If you are a beginning soapmaker, there is no other book you should buy. Other books have helpful information; this book, however, compiles all the information you need into one helpful guide. It has frequently asked questions, lists properties of oils, discusses colorants and scents, and explains the chemical process that occurs. If you have never made soap before, it is an incredibly useful guide.I have read some of the criticisms in the other reviews, and I must disagree with some of them. I did not find most of her recipes to be unduly expensive to make; those that are can easily be avoided by the soapmaker on a budget. Furthermore, I rarely use the recipe section of the book; I use her formulas and the other information she provides to construct my own recipes instead. Also, I disagree that a 10% fat discount (which she typically recommends) is way too much. Some people choose to use a lesser fat discount, and that is fine; for the beginning soapmaker, I think it might be better to provide more of a margin of safety. Once you are more experienced, you can experiment with lowering the fat discount if that's what you prefer.
Really, a beginning soapmaker cannot do better than this book. It compiles all the information you need. Once you are more experienced, you will do well to explore other sources of information (there are some good resources on the Internet, and some other decent soapmaking books as well), but if you are a beginner, Cavitch is definitely the place to start.
1) She is biased against the use of any ingredients of animal origin, especially animal fats. No coverage of the use of animal fats in soap is given at all, and her only excuse is lame, not backed up by any actual science, and demonstrably untrue.
2) Her recipes are too large, are overly complicated, and way too superfatted. Plus she recommends the use of GSE, an ingredient whose use as a preservative has been thoroughly discredited.
3) Some of her warnings/cautions are odd, to say the least. Her paranoia of clay, for one, is downright bizarre. Her admonition against pouring raw soap down the drain, in the event of a ruined batch, is utterly nonsensical.
4) The chapter on the chemistry of soap making is too much. She tries to go so in-depth that she's obviously in over her head, to the point that I was embarassed for her when I read it. The information here that would be useful/interesting to soap makers could have been condensed to a couple of pages.
5) She only covers cold process, and then, only cold process where the ingredients are combined at higher temperatures. There's no excuse for only covering the cold process in a "comprehensive" guide, but the fact that she only gives one basic cold process method may be an artifact of the next problem...
6) This book is dated. I started making soap around 2000, and even then people were using stick (aka immersion) blenders to mix their soap. There's no mention of stick blenders at all in this book, and that's a HUGE ommission. There's also no mention of alternative cold process techniques that are very mainstream today; e.g. discount water cold process, and room temperature cold process.
The bottom line is that there are a number of other books on the market that contain much more up-to-date soap making information than this one, not to mention all of the resources available on the internet. This book is still worth checking out, but don't expect it to be what it claims to be.This is a great book for beginners, with a lot of neat tips and tricks and some fabulous recipes.
The lack of photos are a definite drawback, but the book does have illustrations, for what it's worth. The author also has some definite bias against certain methods (she doesn't like rebatching, and she doesn't encourage readers to use a freezer to unmold soaps), and it's good to keep an open mind when you read this. But then, Ms. (Mrs.?) Cavitch herself would probably encourage you to try things for yourself rather than just taking her word for it; you get that sense of personality from her writing.
I have found that the batches in this book are VERY big, and I have cut them down myself and found them to take a LOOOOONG time to trace (upwards to an hour or more). I'm not sure if this is just my lack of experience or her recipes; since I use an electric mixer it's not that much of a problem to me, but it would be to someone mixing their soap by hand.
This is an excellent book for beginners who want to learn how to make vegetable-based soaps. I will say, however, that you should be mindful that her recipes are probably more expensive than other books prescribe; after buying the specialized oils (coconut, palm, olive) and essential oils, plus the electric mixer, you will definitely have spent a lot of money. But if making non-animal-fat based soaps is worth it to you, by all means -buy this book.Many of the recipes Cavitch gives call for a lot of hard to find and expensive oils, which can discourage new soapmakers.
She also superfats too much, and I also think that can misinform newbies.
Her descriptions of oils and their properties are really helpful, but she doesn't describe using a stick blender at all (only a regular blender).
Good for reference, but definitely should not be used as a soap making bible. I found Kathy Miller's site much more helpful, more informative, and much more realistic for today's soapmaker.This book is the staple of so many soapmakers. It covers many aspects of soapmaking. I particularly like the trouble shooting guide, in case I come up with something that looks unfamiliar. I just look it up and find out what I should do with the soap.
I like her recipes too. Her Hempsters Delight is a favorite of my customers.
One point though. As a seasoned soapmaker, you must do your own lye calculations. There are several good lye calculators on the web. There's always a chance for a misprint in a book or anothers recipe. Just type "lye calulator" into a search engine.
This book is the standard Bible to most soapmakers. I refer to my copy often.
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