite questionable for skincare use. Tincture of benzoin for example is a known sensitizer and is therefore something I would not use in any skincare product. The photos were extremely lovely and I did enjoy reading how to make decoctions, infusions and oils.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on herbal soaps using glycerine soap base.
Review: This book is for those who enjoy using herbs and natural remedies, and would like to make their own medicinal soaps for treating particular ailments. The recipes begin with a good glycerine soap base, then add various fresh and/or dried herbs and essential oils to suit the purpose. For example, the book has several recipes for poision ivy soaps containing various anti-itch ingredients. These soaps can be used immediately after they are made, unlike cold process ("from scratch") soaps which cannot be used for about a month. When treating things like poison ivy, a month is too long to wait! This book is an excellent guide to making your own herbal soaps - and at a great price!