Simple & Natural Soapmaking: Create 100% Pure and Beautiful Soaps with The Nerdy Farm Wife’s Easy Recipes and Techniques Paperback – Illustrated, August 8, 2017

This is an absolutely stunning book! The paper, the typeface, the color, even down to its own clean fresh scent! I have absolutely zero knowledge of soap making; but, I can’t wait to get started!

First time making soap and turned out very well with this book. Sweet honey and Shea recipe.

I absolutely love this book! Not only are all of the soaps completely natural, but there are so many recipes and such a wide array of ingredients, that there is sure to be something for everyone. All of these recipes are also palm free, whooo hooo(sorry, a little excited)! The recipes range from beginner to advanced. The troubleshooting section is excellent (with photos too), describing every problem you can imagine. I'd have to say my absolute favorite part of this book is the natural colorant section. There is every shade you can imagine, no color was left out. What makes it amazing, are the pictures showing you the results of each colorant, and how much to use for which shade (for example blue cambrian clay can produce many shades from light blue to dark blue to grey, depending on how much clay is used). I love knowing that these recipes are tried and true, and the pictures are so very, very appealing to the eye. Every recipe has its own ingredients list, recipe, step by step instructions, photographs, and many of them also have step by step pictures along with the written instructions, and every soap has it's own final photo showing the results, which I love. She also goes over making designs in the soap with step by step instruction and photos. I've so far made the lavender milk soap and propolis dandelion soap, both came out perfect! My next soaping adventure is the amazing shaving soap recipe provided. It's dreamy, and I love that the author found an alternative to using stearic acid*,(*shave soap just isn't shave soap without it!). I'm not going to be a spoiler, you'll have to read the book to find out! I've been soaping for years and I really love having all these recipes laid out beautifully in a book. This book has so much more than I'd hope. I also love Jan Berry's other book, but I must say I love this one even more! If you're looking for the perfect all natural soap book, this is it! Even if you're experienced with soaping this book is sure to have many recipes for you! So many amazing recipes and combinations, so little time! I've added a few pics to show the awesome layout and the stunning photography of this book. I honestly love each and every recipe, they're all so well thought out, and you can tell a lot of research went into this book, as there is information on each and every ingredient used (and a section dedicated to describing ingredients and what their additions to soap provide, for example castor oil and coconut oil both enrich a soaps lather)! Being a visual person, I love the photos for each and every soap. It also assures me that each and every soap is tried and true, and not just a bunch of soap recipes thrown in a book. I also have the soap queens natural soap book, which is very, very advanced(not to mention you have to buy special molds for many of soap queens recipes).I like them both, but this one's my favorite due to ease of use and its just more my style, I'm a very natural, crunchy granola kinda girl lol. I definitely recommend this book, you won't be disappointed! (No palm oil is used in any recipe! Which overjoys me, as my sensitive skin hates palm oil or palm products!) All of the recipes are all natural and I simply cant go wrong with any of them! A+++ Jan Berry!

I love this book. I'm new to soap making and I was looking for a book with recipes that were easy to follow and would turn out great every time. Someone recommended this book, so I bought it.Let me tell you, I've made over 20 batches of soap now and every recipe I've tried has been amazing. My favorite is the milk honey and oatmeal soap because I have dairy goats and like to use my milk to make stuff. I highly recommend this book. There are more advanced recipes in it as well, so I think it's a good book for beginners to advanced soap makers. I've recommended this book to a lot of people.

I certainly agree with the 95% of reviewers that gave this wonderful book 4 and 5 stars. It's definitely amount the TOP 5 books for new soap makers. However, my three biggest complaints are with the physical book itself. 1) The book is so poorly bound that it's probably going to fall apart in a very short time. 2) The type itself is VERY small. Increasing the size, 2 points would have made it MUCH easier to read. 3) The print itself is black, and reddish brown on a pastel green background, making it difficult and tiring to read. I would rather pay a few more dollars for a WELL BOUNDversion of a book that's going to get a SERIOUS WORKOUT. I also hope that the author reconsiders her choice of ink and background color for the next addition.All of that being said, this is one of the best books on COLD PROCESS, handmade soaps on the market. This book has it all. This book, and Anne-Marie Faiola' book, "PURE SOAPMAKING," are , in my opinion, the two best books on the market.

I think this book is essential for anyone looking to start making soap. I wanted to make my own soap because we decided to use less plastic and only buy shampoo and soap in bar form. I was just sick of constantly buying bars of soap, and thought it might be a good idea to make my own. I was a little lost with what exactly I'd need, even after watching online tutorials. I found this book at the right time, and I learned just what I'd need to set up my beginner's soap studio and the basic oils I'd need to get started. The book has detailed step by step instructions for both cold and hot process soap, a run down of basic materials you need to get started (like a hand blender, a few mixing bowls, etc), and explains the chemical process of soap making and how lye works. She even gives you a tutorial on cleaning up, which I didn't realize is a bit trickier than you'd think. After you learn the basics of soap making, then you get to the recipes, which are the bulk of the book. They start out really basic which is great for starting out. I made the basic bastille soap, and the shea butter bastille soap, which are the pictures attached. You learn that you can do a lot with some lye, a lot of olive oil, and bit of coconut oil. The recipes get more complicated as you get further along in the book. What I love most about this is that once you know a basic soap recipe, you can customize everything about it to create your own. Jan Berry gives you tutorials at the end of the book which cover colors, fragrances, infusions, and other additives. She also teaches you how to use a lye calculator, so you can even substitute your oils or create your own soap recipe. Using the tutorial about milk soaps, I was able to make a bastille soap with goat milk and it turned out great! There's also a troubleshooting portion in the back, which I'm sure I'll need eventually, but is very helpful when trying to avoid problems in the first place. I would definitely recommend this book as an absolute essential for anyone curious about soap making or just starting out.