When Kelly Cable’s daughter developed life-threatening allergies, she took a long, hard look at what she had in her home. She started with the food they ate, eliminating anything that wasn’t all-natural. That helped a lot, even helped her own chronic pain and fatigue. But that wasn’t enough. Next, she looked at the their bath and beauty products, and in wanting to get rid of all the chemicals in their soaps, she tried making some herself. And she fell in love.

Now Cable is a soap-making enthusiast, and she is here to share her enthusiasm for the hobby to anyone else who is interested. She writes for beginners, who have never even tried to make soap before, and she writes to those with a little experience who want to take their skills to the next level. She uses few ingredients and makes her recipes easy to follow, so that anyone can get the basic ingredients and jump right in to the craft of making their own soaps.

She talks about 3 different processes to use, starting from the easiest to more challenging. First is the Melt-and-Pour, where you start with a soap base, melt it down, mix in scents or add ins, and pour it into a mold. Using this method, you can make a Cotton Candy Soap, Warm Vanilla Coffee Scrub Soap, Cleansing Tea Tree and Charcoal Swirl, Rosemary Peace Soap, or Bath Crayons, for example. The Melt-and-Pour method is especially good to get kids involved.

Next is the Hand-Milled soaps, where you take a soap base and or grate it to melt it slowly before resetting it. You can recycle your botched batches of soap here, or you can make a fresh Cold-Process Soap Base to use. But with this process, using a slow cooker on the lowest setting, you can craft a Yogurt Moisturizing Soap, Cinnamon Oats Soap, Lavender Poppy Seed Soap, or Moroccan Lemon Soap, just to name a few. Where the Melt-and-Pour soaps are ready to use almost immediately, these take 1-7 days to cure before they’re hard enough to use.

And most complicated is the Cold-Process Soap, where you have to add the lye yourself (although the Cold-Process Soap Base for the Hand-Milled soap also uses the lye, if you decide to take that route). This method gives you total control over all the ingredients, but the lye process is dangerous and should only be executed under the safest of circumstances (Cable explains all that in the book). But with this soap base, you can create soaps like Warm Vanilla and Honey Soap, Green Tea Herbal Soap, Deep Night Soap, Light Herbal Shampoo, and even Laundry Soap. These need to cure for 4-6 weeks, but you get a pure soap of your own creation to keep your family healthy and to give as gifts to friends.

Easy Soap Making has lists of equipment and ingredients to use for scent and color and texture. She shares ideas for adding some artistic flair to your designs and lists words you need to learn as you grow as a soapmaker. The book even includes resources for equipment and ingredients as well as other books you can turn to or ideas.

I love to make my own soaps, but I have not yet tried to Cold-Process my own soap bases. I am intimidated by the lye, but maybe someday I’ll get there. In the meantime, I have lots of recipes and ideas to play with as I experiment with some of these recipes. But even without using the Cold-Process section of this book, I am glad to have the information. Knowing the the option is there makes me know that I can get as involved with this hobby as I want to. And while I love all the photos of the beautiful natural soaps through the book, I do wish there were more photos of the process of making the soap. I think it would be helpful to see pictures of the various steps, especially for beginners.

Egalleys for Easy Soap Making were provided by Rockridge Press through the Callisto Media Publisher’s Club, with many thanks.