Liquid Soapmaking: Tips, Techniques and Recipes for Creating All Manner of Liquid and Soft Soap Naturally!

I've been making solid CP soap for some years but was interested in trying liquid soap, especially so I could make my own dish soap and laundry detergent. This book is an outstanding introduction to the process, covering different methods in clear detail, and includes lots of pictures so you can make sure you're on track. As someone with a science background I especially appreciate the explanations of chemical reactions and interactions, which are simple enough for your average layperson to follow but much more clearly grounded in actual science than some of the slightly questionable claims made by the crunchy-granola side of the soap making community (I love you crunchy-granola moms, but sometimes you're wrong, sorry!) I also found the section of fragrances incredibly helpful, both in terms of understanding how to create a lasting scent and understanding usage rates for oils that are more irritating. Thank you for this wonderful book!

This book does a wonderful job of explaining why the chemical process for KOH soap making is different; she makes sure to emphasize that a 'neutral' or balanced soap is not pH neutral 7, but merely a completed chemical reaction with no leftover lye or excess fat. If you need to understand why something works before you can accurately follow a recipe, this is the book for you. I do wish that she would cover paste and liquid soaps that aren't clear, though; she definitely values a transparent liquid soap, and really doesn't cover traditional liquid soap making (for example, old Appalachian methods) at all. I'd hoped to find more about using potash with late, or tallow, and goat or sheep milk, in this book. If she had ventured further into historical methods and how to include them in modern small batch homemade soap making (after all, that's a lot of the interest for most small crafters), it would make this book perfect. As it is, the book is still excellent; I recommend it, whether you're new to soap making or just new to potassium hydroxide soaps.

Overall, a really helpful, and information packed book on making liquid soap. Just about every facet is covered, and using the info I easily made my first batch of liquid soap, seen in the photos (recipe #7). I did not follow the recipe exactly, as I used SoapCalc amounts instead. I had a fresh jar of KOH, and didn’t understand exactly why the author preferred to make the recipe lye heavy, and neutralize after cooking. Most current liquid soap makers online, seem to prefer a 0% to 3% max superfat. And my soap came out crystal clear anyway. By the way, let your soap sit and saponify longer, several days longer. It really does help turn the paste to a nice gel. A few other items were missing, like why adding saltwater to my soap samples ended up turning the liquid soap back to paste, when I did follow those directions exactly. It happened days later. Thickening with borax simply refers the readers to another book. But if you want to know all the details on how to scent your soap, this book covers scents quite extensively. I look forward to trying those, and the no-paste, and gel soaps, using the info in this book. This book is better suited to those more chemistry minded, with how the info is provided. Yes, math is involved. But, overall, a really helpful book that provides far more info than simple videos and some blogs can, and answers most of the questions I had. I’m happy I bought this book.

this is a well written book to learn how to make liquid soap

This book has a lot of great information and I recommend it to anyone interested in making liquid soaps. Any negative review must be from someone who didn’t understand the process and took it out on the book. The author is very clear and thorough in her instructions so it’s easy to understand. I’m grateful

This is a great book. I read it from cover to cover before I decided to give the laundry and dish washing liquid recipe a try. I was unclear about the dilution procedure for the no paste method so after I couldn't figure it out I got Jackie's email address from some of the comments she had made to the reviews here and emailed her. Within the hour she had emailed me back and clarified the procedure for me. Also, as I was cooking the paste using the no paste method (I was cooking it on top of the stove, don't do that) it got this thick foam on top and I couldn't get rid of it. I emailed Jackie about it and she helped me with that too. Her help was invaluable.This book is a great companion to Failor's book. Truthfully it is more valuable to me because I do NOT like making the paste for liquid soap. Once I get over the learning curve and get more comfortable with the no paste method I will be making everything recipe in this book. Thanks again Jackie for you help. It saved my paste!

This is my to-go-to book on making liquid soaps. It think that its helps to have some knowledge base on the topic before picking up this book. It is not for super beginners. It was an easy read with good science.

I am a cold process soap maker by heart and I had been wanting to try my hand at liquid soap. Most of the liquid soap books I had read made the process seem so complicated. This book is an easy read, very clear and easy to follow. I love the recipes in the book. The book details a paste method, no paste method and gel method. The no paste liquid soap method is my favorite. If you want to try to make liquid soap and have felt frustrated by other books (like me), I highly recommend this book.

I just got the book today . Start reading it straight away. I can not tell how pleased I am with it . Answers to so many questions I had . I do like a comprehensive book . And oh boy this delivers ! And I purchased another book now too for more and more information . When you want to do something properly done you need the knowledge .Love it !!!

Very expensive, Quality is very bad

As a beginner learning to make liquid soap this book was super confusing and difficult to follow, so I do not recommend as a first point resource. After making and further research I found myself referring to this book so much. A trusted resource full of informative, practical information. So glad I purchased this book.

I absolutely love this book. I have been making liquid soaps (very successfully) for a couple of years now, having learned mostly from the Failor book. I got this as a supplementary resource, mostly to learn the "no-paste method". It has clarified several things I was still experimenting with, and has some nice features including photos of what to expect, and some soap-fails. Another item that was very helpful was how to use salt to thicken real liquid soap (as opposed to detergent-based "soap"): I have researched this quite a bit and of all the books, websites, and blogs I've tried, Thompson's book is by far the clearest about this. I can't comment on how it would work in an absolute-newbie situation; Thompson refers to the Failor book in a few places but I think this one would work as a newbie-book as well, and might be quite a bit easier to start with. This book does not cover the borax method of thickening though, which has been my go-to method and has served me well so far. One caveat, especially for Canadian users: the no-paste method and gel soaps both require potassium carbonate (NOT "bi"carbonate), at a rate of 5% of oils - that's quite a bit if you're making soap in any quantity. Turns out that this ingredient is brutally difficult to source in Canada, in either food-grade or cosmetic-grade purification levels. I have found it in a German import shop at a bankruptcy-inducing price (it's used for pretzels and cookies in European baking) and at wine supply shops. You need to be super-careful about what you get though; the shops I've dealt with said they had it, and then it turned out that they had only bicarbonate; the names are similar enough that it's easy to get them mixed up! It is available through amazon.com, but is either very expensive, industrial/lab grade, or ships only to the U.S. Having American relatives might be a really good thing... So to sum up, the verdict is I absolutely recommend this book, for both learners and as a reference. I have both this and the Failor book and find that they are very complementary. But start looking for a supplier for the Potassium Carbonate... now!

Está muy completo el libro, me encanto